English Version | Love me, love me not

“She wears makeup, so you know what that means – she’s insecure.” It only took one seemingly harmless comment to make Mally Roncal question her purpose in life. As a celebrity makeup artist and founder of a beauty brand, Roncal admits that she never thought of profession as a catalyst for insecurities. At least, not until the day that comment arbitrarily reached her ears. “I’ve devoted my life to makeup. The implication that it can hurt a woman’s self-esteem is something I take personally”, she expressed in an opinion piece published in The New York Times. Although the introductory words were not directed at Mally Roncal, the beauty expert considered them a personal offense - as a woman, as a makeup artist, as a person who wears makeup. And she explains why, listing the arguments that, in her view, illustrate how maintaining a beauty routine boosts self-esteem: “Makeup empowers a woman to present herself in exactly the way she chooses. She is the one deciding, which contributes to her self-esteem. When you put on makeup, you’re saying, ‘Here I am. I took three minutes today for myself because, you know what, I deserve it.’ If that’s not demonstrating self-esteem, I don’t know what is.” What the makeup artist describes is true. However, we couldn't say that it's a universal truth. In an industry where the best-selling products are full of "anti" labels (anti-ageing, anti-acne, anti-dark circles, among others), could it be said that using them is a demonstration of personal love? Or, on the contrary, is the lack of acceptance of these individual traits, commonly defined as imperfections, the main incentive behind the use of makeup? Mally Roncal is a staunch supporter of the first hypothesis, but the reality of contemporary society doesn't seem to agree with her view.

In 2022, four Brazilian researchers set out to study how the perception of body image and self-esteem affect the use of makeup in women. To do this, they interviewed 1,483 people who identify as female in Brazil, asking them about their beauty habits and their preoccupation with appearance. Their main conclusions challenged several common-sense theories, starting with the fact that, among the participants, it was the "women who feel comfortable with their appearance and have higher general self-esteem" who spent less money on makeup. However, contrary to what you might think, this doesn't mean that low self-esteem means increased spending on makeup. What, according to this research, seemed to be a crucial factor in defining this relationship was concern about appearance. “Women who allocated more importance to the way they looked not only spent more money on makeup but spent more time applying makeup and using makeup more frequently”, the study's conclusions noted. However, does this preoccupation with image come from a place of self-love or personal care? The Brazilian researchers identified two main motivations - one internal and one external - and neither seems to point in this direction. Let's start with the external one, since it has ramifications for the other explanations. There was an interesting phenomenon among the teenagers interviewed in this study. Although they showed high levels of body positivity, they reported that "their family and friends used to talk about their appearance, but not about their bodies (i.e., they comment about their clothing, hair style, makeup, etc., but not about their physical traits)." This made it possible to declare that, in contemporary society, appearance is more subject to the effects of social pressure than body image, resulting in a greater susceptibility to alterations - namely through the use of makeup. The Brazilian research is not the first time this dynamic has been detected by researchers. In 2008, three British professors concluded that the main motivation for female adolescents to wear makeup was wanting to "feel admired by the public.” More recently, in a study carried out in the United States, it was reported that makeup is used "as a strategy to enhance social status", bringing advantages in numerous social and professional contexts, since women who wear makeup are perceived as "more competent, more dominant, and higher in social prestige."

Following this logic, it could be said that Mally Roncal was correct when she said that makeup is a form of empowerment. The confidence that comes from successful social interactions contributes to self-esteem and personal acceptance. However, the question that brought us here aims to reach a more personal level: if a woman felt good about herself - eliminating other people's approval from the equation - would she still wear makeup? There is an internal motivation raised by the Brazilian researchers that has not yet been addressed. The interviews revealed a relationship between concern for appearance and self-objectification, in the sense that the more women separated their body from their person, the more likely they were to attach more importance to their image and, consequently, to invest more in beauty products. This is because, in the words of the researchers, women "internalize this perspective and start evaluating and treating themselves as mere bodies, highlighting the visual assessment (...) instead of other aspects, such as identity development." Not many words are needed to describe an experience that is common to all women, like a brief passage by the mirror, in which you don't recognize a human being, but rather pieces of a face categorized according to their imperfections. Or a smile in a photograph, concealed by the thought that it's time to start a diet. Two examples, taken from an endless list, that show how self-objectification is the enemy of female empowerment from within. And which contributes to the fact that, in many cases, makeup and self-love are not part of the same narrative.

Although it is classified in the 2022 study as an inner motivation, self-objectification is the result of centuries of experiences in which women have seen themselves objectified by others - by men, by other women, even by the beauty industry. This was the principle exploited for years by advertisements in the cosmetics sector, contributing to the creation of a stereotype of female perfection, in which the objectification of appearance represented the pillar of the consumption of beauty products. In When Beauty is the Beast (2018), Savannah Greenfield writes: "These advertisements create a void in women that can only be filled by buying the product to elevate themselves towards the ideal. Because that ideal is unattainable, there is a constant demand for beauty products and the cycle continues." In the short term, it may be easier for the beauty industry to feed off insecurities than the celebration of individuality. However, in the long term, perpetuating this cycle unleashes a seed of revolt within those who feel most conditioned. And that term seems to be coming to an end.

After decades of seeing their unique features characterized as imperfections, we observe an insurgency against beauty that aims to hide rather than enhance. An insurgency against the "anti" labels, against the Photoshopped campaigns, against the subliminal messages that you have to hate your body in order to nurture it. Beauty is changing, based on the principle that concern for image does not have to be associated with viewing the body as an object. Adorning the skin in a variety of ways can help to enhance the self. In this respect, the beauty trends of recent months are clear: it's time for color, creativity, celebrating difference and expressing individuality. Freckles are not hidden, they are accentuated. The contours of the face are not altered, rather shadows and light are played with. Wrinkles, pimples, crow's feet and blackheads are highlighted in beauty ads all over the world, and are admired by those who have never seen the authenticity of their face represented on a screen.

There is a lot of power in this freedom to explore our image, more than has ever been seen among women who, since the dawn of humanity, have carried the scars of a fluctuating relationship with beauty. However, this is a freedom that springs from years of personal work (in the struggle that each individual faces against the stereotypes rooted in their habits) and social work, as a collective that wants to progress in the face of the way it has learned to project its own insecurities onto others. Perhaps this is why women's personal care - with the sole and simple aim of caring - seems like such a radical act of love. Most women have grown up believing that spending ten minutes nourishing their skin comes from a place of insecurity, never confidence. However, applying concealer can be just as powerful an act as choosing not to. The difference lies in that word - choice - and the agency that comes from being free to accept or change your image. That's why makeup doesn't have to be abolished to make room for self-acceptance. The two can coexist, but not without first looking in the mirror and asking, in all honesty: why am I wearing makeup today? From the beauty that loves me to the beauty that loves me not, each person has the power to shape their response.

*Originally translated from the Love & Hope Issue, published December 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.