Better Lives blog 3
Studying Fashion PR and Communication we also work creatively, but a large amount of the work we do is more likely to be applied in theory based on research and strategy. Therefore, I decided to choose Make-Up Breakdown for my ‘Better Lives’ project as I wanted to implement a practical component into my studies. In addition, my knowledge and skills in the field of make-up are very limited in relation to my great interest in it. So, I chose this project to learn to be inspired, but most of all to understand make-up as an expressive medium in the context of the Better Lives themes.
On me personally, I prefer a very natural Make-up, but I am still very much intrigued by the processes, both practical and creative, behind more complex looks. I have been painting, drawing and crafting for as long as I can remember, and I like to experiment with different colours, textures and layers. I consider make-up as the artistic tool for the skin, for the face. With make-up you can not only enhance your own features, but you can also give yourself a completely different, new and unique look. The variety of make-up products and the endless possibilities to experiment with them in my opinion turn it into a unique medium for self-expression and to create exceptional art pieces.
The overall theme that we were to engage and deal with throughout the sessions was ‘Fashion Mistake and Imperfection’. In my opinion, we should celebrate mistakes more and despise them less. Our society is often so quick to denounce them as failures even though from mistakes one learns and from supposed mistakes can also arise unexpected new and exciting ideas! If you are never daring and don’t move out of your comfort zone from time to time, then you can’t grow and nothing new can emerge. And exactly these risks that you have to face sometimes can lead to mistakes happening. With this thought in mind, I wanted to use my project to confront the seemingly ‘perfect’ Instagram world, in which everyone appears to be striving for unattainable flawlessness and where presumed blemishes are retouched to the last detail. The unrealistic, unattainable beauty ideals that are celebrated and spread on this platform are predestined to cause a disturbed, unhealthy self-perception in the majority of the predominantly young audience. An image of beauty, which is usually personal, subjective, unique and different for everyone, is thus minimized to a uniform look. This look is also often heavily edited or ‘optimized’ through aesthetic procedures, accordingly a large variety of people will not match this image, resulting in a large number of individuals suddenly discovering ‘flaws’ on their outward appearance. I also find it perfidious how the Instagram and Snapchat filters appear to suggest how we would look prettier, all the same, with identical facial features: Small nose, narrow jaw, full lips, big eyes, perfect skin. These filters are like a virtual mask behind which you can hide, just like the perfect, always sunny lives that are usually displayed on Instagram. With my project I wanted to take a look behind the proverbial virtual mask and show that we are all human beings behind it, unperfect and yet each of us is beautiful in their own way – diverse and unique and that’s a wonderful thing!