There is no doubt that makeup is a huge part of today’s culture. The internet is filled with interesting makeup trends demanding our attention.
For example, if you are looking for bigger eyes, you can now perm your eyelashes in order to “fake a wide-eyed doe look,” according to Today Style.
This curl in your eyelashes will stay for four weeks to three months. However, as your lashes grow and fall out, the results become less obvious.
“Why would you want those harsh chemicals so close to your eyeball?” sophomore Mirana Jaundoo asked. “That’s just hazardous.”
But these hazardous procedures are all too familiar for young girls. The image of beauty is transforming at a rapid pace. With a feeling of helplessness driving young girl’s decisions, the choice to turn to an outrageous beauty trend is becoming the norm.
Expensive and painful how do we know if these outer changes are even worth it?
If the perming solution is left on too long, it can fry eyelashes. Eventually, the lashes break or fall out, according to Today Style.
The treatment is not FDA-approved and could, in some cases, cause blindness.
People are spending a serious amount of effort on the leg contouring trend, which uses through layers of makeup to enhance leg structure, according to Cosmopolitan.
Jaundoo does not get why anyone would do leg contouring.
“I understand in the spring and the summer time… you’re trying to look bronzy or buff or whatever lie you’re trying to pull off,” Jaundoo said. “But, you could just work out and get that. As soon as the rain hits you, you’re done for.”
As much attention as these beauty alterations have been getting, a step in a more natural direction has also been raising brows.
The absence of makeup has gained momentum because of female icon Alicia Keys.
Recently, Keys has decided she does not want to feel forced to wear makeup. She has stopped wearing makeup as a mode of empowering herself, according to Cosmopolitan.
The singer is also tired of the relentless judgment of women.
“The constant stereotyping through every medium that makes us feel like being a normal size is not normal, and heaven forbid if you’re plus-size,” Keys wrote on Lenny Letter. “Or the constant message that being sexy means being naked.”
Keys finished her writing by saying that she does not want to cover up anymore.
“Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing,” Keys wrote.
Keys is a 15-time Grammy winner and has written a New York Times best-selling novel. Needless to say, she is already an empowering female.
But Keys’ measure speaks to people like junior Nicole Milillo, who believes Keys is sending a powerful statement to women.
There are girls who feel so insecure that they cannot leave their homes without wearing makeup, according to Milillo.
“I just think that so many girls look in the mirror and don’t like what they look like without makeup,” Milillo said. “Hopefully having a celebrity who embraces natural beauty will help girls to embrace their own natural beauty.”
Milillo said that people should feel beautiful in their own skin, but Jaundoo feels a bit differently.
Is Key’s movement a celebration of our true selves, or an excuse for her to show off her natural features? Although beauty is a loose concept, meaning different things to different people, the central message should be to embrace our own beauty, as Milillo expressed.
Jaundoo said she believes Keys should not be praised for not wearing makeup because “[she is] naturally born with the face that [she has].”
Keys’ stance is causing us to consider whether or not we should be comparing our natural faces to others, especially celebrities. Jaundoo believes that girls will be drawn to compare themselves to Key’s natural beauty instead of their own.
“I feel like she does not deserve any more attention than people with makeup on,” Jaundoo said. “I don’t feel like that’s a new trend. That’s already your bare face.”
