fake up?

Re: "The Magic of Makeup", SMH, 22/08/08

"And there's so much psychology attached to it. When there's a financial downturn, sales of make-up go through the roof. It makes people feel good. You might not be able to afford your next car payment but you can go out and buy the newest lipstick."

How did we get to the point where warpaint is a daily ritual? To the point where some women feel 'naked' without their facepaint (I'm quoting a friend here)? Psychological indeed. And now male makeup is on the rise, on the street and on the shelf. Just in case it wasn't enough that women need to paint themselves on a daily basis, let's get the men onto it too! I really struggle with the cosmetics industry, an industry that relies on telling someone that they could do better (with this colour that is oh-so-very hot this season (darling))!

"And make-up is, after all, a fairly benign form of decoration, especially compared with the risks, costs and sometimes results of, say, plastic surgery."

Decoration perhaps but I don't know about benign: cumulative effects of absorbing the chemical cocktail that is make-up through our largest organ are relatively unknown. And, isn't the simple statistic of swallowing kilos of lipstick a year (or lifetime, depending on the source) enough to deter any logical being? Or does the quest for perceived beauty blatantly defy logic?

For the first time in my life a few friends and I partook in a 'beauty treatment' with our very own personal beauty consultant. I've always wanted to spend some time poking my eye out with a pencil, I've never quite gotten the hang of it. Turns out our consultant was a former psychologist now head-hunting new sales recruits whilst painting our lips the latest shades of 'chocolate caramel delight' or what have you. I'd rather eat the real thing than paint it on. Mind you, I apparently have combination skin and nice eyes (after I'd poked them out with said pencil), which was my (unwanted) lesson for the day. To me she was a deadly combination, concurrently analysing her clients' psychological status whilst preying on the weaknesses of their self-image.

Now I've gone and reminded myself of my intolerance for the smells (i.e., perfume) industry. My x used to say he liked buying smells for me, and I'm not going to take that personally but as a further example manifestation of our society's obsession with trying to not look nor smell human. Oh why oh why?!