It is 6 AM. Junior Madeleine Kim looks at her bare face in the vanity mirror. She starts with skincare: moisturizer and sunscreen. The products give life to her skin, a bouncy texture and a radiant glow. She then begins her makeup, which typically takes her about an hour to do.
“The reason why it takes me so long is because I’m very particular about it. I just need it to feel perfect,” Kim explains.
Kim is one of the fifty-one percent of youth that spend 20 minutes to over an hour on their makeup. Kim’s makeup follows a strict routine, with in-depth steps including concealer, brows, eyeliner, mascara, blush, highlighter, contour, lipgloss and lip liner (depending on the day). In total, the products she uses daily cost $133.
“It is a crazy amount of money,” Kim said. “And you have to restock sometimes too.”
The money and time spent cultivating the perfect face is the center of an age-old discourse on women’s beauty standards: what is the purpose of wearing makeup? Is it to enhance a woman’s femininity or mask her insecurities? The answer is multifaceted.
Many girls’ understanding and awareness of the cosmetic industry begins at a young age. Sneaking into their mother’s makeup kit to apply lipstick and mascara is practically a right of passage. These are fond memories that speak to the nostalgia of girlhood.
“I would always do lipstick – that’s what I liked,” Kim said. “Even when I was just playing pretend, I loved the idea of that.”
The idea of playing pretend faded as Kim grew up. After the COVID-19 quarantine was lifted in her seventh grade year, Kim moved beyond simply experimenting with makeup and began to practice with skill.
“I think part of it is that it made me feel a little more adult because older girls would wear makeup,” Kim said. “I was reaching the end of middle school and I was like ‘Oh, I kind of want to do this.’”
It turns out, Kim’s newfound hobby began in her innocence, but was also engineered by beauty standards promoted on social media.
“I think social media is really harmful to a lot of young girls’ self-image. Seeing these unrealistic expectations that are completely false definitely influences how they act,” Kim said. “When you walk around and live your life you don’t see all these people that you’re seeing on social media because so much of it is just fake.”
A study found that around 71% of people use FaceTune and other editing software before posting a picture of themselves on social media. This is often used to hide society’s definition of imperfections, like blemishes and yellow teeth, or to enhance features of one’s body. It is impossible to recreate the flawless looks of influencers when they are sharing inauthentic content.
“There’s nothing wrong with editing pictures,” Kim said. “It’s just the fact that it’s creating such high expectations in these young girls who see that and want to look like that and I think that’s a huge reason why girls have started wearing [makeup] so much earlier because they just feel like that’s what they need to look like.”
Makeup is consumed by all ages and now this subjective tool serves a multitude of uses. Whether it is by playing dress up or a way to make the wearer feel good, Kim and others have undergone a makeup evolution over this decade.
“There were definitely times where I wore makeup because I felt that it was my mask,” Kim said. “When your value is held so tightly in [your appearance] it becomes an issue. But if you can feel good about yourself because of who you are and not what you look like then that’s all that matters.”
Obviously, unrealistic beauty standards are detrimental to young individuals who are developing their identity, but makeup can make individuals feel incredibly beautiful, confident and powerful. What’s so wrong with that?
