Jacob

” ‘Why don’t I look like her?!’ ‘Well I’m a guy so…’ ” The negatives of social media

 Posted by on Wed, 11/30 at 10:56am  reading  No Responses »
Nov 302016
 

This article discusses the negatives of social media. The title of the article is “Why don’t I look like her?” And that’s a pretty serious question that social media users have when scrolling through beauty influencers’ accounts, celebrities’ accounts and that one ‘pretty’ girl they know. It’s also a question that I’ve asked myself before too, but then I have to remind myself that I’m a guy and men have different facial features than women do, BUT I see this as both inspiration and a challenge. Firstly inspiration to create their faces on my own but also a challenge by challenging myself to perfect my artistry to recreate their looks. I just thought that I should outline that before continuing given my stance on how I think social media is changing the beauty industry. I feel as though it is a space for users to teach and to learn, not a negative space for users to hate on each other.

The article says that, “no one wants to look bad on the internet.” I think this is a really powerful statement because it’s true. We create an online persona via Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, ect. and we always want to look our best. The article says that many users will edit their pictures before posting them, or take them at angles to hide their self perceived flaws. I think that it’s great that we have the technology to edit pictures and take pictures so quickly in the palms of our hands, but as social media users, we have to realize that what we’re seeing isn’t always reality. And sure, if you have a major pimple and you want to blur it out in your selfie, go ahead. But it’s when people go overboard with their editing and create an entirely new person, we create unrealistic standards of beauty. The article continues to say that in print media (which is being replaced by the digital) we know that the models have probably been edited in some way; we expect it. What we may not expect is that every day users are editing their own pictures in this same way. So, we see a model in a magazine or ad and think, “wow she’s gorgeous, I want to look like her.” And then we take a look around at the people we see in real life and think, “hmm, no one really looks like her, I guess that means that that picture is altered.” After all, we do expect pictures to be altered for campaigns. But when we see everyday people online look like the models that we see who we already know have been altered, we think, “wow this average person looks like that model, but they must actually look like that because they’re not a model and therefore can’t be photoshopped.” Although this is simplified, I think the message still shines through. Young girls (and boys) are seeing their peers appear to be unrealistic, which in turn diminishes their self confidence because they don’t look like their peers.

The positives of social media (and my thoughts about a negative thing)

 Posted by on Wed, 11/30 at 10:27am  reading, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 302016
 

This article discusses both the positive and the negative aspects of how social media is changing how we see beauty. The standards of beauty are always changing, but with the help of social media, they’re changing even faster. I will focus on the positives that are discussed here and use another article to discuss the negative.

The first and I think the most major positive outcome of social media is that it has given a very large group of women a voice that they have never had before. There is finally a space for women of color to create beauty publicly. This article doesn’t discuss this as much as it should, but it is really important to note what social media has created. The beauty industry has always been white washed, and now there is a virtual space to allow for the coloring of the industry. Like I mentioned in an earlier journal, Lupita Nyong’o was signed with Lancome, a cosmetic brand who has been in business for over 80 years. It took them 80 years to sign a black model- 80 years! Now anyone can create an account on Instagram and teach people how to do makeup that works for darker complexions.

The article mentions something that I didn’t put much thought into: everyone working behind the scenes. We all know that when celebrities step out onto the red carpet (or just post a picture online) they probably didn’t do their own makeup, hair and styling. But previously we didn’t get to see who put them together; however, thanks to social media, we now can. Celebrities may tag their styling team in their selfies or post pictures with the teams. Or the stylists and cosmetologists may have their own following which is what landed them the job of doing whoever’s makeup.

One of the last things that the article mentions as a “positive” I don’t really think is entirely positive. It says that major fashion houses (like Dior or Chanel for example) are only hiring models if they have over 10,000 followers on Instagram. The reason that I don’t think this is a positive is because it objectifies the models. I understand that the nature of a model’s job does often cause them to be objectified as sexual objects and that they are immediately judged based upon their looks. The followers that one has on Instagram just isn’t a fair way to qualify as hirable. In order to gain followers some potential models may post racy pictures of themselves, and that’s fine if the potential model is open to doing that. But what if you’re not? What if you want to be a model without having to have your breasts exposed in order to gain followers so that you can land a gig? One other major negative I see with this is that the more followers you have, the more comments you’re likely to have on posts. These comments could be from “thirst” followers (i.e. someone who follows you because they think you’re hot) and these followers would more than likely leave sexually charged comments on the posts. Social media should create a more positive space to express one’s self, not turn potential models into “Instagram hoes.”

Paper proposal

 Posted by on Thu, 11/17 at 2:04pm  proposal  1 Response »
Nov 172016
 

Social media has changed many aspects of our everyday life. This includes the way that we think about beauty. Social media has created a niche for beauty lovers and experts to come together to form an online community. Within this community, there are many different dynamics at play. Beauty bloggers seek to educate their followers, brands use social media to advertise their products, and users keep up with their favorite bloggers and brands to see what the latest trends and newest products are. Social media has created a positive space for makeup lovers and artists. It has allowed for a bridge to connect the two like never before, closing the daunting gap between student and teacher.

 

The newfound relationship that makeup artists and brands have with their following is not producing negative affects, like some believe. The positive space that social media is creating has allowed for the improvement of self-confidence of users, it’s made them more knowledgeable about makeup and fostered their makeup artistry. This is important because it’s happening in the palms of users’ hands. Before, one had to go to a cosmetics counter to connect with a beauty expert. Now, this is accessible anywhere at any time. Apps like Instagram are like the new department store, with its hashtags taking you directly to whatever “department” you’re seeking.

Race in the beauty industry

 Posted by on Sun, 11/13 at 2:37pm  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 132016
 

As much as I’ve been reading about my topic, I never considered what the following article has to say about how social media is changing the beauty industry. I’ve been mainly focusing on the marketing and business side of the changes (which is related to the article) BUT the article focuses on race in the beauty industry. The under representation of people of color is something that I’m totally aware of because I work in the beauty industry. Lancome, the brand I work for, signed Lupita Nyong’o in 2014 to be a model for the company. This is important because she is the first African American beauty ambassador for the brand, but it’s also important because she’s an African American model for a cosmetics company. Lupita’s signing was paired with the brand’s expansion of one of our foundations, offering a range of 35 shades. 35 shades is a lot for foundation, especially considering how wide the range is. It is often very difficult for people of color to find a color match for their skin tone because brands don’t really offer darker shades. Most brands only offer a few shades for darker skin tones, while there’s numerous shades for lighter skin tones.

People of color have fought for more expansive ranges of shades from brands, but few have caught on. This has lead to the creation of brands centered around offering an extensive blend of color. According to the article, this has been paired with the hashtag #blackgirlmagic. This has helped to create a space for people of color to see themselves represented online and in the beauty community. This representation goes beyond seeing one’s self within the community (as a model) and extends into what products are being purchased. For example, lipsticks, eye shadows, highlighters, blushes and anything else that is color looks very different on different skin tones. When brands provide swatches or product pictures, they’re often shown on lighter skin tones. Brands like Colourpop are starting to change this because they offer swatches on all their products on three different skin tones: light, medium and deep. The article cites Cocoa Swatches, an Instagram account that posts swatches of products on deep skin tones so that users can see how a product will look on their skin tone.

Contour palette artifact

 Posted by on Mon, 10/31 at 12:18pm  artifact networks & relationships  No Responses »
Oct 312016
 

My artifact: Contour palette

1. How do you classify your artifact? In what groups can you place your artifact? What connections can you make to other artifacts in the group?

I would classify my artifact as something that has been created by culture because contouring is something that became popular by media. It was created due to the popularity of contouring by Kim Kardashian, so it can be placed in groups outside of the group of makeup. It definitely changed the makeup world, but it also influenced mainstream media because everyone started contouring. This is seen in ads and commercials, it’s seen on models and everyday women. It changed our beauty standards. Other artifacts that are related to a contour palette is liquid lipsticks and highlighters. They’re some of the main components of what cosmetic products are necessary to create the “it” look.

2. Identify points of similarity between your artifact and others. Then identify points of difference with other artifacts. How is it similar? How is it different?

A contour palette isn’t really comparable to any other cosmetic product. They’re similar to bronzers because you can use a bronzer to contour, but you can also use a foundation or powder that’s darker than your complexion to contour as well. So, contour palettes weren’t exactly needed, but they’re a fun new product that was created because of the rise in popularity of contouring. It’s mainly marketing and making people think that they need it, when it reality, they probably have something at home that they could use to contour with. Similar things to a contour palette would be like what’s mentioned above: liquid lips and highlighters. They are all born of the age of Instagram.

Create an analogy or metaphor for your artifact. Analogies and metaphors are ways of making connections between your artifact and other artifacts (anything goes… items of clothing, locations, holidays, texts, products, etc.). Be creative here… try to make (il)logical leaps.

3. What metaphors or analogies suit your artifact? (Explain if needed)

Designer makeup has always been a status symbol. If you’ve got the ABH contour palette, you’ve got the “best” contour palette on the market. But if you’re using a contour palette by ELF, clearly you don’t have your life together because you’re using drug store makeup, and the cheapest drug store makeup at that. It’s mainly for Instagram as well. You have to show off your makeup through posting pictures of the products and posting selfies wearing the product. It’s like posting pictures of your Christmas tree with all the presents underneath it and then posting a picture of all of your presents open. It’s all for social media and to brag.

Examine cultural narratives. Cultural narratives are common storylines used throughout culture, telling how things typically happen. Once you identify cultural narratives that apply to your artifact, you can examine them for assumptions and stereotypes. For example, stereotypes (or rigid, generalized ideas about the character and behavior of people with certain identities) are a kind of assumption (or set of assumptions). As with cultural narratives, you may think you are not affected by these assumptions and stereotypes. However, their pervasive presence in the culture means that everyone is affected by them. Naming these assumptions stereotypes can aid you when describing the impact of culture and values on your particular artifact (or your artifact’s impact on culture and values).

The assumptions operating in cultural narratives found in movie plots and song lyrics also get played out in social practices and social institutions. Social practices are shared, habitual ways of doing things. A variety of guidelines exist for the social practice of dating, for instance: who will initiate the date, who will decide where to go, who will pay. Social institutions are larger, more formalized organization the direct our shared social structures. Questions to explore (pick and choose):

4. How is your artifact characterized? (How do people/media/groups characterize it?)

It is characterized as a necessary thing to do makeup. It’s like, “omg what do you contour with?”. When talking to people about makeup, it would most certainly be a topic of discussion. It’s regarded in the media as something that makes a woman beautiful. If everyone (mostly) is contoured, it’s obviously had an affect on our beauty standards. The media portrays contoured women, so cheek bones and tiny noses must be attractive.

5. What cultural narratives govern your artifact?

There’s a certain aesthetic that has developed because of Instagram that I’ll call the Instagram aesthetic, but there’s a different cultural term that has surfaced I’m sure we’ve all heard. It’s the girl that always looks cute and put together in her posts. She’s most likely got some money, likes to wear Uggs and go to Starbucks and is probably white. This is the narrative that represents a large number of the women buying contour palettes and whatever else is trending in the makeup world, and then posting pictures of their products for the world to see.

6. What assumptions, stereotypes, habits, social practices, and institutions frame your artifact?

It’s the white girl on Instagram who totally loves makeup, coffee and her boyfriend. They’re the large portion of social media users that are directly influenced by what beauty bloggers have to say. They follow all the latest trends and buy all of the popular products. They spend hours on their phones watching bloggers Snapchats, Instagrams and Twitters.

8. How does your artifact affect culture? How does culture affect your artifact?

My artifact has affected culture because it changed the way that people do their makeup. It allows people to experiment with different techniques and shows people that they can literally paint a new face on themselves. Contouring was once mainly used by drag queens and makeup artists for theater and film, but it’s now being used everyday to define the features on the faces of everyday women. Culture has affected it because pop culture is what made contouring popular. If celebrities weren’t contouring, no one else would be either. It doesn’t matter if they’re famous in real life or famous because of the internet. Beauty bloggers became famous because of the internet and they’re creating beauty trends just as much as “real” celebrities are.

The selfie effect

 Posted by on Sun, 10/30 at 3:48pm  ideas  No Responses »
Oct 302016
 

Instagram is the main visual proponent of the beauty industry. Users can only post pictures and videos on the app, which means that everything has to be visually appealing in order to garner attention. This has changed makeup a lot. There are many different techniques used when applying makeup. For example, for theatrical makeup, you have to go a bit extreme because stage lights will wash out a person’s face. So, you have to go a bit darker with foundation color and define facial features with extreme definition because of the lighting and the distance that the audience views the actors. Everyone looks flawless onstage, but if you see the actors offstage, they look a bit crazy. This same thing translates to how people do their makeup for Instagram. You have to use different techniques than you would if you were going out into the real world. Lighting is really really important and it’s something that you have total control over when you’re taking a picture or filming a video. In real life, you don’t really have control over the lighting and therefor you paint your face a bit softer and in such a way that it looks flattering from different the angles that people see you. When you’re creating a look for film, you have total control of the angles and lighting and everything else that affects how the the viewer will see you. Because of this, you want to have perfectly smooth and flawless skin without and signs of pores or lines. This means that your probably going to start off with a smoothing primer, a smoothing foundation (which is probably pretty thick) and a fine powder to set the face. You may also use a photo finish setting powder to set the face or to bake. This is important because it should help to eliminate flash back (see here).

“Photo finish” makeup has become so popular that brands like Smashbox have created entire lines of products promising the most flawless skin in pictures. They sell like crazy because people think that they’re going to look like the people that they see on Instagram. But the unfortunate reality of that is that they’re only going to look like that in pictures. Makeup for film can become very heavy and cakey very quickly because it has to create a second skin on the wearer in order to smooth all the imperfections on the skin. The only way to have gorgeous skin is to take care of your actual skin instead of painting new skin on. Having a skin care regime is the only way to create what everyone has on Instagram and it’s a lot better for your skin than putting a cake face on everyday.

Instagram’s hashtags

 Posted by on Sun, 10/30 at 3:29pm  reading  No Responses »
Oct 302016
 

http://www.thedebrief.co.uk/style/hair-and-beauty/instagram-beauty-brands-20160463208

The article says that Instagram is like the modern day department store, with hashtags whisking you away to which ever department you seek. I think this is a really cool analogy for Instagram because it’s really accurate. Within a department store, there’s different brands to serve different groups of people. MAC for example is usually targets a younger crowd, along with brands like Too Faced, Benefit and ABH. More classic brands like Lancome, Clarins and Chanel usually attract an older crowd. This is exactly what hashtags allow you to do on Instagram, except it’s better. Instagram’s hashtags allow the user to find a post about an exact thing or look. What to see a tutorial on a smokey eye? Easy. But what about something more specific? How about a Halloween inspired cut crease. With a hashtag, it’s in front of you in an instant.

This direct flow of content to the user is what’s getting the attention of cosmetic brands. The article states that Instagram is allowing brands to create a relationship with their followers. Items sitting in a department store and being stared down by beauty advisors is kind of like really intimidating for a lot of shoppers. But on Instagram, people can see the personality the brand is trying to create online. It’s more personal and interactive and creates a more positive experience for the user. The most important part of all of that is that it’s what makes profit. A good Instagram means money. Creating cute packaging that looks good in pictures and making a fun hashtag is all it takes to be successful.

This is what has allowed for the creation of Insta-famous brands. Brands like Morphe, Jeffree Star Cosmetics and ColourPop created all of their business on Instagram (and online). Although Morphe did have a small boutique in California before becoming famous, all three brands owe their success to Instagram. Without the power of the hashtag, there’s no way any of the brands would have made it big. They’ve created a cult following that drives their sales and often creates sell out products. Collaborations with beauty bloggers also helps to created even more success between the brand and the blogger. Along with this, brands can create trends simultaneously create products that are necessary to create the trend on one’s face. Highlighters are a perfec example of what’s happening currently. Reflexive highlighters are the hot thing that everyone has to have. So, brands are banking on this by creating highlighters like no tomorrow. They’re all in competition with each other to create a product that looks the best in your Insta-selfies. In other words, their highlighter has to be super pigmented and reflexive or otherwise it’s not going to sell because it’s not going to look good in a selfie (which is how they’re going to successfully sell products).

Instagram, contour pallets and liquid lipstick

 Posted by on Wed, 10/26 at 10:22am  artifact ideas  2 Responses »
Oct 262016
 

My topic is social media’s influence on the beauty industry. One huge cultural artifact of this is Instagram. Instagram is one of the main social media platforms that creates change within the beauty industry. There are numerous hashtags available to explore to find different products, users and techniques. This allows for rapid sharing of information and leads to change by allowing users to create new content within seconds. Along with Instagram, contouring pallets are another cultural artifact. They became popular because of Instagram and Kim Kardashian. Everyone loved how her face looked so they turned to social media to talk about it and to discover how to do it. Bloggers that created explanatory posts about how to contour one’s face would get passed around extremely quickly, some garnering one million views over night. This is because of how easy it is to share information on apps like Instagram. My final cultural artifact is liquid lipstick. This was a product created for the internet. Users make videos of them applying the lipstick and it’s literally makeup porn. Getting the most perfectly crisp lines is orgasmic to watch and waiting for a liquid lip to dry is so much better than watching paint dry.

What has social media done for body image?

 Posted by on Mon, 10/10 at 6:26pm  ideas  No Responses »
Oct 102016
 

The article that I read this week discussed the positive impacts that social media has made for creating a societal image of beauty that is more attainable to women. This is something that I totally support, but I don’t think that it’s as widespread as the article made it seem.

Beauty bloggers like PatrickStarrr are definitely helping with breaking the traditional beauty norms. He’s a plus size Asian man doing makeup on YouTube. He’s representing plus size people and people of color, and loves to remind his followers that “makeup is one size fits all.” He often talks on his snapchat about where he finds his clothing and what techniques his stylist uses to make him look his best. This encourages his followers to embrace their bodies and to open themselves to the world. Unfortunately, Patrick is one of the few famous bloggers that has created a more positive space for beauty in this unique way. But, I do not want to denote what other bloggers have done.

Beauty bloggers aim to teach their followers. By teaching followers makeup tips and tricks, they’re making beauty more accessible to a lot of people. You don’t have to be a makeup artist to beat your face, you just have to be able to watch a tutorial. This eliminates the unattainable aspect of “unattainable beauty.” This only deals with the beauty that resides on the face, but I believe that if you have other insecurities, these may be lessened by the confidence gained by learning how to snatch your face. I know that insecurities with body image are not the same as insecurities one may have about the way one’s face looks, but I always feel a lot more confident in the way that I look when I’m wearing makeup. Faces are what we usually first notice when looking at or meeting someone. They determine how we may feel about someone based on their expression or whether or not we think they’re cute. So if you’ve got a little extra cushion for the pushin’ that you’re not happy with, but your face is beat for the gawds, I think that you’re going to exude more confidence than if you weren’t wearing any makeup at all. This means that social media has helped to create a more accessible standard of beauty. Self confidence is available in just a few clicks and tutorials, which is pretty cool to me.

#BodyPositive

 Posted by on Mon, 10/10 at 3:09pm  reading  No Responses »
Oct 102016
 

This article discusses how social media has influenced the way that women see themselves. Dove conducted a study and discovered that 78% of women feel that social media portrays an unrealistic standard of beauty. This included women that were tweeting negative things about themselves and the standards that are created from various platforms. However,the article states that there is a lot of good that has come out of social media. Because there are so many users and bloggers, there is a lot of room for diversity. This means that more people are represented throughout the many platforms. Bloggers share their beauty and body image stories and struggles that they have faced to help people facing similar issues over come them. Through hashtags, it is very easy to find celebrations of different body types, ethnicities and ages. These women are changing what our idea of beauty is. And by doing so on a platform that is rapidly changing and being updated, our beauty standards can more rapidly evolve.

The article features five bloggers that are breaking the beauty norm by being themselves. They are making beauty more personalized so that all women can feel beautiful. This is something that cosmetic brands should be more in tune with because it would allow them to expand their brand. This is a win win for consumer and manufacturer because the consumer has more access to products that would best suit them and brands would make more money. I really don’t understand why brands have more light shades than they do deep ones. Do they think that people with darker complexions don’t want/ don’t wear makeup? Because they do and they’re always frustrated that they can’t find a suitable color to match their skin tone.

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