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Essay: Makeup Secrets from Ancient Egypt to Social Media

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  • Published: 21 February 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
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  • Words: 1,997 (approx)
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  • Tags: Social media essays

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Lately, one of the most relevant topics in the beauty industry includes makeup. Makeup, also known as cosmetics, is the set of materials such as eyeshadows, powders, lipsticks, blushes, foundations and eyeliners. All of these come in all kinds of forms, sizes, colors, and materials. Its diversity has been evolving throughout the years which has enable for cosmetics to fit every single color and type of skin. Nowadays, makeup has been mostly influential around social media in websites such as Youtube and Instagram, it is possible to find all kinds of things related to makeup in there all the way from tutorials to information about tips, tricks, benefits or even warnings. There have been several predetermine styles throughout history influence by a variety of factors, today’s makeup style is harder to determine because there are so many things to create many styles such as classic, flamboyant, vivid, dark or vintage styles. Makeup has opened up a creativity spirit in people that has reflected everyone’s personality through it since makeup sometimes is very personal but also the wide variety of cosmetics available nowadays is incredible. Still, makeup has also caused several bad influences in people which mainly involve self-esteem, too many chemicals that affect the skin condition, or even identity issues. Overall, today’s makeup industry is greatly influenced by social media and has been used by women throughout the years leaving both and bad consequences.

First of all, it is quite interesting to go back and discover the origins of makeup. The first place were cosmetics where created and used was Egypt. From history, textbooks have portrayed several images of Egyptians in which makeup is noticeable specially in the eyes therefore makeup wasn’t used only people but also used in statues and buildings. Since these cosmetics were made years ago, the Egyptians used materials that nature provided to them such as red ochre, kohl, henna, almonds, oil, salts, etc. (Jackson, 2015) With all of these natural materials, Egyptian people were able to create things like mascara, eyeliner, masks, lipstick, eyeshadow, etc. Egypt was the first place were society gets a good view of what and how cosmetics were both created and used.

https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/news/a14366/beauty-makeup-secrets-ancient-egypt/

Later on, with the passage of time makeup styles were influenced by different factors. There are several important decades in history that demonstrate the most influential and well known makeup styles. The first one is 1920’s, this decade was a time in which things such as sex, party, fashion and money were extremely popular therefore a proper makeup style had to be define. Women used to wear fancy dresses, feathers, short hair and heels for the parties which was complemented with the proper makeup looked named as “The Flapper”. This looked basically involved the thin eyebrows, red lips, pale face with light blush and dark/black eyes, a good example of this look can be seen in the movie “The Great Gatsby” by Baz Lurhrman.

The next decade is the 1970’s, in which not only one looked predominated but three did. The first look was “natural”, there was a time in which the trending makeup style went from notorious colors to just natural naked colors. The beauty industry began producing of all these cosmetics that were focused on browns and beige colors to avoid any vivid characteristics in the face.

Then, the other two styles that appeared were “Disco” and “Punk”. It is amazing how this looks began in the same decade because they are totally the opposite. Disco makeup was based on colorful and vivid makeup with a lot of glitter and astonishing colors. For example, some disco looks used vivid pink, blue or green eyeshadows with strong pigments that made the eyes very notorious, also bright colors for the lips and can even include big lashes, in general the objective was to bring a colorful look to the face. On the other side, punk style was based mostly on black or darks colors which created a bold look. The look basically involved black lips, black eyeshadow but what define the style was the use of the eyeliner since it was extravagant, some individuals even draw figures around their eyes with it. People who did their makeup the punk way usually followed the style with the use of tattoos and body piercings, sometimes their hairstyles were change too according to the look. These were some examples of how drastically makeup can change.

In contrast to the other makeup trends years ago, nowadays 2018 makeup style has been greatly impacted by social media since technology became strongly popular. It is hard to tell how many trends have actually happen throughout the year but celebrities tend to set the style. From a 2018 red carpet, it is possible to admire the use of bold, colorful, classic, extravagant, creative and simple makeup looks in each celebrity. (Allure) Since, there is not a predetermine style that everyone uses, today’s makeup looks tend to have a mixture of all kinds of styles because there are to many cosmetics to try and a variety of looks to create. Still, a specific characteristic of makeup nowadays is that it never looses its natural characteristics because cosmetics aren’t use in the same quantities for example some might use bold lipstick but light eyeshadow or no eyeshadow at all, while others would use bright eyeshadow colors but keep a neutral color in the rest of the face.

https://www.allure.com/gallery/best-celebrity-makeup-looks-inspiration

Nowadays, in the 21st century makeup has make its major appearance in social media. The two most popular applications or websites in which makeup is extremely popular are Youtube and Instagram. Youtube is the easiest and most popular website to spread visual information from all kinds of things but a very popular topic is makeup, throughout the years there has been many beauty influencers. The job of these influencers is to promote makeup in a variety of ways, one way is by doing plenty makeup tutorials in which they teach how to do certain things, show new techniques and/or how to use some products, plus they show and recommend certain cosmetics during or at the end of the video. Another way of including makeup from different brands is to do reviews, beauty influencers on YouTube buy plenty of cosmetics from every single brand and try them in order to provide the viewers a review based on how the cosmetics worked, look and felt, this is a way to convince people to buy certain products or specific cosmetic brands. Something else these individuals do is to make giveaways, some beauty influencers do videos in which they show what’s going to be given, explain how people can participate, and also when the winners are going to be announced, this is a good method for people to get free makeup and get to know and use different cosmetics. The most well known beauty influencers include Michelle Phan, Nikki De Jagger, Jeffree Star, etc. (Website influencers) These individuals have caused a great impact in the beauty industry since their videos are seen by thousands of people, Michelle Phan has almost eight million subscribers while Nikki and Jeffree Star are around ten to eleven million subscribers therefore society is actually involve with this influencers and not only tend to follow  the trends they use but also buy the cosmetics used or recommended by them, which eventually makes the beauty industry grow.

Top 10 Beauty Influencers on YouTube (Updated)

With this in mind, the other website makeup is present in is Instagram. The main reason why makeup trends so much in instagram is because it is based on just pictures and videos, this gives a chance for makeup artist to demonstrate their work easily than any other social media website like facebook. Most of the beauty influencers previously mentioned have an Instagram account that has previews of their makeup tutorials on YouTube, pictures of their makeup style, giveaways, etc. This is a helpful way to become more popular in society, also to share and spread their ideas, techniques and cosmetics for some of them. It is even common for people that try to follow the influencers steps by creating their own makeup tutorials, posting pictures of their makeup look, etc. Therefore, beauty influencers not only empower people to use and buy makeup but also to get involve in the beauty area and promote makeup.

As a matter of fact, makeup production has been changing through the years which eventually has made makeup somewhat harmful. “Chemicals found in many of these products can create a range of adverse reactions that undermine your daily beauty regimen and damage your skin.” (Livestrong) All cosmetics are produce with different materials which can eventually lead to bad consequences, most of them depend on each person skin type since it can react differently but some of this reactions include allergies, oily or dry  skin, increase acne and affect pores. For example, there are a variety of foundations and concealers that can indeed conceal pores or hide acne but still it can actually clog the pores and make them more evident, as for acne it can increase it. Cosmetics not only cause superficial consequences but also have internal effects, for example the use of mascaras and lipsticks. Many women apply mascara to their eyelashes on a daily basis that might seem harmless if it is properly removed but still it “ can lead to thinning of eyelashes can also cause blindness as it contains pseudomonas aeruginosa.” (Top 15) While wearing lipsticks is harmful too not only because is applied in the lips but because individuals can somehow ingest them therefore the body gets all the chemicals in the product, such as “Lead ingestion can lead to possible brain damage and behavior abnormalities.” There are several more long term effect of using makeup on a daily basis that can get to cause severe diseases.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/545041-allergic-reaction-to-eye-makeup-symptoms/

https://listovative.com/top-15-harmful-side-effects-of-using-cosmetics/

Additionally, makeup not only has physical consequences but also personal and social effects. Since the use of cosmetics has become extremely normal and popular due to social media, it has lead to the dependance on makeup. “In an era where social media is all about creating the perfect image of ourselves, the idea that one can look perfect without makeup has become laughable.” (Top 15) Social media has made people think that it is essential to use makeup in order to be consider pretty since beauty is define as a good makeup look with flawless characteristics. Beauty influencers have portrayed the idea of how makeup is an incredible tool to improve someone’s appearance and correct imperfections, motivating the audience to use makeup more than usual, and eventually create for themselves a perfect look considered better and prettier than their own natural face. This idea has lead some people to the dependance on cosmetics caused by social media content which destroy’s individuals confidence and self-esteem.

https://listovative.com/top-15-harmful-side-effects-of-using-cosmetics/

Equally important, cosmetics have also contributed to improve skin and provide certain benefits. Today’s beauty industry has focus on creating cosmetics for every type of skin considering acne, allergies, wrinkles and UV rays effects therefore many cosmetics include certain materials that help improve the skin’s condition. First of all, most women involved in the idea of having a younger skin which is why now there is makeup that helps to reduce wrinkles and improve the skin’s elasticity, these are called anti-aging products that can be concealers, foundations or creams. Another popular type of cosmetics are the hypoallergenic, there are several products that are specifically hypoallergenic because these are specialized cosmetics for people that have certain skin allergies, reaction to fragranced makeup and even acne triggered by powders, foundations, etc. Additionally, a helpful cosmetic improvement has been the  cosmetics, specially foundations, containing SPF in order to protect the face from the sun’s UV rays. Aside of this,

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