"No Makeup November" Movement Questions Standards of Beauty

The past month has seen a plethora of beauty-related controversies, from celebrity airbrushing and Instagram retouching to makeup mastery, and in protest of the trend, Christian association Rave Ministries wants us all to go back to basics. Rave, a religious group for young women, has announced their latest campaign, “No Makeup November,” encouraging women everywhere to question why, exactly, they use cosmetics.

“No Makeup November” encourages women to ditch their makeup and go natural, at least for the next nine days. Despite overt religious motivation behind the group’s initiative, there are other, less ecclesiastical reasons impelling Rave. According to the group’s website, American women spend a staggering $12,000 annually on beauty-related goods. However, Rave was careful to emphasize that “No Makeup November” does not seek to topple the makeup industry or eradicate the practice altogether, saying:

    This campaign is in no way an anti-makeup campaign, because let it be known that it is not the makeup we are battling. Instead, it is a culture we are trying to fight.

The initiative echoes similar proclamations by Lady Gaga and Milla Jovovich in recent months, which call attention to our culture’s tendency to erase facial flaws and standardize unusual features. Rave claims that in makeup usage, the real problem occurs when women do not see beauty or value in their appearance, and attempt to mask their features due to a deficiency in self esteem. The organization said:

    It is our hope that women everywhere can see themselves as a true masterpiece intricately and purposely woven together by the Creator of the Universe.

Whether or not you believe in an intelligent creator is actually irrelevant to the crux of the movement; the central issue is the prevalence of women who don’t believe in their own beauty because of impossible, culturally-imposed beauty standards. So prevalent is the instinct to conform to a single standard of beauty that the process begins as early as elementary school, from the misery of braces in pursuit of the perfect smile, to the use of injectable chemicals to freeze a face into perpetual youth. Clearly, we have an obsession with a very specific ideal of beauty, but one which is ultimately unachievable as well as potentially unhealthy.

Rave’s movement is making its debut at a particularly prime moment thanks to a handful of brave celebrities and cultural pundits who are encouraging the self-image to the forefront. Tina Fey, an authority on being a woman in a male-dominated world, paints a vivid and unsettling image of our culture’s perfect woman in her book Bossypants. Fey determined that the paragon of beauty is, much like Jim Carrey’s collage of magazine photos pasted together to look like his true love in The Truman Show, an amalgamation of traits which typically do not occur naturally in the same woman. Fey says:

    Now every girl is supposed to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits.

Quite the laundry list of expectations for the average woman. And how does one achieve this impossible ideal? If you go the non-surgical route and don’t have a job which allows you to spend five hours a day at the gym, makeup offers a quick fix. As Rave reiterates, however, the issue is not with makeup itself, but with the culture which hails makeup as a solution to what is deemed ugly, as opposed to a form of empowerment meant to make the wearer more confident.

The beauty industry isn’t all bad, though (which is good, since, you know, we’re here on this Fashion & Beauty vertical). Legendary makeup artist Bobbi Brown offers a healthier solution to the trend towards uniformity: use makeup to highlight what is beautiful on each individual face instead of wielding it as a tool of conformity. Her books, including Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy, and Awesome, emphasize that everyone has a unique look, and should celebrate what separates them from others by using makeup to play up individuality.

However, Brown’s approach is still not a universal attitude adopted by makeup industry and its major players, made all the more complicated by the recent prevalence of beauty tutorials designed to make the consumer look like a particular character or celebrity. Case in point, if you type “Angelina Jolie Makeup” into the YouTube search bar (or any major celebrity, for that matter), a shocking number of search results are presented, each featuring a makeup artist who becomes unrecognizable after contouring, plumping, plucking, and covering up their features.

What we can glean from both the No Makeup November campaign as well as the airbrush/retouch/makeover standard is that there are negative psychological ramifications behind these unrealistic beauty expectations. In other words, our culture tells women that we aren’t good enough as-is.

Makeup can be an incredibly amusing and confidence-boosting practice, but when cosmetics take away all traces of someone’s unique identity, it becomes an exercise in negativity. So instead of using makeup to cover up the negative and fix problem areas, try picking out your favorite features and accentuate the positive. As the wise Oscar Wilde once bluntly said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”.

Know the art of makeup removal

London: When makeup is removed in an incorrect manner, it leads to irritation on the face and chances of premature ageing and uneven complexion rise. So use face wipes to remove makeup, but do it the right without causing any damage to the skin.

"Using a face wipe is a great way to make sure you cleanse and tone, removing makeup at the same time to ensure your pores aren't blocked," a website quoted facialist Teresa Tarmey as saying.

She also said that wiping haphazardly before going to bed can remove makeup, but learning how to wipe without stretching your skin and minimizing pressure will reduce any damaging effects.

"Skin is the foundation for looking beautiful, so taking care of it is crucial. Removing makeup in the wrong way can not only irritate the skin but promote premature aging, causing fine lines and uneven complexion," said Tarmey.

Follow the following makeup removing steps shared by Tarmey:

Gently remove makeup from your forehead first. Wipe it from the middle of the forehead to the left and then back to the middle and to the right.

Then move on to your eyes. Wrap the wipe around your finger, exposing the other side and gently sweep it across the lids towards the outer corners. Use your ring finger for this to avoid applying more pressure on your delicate skin.

For your cheeks, repeatedly sweep the wipe upwards towards your ears. The upward movement will not cause skin to sag.

The makeup test: Six area high school girls set out find if wearing cosmetics makes a difference in how people treated them

Confidence. Enhancing natural beauty. Feeling more put-together. Experimenting. These are all reasons some area teen girls give for wearing makeup. So the statistic from the American Economic Review that women who wear makeup to work earn up to 30 percent more than their bare-faced peers shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

A study reported on by the New York Times in 2011 found that wearing makeup “increases people’s perceptions of a woman’s likability, her competence and (provided she doesn’t overdo it) her trustworthiness.”

Six area high school girls decided to put that theory to the test in a four-week experiment, curious to see what people’s reactions toward them would be in one of the most look-centered places around: high school. The participants went sans makeup for two weeks before switching back to their normal makeup-wearing routine, keeping track of people’s reactions, comments and how they themselves felt about it throughout the course of the experiment.

After reading the article, “I found that I was looking at teachers and students at school and how people interacted with them, and I found that the students who were considered the most ‘trouble’ in class wore really dark and thick makeup,” said Alyssa Kramer, a senior at Starpoint High School. “Many teachers were very plain with their makeup. However, the ones with a more polished makeup look were the ‘favorite’ teachers.’ ”

Fellow NeXt correspondent Melanie Izard, a junior at Sweet Home High School, was the only participant who did not already wear makeup, explaining that she was “surprised that makeup boosts confidence. I never wear makeup. When I was younger my older sister would put some on me sometimes, but I would always feel ridiculous, not confident.”

The reactions the girls received were much more positive when they wore makeup. Alyssa described the first two weeks as “uncomfortable.”

“Going to school without makeup was something I haven’t done since seventh grade,” she said. “People are very used to my look. So when I got to school, I got a lot of double takes, and ‘Are you sick? Did you oversleep?’ ”

“When I didn’t wear makeup, I felt different ... I didn’t feel as confident in myself when I was walking into school,” said Kallie Olear, a sophomore at Wilson High School.

Melanie noticed a big difference in how people treated her when she was wearing makeup.

“A lot of teachers and administrators came up to me, just to talk,” Melanie said. “I’m not saying I’m normally unapproachable,” but it seemed they approached her more than they usually do, and “the makeup might have had something to do with it.”

Jenna Schlosser, a sophomore at Wilson High School, said that she had started getting closer with more popular girls in the weeks prior to the experiment, but said, “once I stopped, I obviously stopped getting comments on my makeup ... and they started ignoring me if I smiled at them in the hallways.” The girls, she said, were much friendlier after she switched back to wearing makeup.

Being a cheerleader, Jenna skipped makeup during a football game. “I felt like everyone was overlooking me,” she said.

Another NeXt correspondent, Elyse Cinquino, 15, a sophomore at Kenmore East High School, and Sara Coykendall, a sophomore at Lewiston-Porter High School, were the only ones who didn’t perceive any major differences in people’s reactions toward them.

“Other than one person asking me why I wasn’t wearing makeup on the first day of the experiment, there was no change ... I was expecting that there would be some sort of difference, but there wasn’t,” Sara said.

“I may not have received feedback similar to what the others got because I don’t wear a lot of makeup, and it’s very natural,” Elyse said. “I think I’ll end up wearing makeup less than before ... if anything, I think my self-confidence has increased.”

None of the girls mentioned anything about boys’ reactions. So does such a staggering statistic have anything to do with sexism?

“I think that these reactions are sexist because people believe that girls should always be wearing makeup and that they only look good with makeup on,” Jenna said.

“I think that those are stereotypes that are true with many people, but not everyone thinks that way, even though I could understand how they could,” said Troy Dickenson, a sophomore at Wilson High School, reacting to Jenna’s comment. “I think that the real problem is that girls don’t think of themselves as pretty without having makeup on, not as much because of a guy’s reaction.”

“I don’t really think makeup has that big of an influence on it, but I think it’s the equivalent of a suit,” said Bryan Bedolla, also a sophomore at Wilson High School.

Alyssa agreed with Troy, and mentioned that her “business teacher said that most advertisements for makeup make women feel inferior so they’ll buy it and go for a ‘natural’ look, even though they’re putting $12 worth of makeup on their faces.”

For me, the purpose of makeup “is to enhance your features, not cover up things or make you look prettier,” Elyse said.

“Parents need to set an age for when their daughters wear makeup, and they need to show them how to put it on,” Alyssa said. “The girls all agreed that the earliest age should be 13.

“I still believe that girls and women should be able to be confident with their natural selves. Society ... puts a huge emphasis on appearance, and I feel that that is wrong. Makeup shouldn’t be used for popularity, it should be used for confidence and self-positivity,” Alyssa added.

“I know that people, especially the ones who know me the most and are closest to me, treat me the way they do because of who I am, not because of how I look or if I wear makeup or not,” Sara said.

So will Melanie, the sole non-makeup-wearer continue to wear makeup? She said that she was glad to have learned how to put it on, as it “took about a week of practice to get down a look I like, and I now know for future reference how to do it. I’ll probably wear makeup on some days, but I definitely don’t want to wear it every day.”

“The most important thing to remember is that people should know you for you, not your makeup,” Sara said.

“My advice to other teenage girls would be to try out what you like,” Melanie said. “If makeup gives you confidence, then by all means wear it. However, it’s also important to be yourself. Makeup can skew people’s vision of you, and I think that it’s just as important to be confident ... without makeup, but if you wear makeup all the time that might be harder to achieve.”

Anna Kane is a sophomore at Wilson High School.

Make-up tips to look like a diva at New Year party

- Apply face primer all over your face to set the base.

- Use a concealer to hide blemishes.

- Take an eye primer; apply it all over your eyelid to prevent it from creasing.
- Follow it up with a black eyeliner pencil, by lining your upper water line. This will make your lashes look voluminous.

- With the same eyeliner pencil, apply a little on your upper lash line. Then with an angled brush, extend it to make a flick.

- Apply a light gold eye shadow on your eyelids.

- Then use a white eye shadow to highlight your brow bone.

- Next is to apply a bronze eye shadow on the outer and inner crease, leaving the centre untouched. Blend it a little to soften the look.

- Then apply dark brown eye shadow on the same areas to add some depth. And then blend again.

- Use black liquid eyeliner over the pencil liner for a bolder look.

- After that take a white liquid eye liner and apply it under the black flick.

- Next use the same black liquid eye liner and apply it under the white flick.

- Then apply brown eye shadow along the lower lash line to give it a more subtle look.

- Take mascara and apply lots of coats.

- And then with some lash glue, stick crystals underneath the wing just for some fun and bling.

- Moving on to the face, touch up everything with a translucent powder.

- Then take a bronzer and apply it to contour your cheeks and highlight your cheek bones.

- Next, apply a peach blush on the apples of your cheeks.

- And finish it with a shade of red on the lips.

5 Ways To Do Your Makeup Without Using Makeup Brushes

Be honest, ladies. How many of you actually use a complete set of makeup brushes? Our guess is not many of you.

But we're right there with you. Unless we're using foundation or lipstick, we have no problem using our fingers to get the job done. Besides, we can never find the correct makeup brushes when we need them.

As we recently learned from makeup artists Merrell Hollis and Kari Bauce, there are a few items lying around our bathroom that work just as well to apply makeup. Here are five:

1. Wedge sponge: Not only are they perfect for applying foundation and concealer, Bauce believes they work well to put blend eyeshadow. "They're probably one of the most multi-functional items you can get your hands on. You can use it with both emollient and dry products, which you can't do with cotton," she says. "They are absolutely integral in trying to perfect the cat-eye swoop -- they clean up the edges of your eyeliner."

2. Tissue: If Hollis doesn't have setting powder within reach, he uses a tissue to set makeup. Hollis explains, "I separate the tissue in half, pulling it apart, and then set the inside of the tissue on the face. The fibers from the tissue can be used to blot or as an anti-shine. You can also use a tissue underneath the eye to catch fall-off when doing a smokey eye or any powder shadow that may be messy."

3. Q-tips: Both makeup professionals recommend using Q-tips to clean up makeup mistakes, including smudged mascara, eyeliner and lipstick. But Bauce also uses the tiny cotton swab as a lipstick applicator. "Just get them a little damp before you apply lip color, so you don't get cotton fibers onto your lips," she explains.

4. Cotton pad: Hollis likes using circular cotton pads (the type that you would use to apply an astringent) to apply blush in a pinch. "I lightly whisk the pad on the blush color and then apply to the face. It really picks up color and goes on without streaking. You can also use them for any powdered makeup, including pressed powder. It gives you a nice, even distribution of powder and goes on seamlessly," he says.

5. Toothbrush: A clean and unused toothbrush can work wonders, according to Bauce, for brow grooming and if you want to exfoliate your lips before putting on gloss or lipstick.

Shelley Bridgeman: Should men wear makeup?

It was at Smith & Caughey's in Newmarket that I encountered my first fully made-up man. Fittingly, he was working in the cosmetics section. At first I was a little distracted by his blue eye-shadow and pink lipstick (which nonetheless suited his fair complexion) but he quickly became my go-to guy when I needed makeup or wrinkle potions.

Then just the other day in the same department store I was served by a second man with rather dramatic eye makeup on. I told him I needed eyeliner. "Liquid eyeliner? That's what I've got on," he said, indicating the heavy black swirls above his eyes. I received helpful and friendly service from both these men who clearly had an enthusiasm for their particular line of work. The second one even managed to sell me some Dior skincare which I'd never tried before.

After that initial moment of awkwardness, I no longer batted an eyelid at these young men who just happened to be wearing more makeup than me. And, anyway, I figured that if someone is going to sell cosmetics then it makes sense that they use the products, so in a way it could be perceived as even stranger if they were bare-faced.

Yet even in the age of the "metrosexual" (defined by Dictionary.com as "a heterosexual, usually urban male who pays much attention to his personal appearance and cultivates an upscale lifestyle") and "manscaping" (defined by Urban Dictionary as "to groom a man. Shaving, waxing, cleaning up the superfluous fur) it seems that some of us are still raising an eyebrow at the prospect of men wearing makeup.

The people at Speight's beer certainly question the practice: "With a proliferation of questionable products aimed at men, including manscara, guyliner and strange waxing procedures, one could be forgiven for assuming that Kiwi men have lost sight of what really matters to them."

But in American Idol: Adam Lambert speaks out for men with makeup he responded to an eww-men-aren't-supposed-to-wear-makeup comment by opining that there are, in fact, no rules specifying who may and who may not wear makeup - and that, in his view, everyone should be free to express themselves as they choose.

Indeed, there's a strong tradition of men in the entertainment industry embracing this freedom. Russell Brand's kohl, Boy George's "colourful paintwork", Elvis Presley's concealer and foundation, and Robbie Williams' eyeliner can be seen at Made-up men.

Read more: Rebecca Kamm wonders: Why don't men wear makeup?

However we have a couple of home-grown examples of makeup-wearing men who hail from other professions - namely politics and sport. Michael Laws' fondness for eyeliner was well known and, evidently, "[f]or a short while, Ma'a Nonu of the All Blacks rugby team wore mascara".

In Introducing Guy-liner and Manscara - the new metrosexual makeup just for men, a spokesman from the company selling cosmetics for blokes "insisted that its cosmetics -branded Taxi Man - are not just for transvestites. He said: 'These days you can be macho and wear makeup. If you look at people like Russell Brand and Robbie Williams, they both wear makeup and they are both very red-blooded men.'"

Yet for every enthusiast such as Cameron I-like-men-with-make-up Diaz there's a doubter such as the beauty blogger at Guyliner: what's the go? who wrote: "as more and more men step out sporting foundation, a slick of lippy or a dab of blush, I can't help but wonder - how far will it go?"

In essence, it's really about equal rights. Who, these days, can consider makeup to be acceptable for women but simultaneously deny men the freedom to choose to wear it? The issue, people, is makeup equality. Are you for or against it?

6 Makeup Artist-Designed Cosmetic Lines Worth Buying

How do you wade through the six billion different lines of makeup sold at every department store to find the really good stuff? How do you know if you're getting quality? One simple way is to go for the face color that's made by a professional. After all, who better to create a covetable cosmetic collection than the experts who use them for a living? They know high quality, they know what works for a variety of tones and faces, and they don't put their name on anything less than what inspires them. Think of it like buying Da Vinci-designed oil paints or cans of spray paint formulated by Banksy.

Here are our top six makeup lines from makeup artist masters who cut their teeth in high fashion and red carpet jobs before striking out to create their own lines.