The Mask

It is often said that beauty is costly. Being beautiful is expensive in every possible way. It is not only about the money invested on beauty products, but also in the time spent on trying to highlight one’s best features through the use of those products. There are many ways to reach such high standards of beauty that go from the seemingly simple, but rather complex make up kit running through facials and the perfect clothes to surgeries. The budget to which one has access is a decisive factor in choosing the products one will use to attempt beautification.
Make-up went from being a luxury to a requirement. In the present, considering the different prices there are in make-up options, most women have access to some kind of make-up. Hence, the important role it plays in the attempt to appear beautiful that many women engage in. Many women begin wearing make-up as teenagers whether through peer pressure or through home pressure, such women become so accustomed to make-up use to the point that by the time they come of age they already have the appearance of a thirty year old thanks to make-up. Others begin later in their adolescence or early adulthood, thus remaining truer to their age in appearance regardless of their level of maturity. Others simply choose not to wear make-up at all which seems to give them a childish look but their skin also ages at a slower rate. Make-up is thus a very sharp double-edged sword in every woman’s drawers. There is both a positive and a negative side to its use.
Make-up is not only a socially acceptable, but it has taken the proportions of something required for a woman to wear in order for her to be socially accepted. Make-up holds positive characteristics, which bestow on it its general public appeal. Women simply grow knowing that one day they will wear make-up. Even if they question said practice at any given time, most give in to the pressure. It becomes an addiction of sorts because once one begins wearing it; it is very difficult to stop. Women tend to be more confident when wearing make-up. As a result, they not only feel better about their physical appearance but also psychologically. They become more comfortable with every aspect of themselves; and, they tend to have a better attitude towards life because they like what they see in the mirror better. But the fact that make-up has the power to cause such level of comfort and confidence is rather problematic. It is precisely such consequences that condemn make-up also as negative and dangerous.
Make-up creates a façade. It does not only cover facial flaws, but it also conceals certain psychological predicaments. By endowing the women who wears it with a more confident self, make-up successfully hides insecurities, which in turn means it brings about the existence of two people within one body. Women who use make-up as a shield tend to become more reserved when they are not wearing it. They do not only hesitate in speaking but also in acting because they lack the confidence make-up allows them to have. A false confidence that is only as temporary as the time the make-up remains in the women’s faces. This practice is not only acceptable but somewhat required since it has become the norm. Although there is plenty of information and research on how the use of make-up alters a women’s skin in the long run, there does not seem to be, however, any concern with the psychological damage make-up can cause to those who wear it on a regular basis.
Society criticizes greatly those who dare walk outside their homes without a masquerade that in the best way possible hides those physical flaws that a woman observes everyday in the mirror. Make-up ensures that the low self-esteemed and physically unfit women do not show themselves to the world. It is the best solution to society’s obsessive attitude towards feminine beauty and lack of tolerance towards imperfection. Thus, women fill the aisles of the retails and the specialty make-up stores in an attempt to acquire the latest products that they hope will hand them over the keys to a more confident and beautiful version of themselves. Yet, there is only one truth: even though the doll might be dressed in a silk gown, it will remain only a simple doll. Unfortunately, the same policy is applicable to the doll’s make-up use.

xoxo,
Poison Drops


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