The beauty blunder
ONE fine day, I received a message from someone in response to a photo of me that was posted online: “Hey Amal, do you want to get rid of your eyebags? #seriousquestion” I was taken aback. My eyebags? I quickly grabbed a mirror to check my face. Yes, I had eyebags. And yes, I have had eyebags for many, many years. Sometimes I think of them, like any normal woman out there.
But no, I don’t obsess over them because there are many other more important things in life that require my attention.
I wanted to tell that guy “yes, I would prefer to get rid of them if I can” but I’ve found out that this same guy sells beauty products that promise to make you lose weight and have skin that is shinier than your white bone china plate.
He also asked me if there were physical aspects of me that I didn’t like and would like to change.
I immediately sensed that this was a trap to sell me some products, so I said I was happy with my face.
Was I happy with my face? Let’s just say I am okay with my face. I do what I can. I don’t obsess over why my eyes aren’t blue or when that small brown spot appeared.
But that day, my eyebags bothered me. It seemed that the guy’s question had made me feel a bit insecure about how I looked.
Don’t get me wrong. I love make-up and beauty products just as much as the next girl.
I too buy serums that are supposedly able to give me translucent skin a la Cate Blanchett in those SKII commercials.
I love mascara that makes my eyes look like I slept for 10 hours last night. I enjoy these things and how they make me feel and look.
However, the direct intervention from Eyebags Guy made me think about how some beauty product sellers resort to leveraging on women’s insecurities to sell their products.
How many times have you seen this? “Drink this and you will look fairer, and your husband will love you more.” Then there are those combo pictures — a picture of someone with a bigger size and zero style, and another of the same person with a smaller waistline and dressed in beautiful clothes. It suggests that somehow being skinny makes you more stylish. Well, style is more about having good taste and less to do with body shape!
The beauty industry is a force to be reckoned with. My office is located just above a large shopping mall, and a quick look around makes it rather clear that physical care plays a big role in our society.
It certainly plays a big role in my life as well, from the clothes I wear to the cream I put on and the membership cards I hold from my favourite apothecaries and makeup outlets.
In the midst of all these various choices, it is important to support brands that champion positivity instead of putting women into a pigeon-holed version of beauty. Ultimately, what is beauty and its purpose? For me, I would say that beauty is the tool that helps me feel empowered.
Having or wearing the things that improve my appearance makes me feel good about myself.
When I feel good about myself, my self-esteem is enhanced, and this in turn has a positive bearing on how I carry myself in my day-to-day social interaction with people.
That said, there is a lot to think about when contemplating brands that leverage on a woman’s sense of self-worth.
If it instils the idea that you are not good enough, or that there are parts of you that need to be changed for others to like you better, then it is not about celebrating women at all.
So what can you do? You can begin by being a conscious consumer. What’s the philosophy of the products that you are purchasing? Does it cater to the diversity of women? Does it encourage you to celebrate what you are and focus on enhancing your personal qualities instead of coaxing you to try and look like something you’re not? Does it impact your health?
Brands rely on consumers to flourish, so you are responsible for determining what kind of marketing will dominate the beauty industry.
It’s something that I am certainly going to pay more attention to in the future.
Hopefully, I will be doing my part in promoting the empowering ideas of beauty before I buy a product and put it in my eyebags. I mean bags.
So what can you do? You can begin by being a conscious consumer. What’s the philosophy of the products that you are purchasing? Does it cater to the diversity of women?