MAKEUP

What women have done in order to beautify themselves with makeup has dramatically changed through the ages based on what was considered to be beautiful pertaining to a woman’s face. Starting in ancient egypt with exaggerated eyeliner using kohl to the Elizabethan era with the white face makeup signified with a red lip to japan with pale white foundation used on geishas. In modern day makeup, the use of foundation, eyeliner, mascara, along with many other makeup products, can change your appearance. Makeup has a huge impact on one’s life. It can determine whether or not you get a job, because women are considered more professional if they wear makeup.

Throughout history, makeup trends have changed with seemingly every decade. For example, in the 1920s woman wore very heavy makeup but in the 1960s the trend was accentuating the eyes with bright and bold colors and in the 1990s, grunge was the major makeup trend. Just like the changing makeup trends, the icons representing these trends changed as well. For instance, in the 1950s Marilyn Monroe was the face everyone associated with, while in the 1980s, Blondie embraced the brightly colored eye shadow.

There have also been new products, techniques and ideas as makeup has evolved. For example, defining brows and contouring weren’t as popular as they are now. It seems as though many people want the “chiseled” look and go to many lengths to get it. As well as each era having its own unique set of standards for makeup, usually in relation to their culture. For instance, in Ancient Greek, unibrows were very common and popular because it portrayed “natural beauty” and those who couldn’t grow one themselves, would animal hair or use kohl to make one. Compared to nowadays, unibrows are almost never seen as a trend because many people like the trend of full carved out and defined brows.

In relation to the “sex appeal” of skin tones, nowadays, many beauty industries are creating a wider variety of shade ranges for products such as foundation and concealer. The common trend was that the lighter or paler you were, the more attractive and “healthy” you looked but now it seems as though many people tend to go for the darker or tanned look. Due to this, many companies have received good and bad publicity which inevitably affects their income and sales. If a makeup brand doesn’t have as many options in a shade range, they get negative feedback and possibly even lose profit, but if a brand, such as Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, who has 50 shades of foundation, they will get a lot more, mostly positive feedback and the customers are more likely to buy from that brand.

The desire people have to look darker than their natural skin tone can easily be and has led to questionable results. In some cases, people will use foundations that are 3-5 times darker than their skin tone, which in some cases can be construed as “black face” or that they are trying to be someone they aren’t. In many cases, the person doing this may not even realize that it can be taken as “black face.” Most situations involving this are because the person wants to look more tan because that is what society says is the way to look. As crazy as it sounds, the beauty industry can and does actually profit from racism. Although “black face” is common in the beauty industry, it is not necessarily this form of racism that leads to profit.

Saying that racism can and does lead to profit seems like it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t. The way the beauty industry profits off of racism, whether it is purposeful or not, is by the publicity. Many brands usually have a very limited range of makeup shades which is what leads to controversy among the buyers. However, whether the publicity a brand gets is good or bad, it usually leads to profit. A major publicity stunt that brands like to do, is to put out something controversial and then apologize for it later in order to create “hype” or attention surrounding their brand. In many cases, these stunts work and many, but not all, consumers accept the apology and continue buy from and/or inducing the brand and its products. “By causing a controversial moment, gaining traffic, and then solving the problem or promising to do better, the brand may be, in a twisted, self-sabotaging way, trying to develop an element of trust between consumers.” (Acquaye, 2018). This entire marketing scheme seems ridiculous and you would think it wouldn’t work, but in many cases it does. Also, it seems that there are “loyal customer” that despite what the brand does, they will still buy and promote them, this is usually seen involving Beauty Bloggers and YouTubers.

YouTube has been around since 2005, but only within the last ten years or so has the beauty community on YouTube started to blossom. Since around 2015-2016, the beauty influencers that originally started on Instagram have grew onto YouTube and have become one of the biggest viral entertainments. The beauty “gurus,” as they are called, make huge profits per video from YouTube. The more views a YouTuber gets, the more they get paid and watching these videos has become widely popular among many age groups. “So far in 2018, people have watched (on average) more than a million beauty videos on YouTube every day.” (Jones and Gelbart, 2018). Not only do the beauty “gurus” make money but also the Brands used and indorsed in the videos do as well. The more popular a Youtuber is, the more sponsors they get and the more money they, and the brand makes.

The makeup industry has a large profit because of all the different brands and what they are offering customers. Although some makeup brands are beginning to struggle and face problems due to all of the new brands and formulas being made, “Beauty and personal care was a $465 billion global market in 2017.” (Bloomberg, 2018) According to Euromonitor International, the makeup industry will continue to expand more than 2 percent a year.

Of course, the beauty industry is booming because of the heavy demand and popularity of makeup, but some of the first brands such as Revlon and and L’oreal, are struggling or even in debt because of the rise is upcoming starter brands as well as the making of new formulas, many of which are non-animal tested and better for you. These original makeup brands are very unlikely to go out of business completely due to their high level of popularity and wealth achievement, even if they are beginning to suffer financially. With the rise of new techniques and ideas, these original brands will have to adapt their ways to a certain level in order to remain a consistent, up-to-date brand.