Hi ugly,
I’ve been obsessed with makeup and beauty products for years, and I’ve read a lot (and seen a lot of TikToks) about how your beauty routine can be a form of meditation or mindfulness. I felt like this for a really long time.
Lately, Even when I do my relaxing eight-step skincare ritual every night and do my little mental health kit in the morning, I notice:with make-up and coffee – “girl therapy” – Most of the time I don’t feel comfortable or mentally well. (Not in a “cure-seeking” way, but in a general sense of malaise.) Am I doing something wrong? Do you think makeup can be a therapeutic practice or mindfulness tool?
– Girl Therapy Doesn’t Work
The line between the beauty and wellness industries has become vanishingly blurry. It is from this place of nothingness that we get the concept of “makeup as meditation”. Maybe this is the beauty industry’s attempt to cash in on awareness, or maybe it’s the industry’s attempt to sabotage awareness so customers can’t overcome the brainwashing of beauty culture.
Whatever its origin, it is now everywhere. See: How to turn your beauty routine into a meditation session, How applying makeup can be used as a built-in form of daily meditation, or ‘Makeup’ is where makeup and mindfulness come together.
Make-up. MAKEUP? It doesn’t surprise me if this doesn’t work for you, Girl Therapy.
Relating to: Ask the Ugly: I’m addicted to lip balm but it doesn’t work. What is a better alternative?
First, meditation is the search for the unconditioned self, and in modern contexts beauty products are often tools of the conditioned self. When you “meditate” by looking in the mirror, hyper-focusing on your hyperpigmentation, and covering it with concealer, you are essentially revealing your social conditioning and methodically internalizing your standards of beauty.
I’m also not convinced that “meditation” through makeup provides any stress relief. The idea that the slow, deliberate application of blush and contour, combined with deep breathing, relaxes the nervous system seems plausible at first; Some forms of meditation center on the sense of touch.
However, the purpose of such methods is to feel the inside of the body. as are, do not alter the body to look like it is not. Although “pleasant touch” (hugging, holding hands) has been shown to relax the nervous system, other forms of touch may have the opposite effect. Medical ethicist Dr. Marc Lappé noted in The Body’s Edge that traditional meditation methods tend to promote serenity; [skin] arousal can be the bane of healthy psychic functioning.”
My personal takeaway from all this? Physical stimulation of “makeup as meditation” likely negates the benefits of traditional meditation; This practice should focus on your soul, not even your skin tone.
I don’t mean to be absolutist here. sometimes make up is It’s a pure, divine, artistic expression of self, and it’s beautiful. not that meditationBut I think equating the two devalues the practice of spiritual meditation.
As you’re beginning to suspect, obsessively applying skincare products isn’t quite as mindful a ritual as social media makes it out to be.
“Rituals are processes of embodiment,” writes philosopher Byung-Chul Han in his book The Disappearance of Rituals, and the average Instagrammable skincare routine looks more like a process of transformation. separation from body: The body’s innate oils are washed away and replaced by moisturizers. Beneficial bacteria are killed with benzoyl peroxide and repaired with probiotics. Epidermis is thinned with acids and plumped with peptide creams.
These products increase the pressure consumers feel to meet inhumane beauty standards (ageless faces! hairless bodies!). This relentless pressure can manifest itself as stress, and stress can manifest itself as—marketably—inflamed, irritated, sensitive skin. This can leave you feeling like you need more product and then forever more stress, amen.
You say people call it “girl therapy” but I think it’s more of a path. need therapy.
You understand. You are living it! You are flaky and anxious; You don’t want professional help, but you want to feel better. I’ve been there too and I know exactly what you need. So do you: awareness.
My favorite definition of mindfulness comes from Deepak Chopra; he once explained it as “being aware of who you are and what you are doing at any given moment.” It is the opposite of acting according to habit, old conditioning, and automatic reflexes. You are no longer a responsive brain puppet.
Mindfulness is conscious awareness. It is observing without judging. It’s about immersing yourself in the present moment. It’s also simpler and cheaper than the beauty and wellness industries believe.
To start, I recommend researching the origins of mindfulness in Buddhism and Ayurveda to see which practices appeal to you. Some solid options to start: meditation (without concealer), mantra practice, deep breathing, gratitude journaling. All have been shown to relax the nervous system and calm the mind; none of them will cost you money.
Relating to: Ask the Ugly: I’m getting ads for beauty products for my baby. Babies don’t need skin care, right?
You tell Girl Therapy that your makeup and skin-care routines don’t make you feel better, but you still feel compelled to complete them. Awareness can also help with this. One of my personal favorite mindfulness exercises involves taking a basic beauty norm, stripping away marketing language (lie), and reexplaining it to myself in plain terms (truth).
When I am careful and aware, the whitehead is no longer an ugly, anxiety-inducing disaster that I must immediately eliminate with an antibacterial (a lie), but a 1mm-long manifestation of a natural immune response that will soon resolve on its own. a few days (real).
When I am careful and aware, products and prescriptions that promise eternal youth are no longer a necessary component of skin care (a lie), but an ultimately fruitless attempt at skin control (the truth).
When I am aware and aware, makeup is no longer something I do “for myself” (a lie), but something I do to relieve the social pressure I feel to have perfect skin, full eyebrows, and fluffy lashes (even though the truth is not necessarily yours).
Developing ongoing awareness about your beauty habits will make it easier to let go of things that don’t actually enrich your life.
You also ask whether applying makeup or skin care can be part of mindfulness practice. Personally, I don’t think so; at least where it serves excessive consumption or oppressive appearance ideals. There like that There are certain skin care practices that may be good for you and support your overall health (e.g., using sunscreen), but I wouldn’t call them a part of a “mindfulness” routine any more than I would call your daily bowel movement (which is also good for you) part of a mindfulness routine.
But there’s a fun side to it: meditation, deep breathing, and gratitude journaling have been shown to strengthen the skin barrier by reducing trans-epidermal water loss, thus improving the skin’s ability to protect you.
So, although moisturizing awareness is not, awareness is technically moisturizing.