If you have ever struggled with the pressure to look a certain way in order to fit in or feel good enough, this post is for you. (If I'm honest, this post is for most of us...) In GIRL TALK, speaking events and Girl Power Camps the topic of pressures to be perfect is always a popular conversation. Today's media can be overwhelming when it comes to defining the standard of beauty. I'm here to reveal some big news...There is NO standard or requirement, we are led to believe there is and it's up to us to stop the madness and empower each other to be REAL. A successful professional makeup artist, Sheila Ybarra revealed her thoughts on the power of makeup and beauty standards. This is just too good not to share!
So I’m posting these pictures as a way to get your attention for what I am about to say.
As a professional makeup artist I always strive to create art that shows my clients at their very best. I find the best colors, best angles to enhance, I want their makeup to draw out their personality, and I do my best to the bring their vision to life. My clients hire me because they want to look beautiful, lively … but still look like themselves. Don’t get me wrong I do have clients who will actually say “I don’t want to look like myself, paint my face!” I’m very honest about what I can achieve and what I cannot achieve when I am speaking with a client I always maintain a high degree of authenticity.
And so when my client shows me a photo that she pulled up on Pinterest or Instagram that has been overly photo shopped or filtered I do have to explain to this client that that picture has been modified. I am a makeup artist I am not a magician, I cannot make every single pore on your face go away. Don’t get me wrong, I am simultaneously intrigued and troubled by the extensive use of makeup, photoshop, and I have been noticing more people moving towards towards a standard of perfection that is not only unnatural, but frankly impossible! For example the average time I spend on a photo shoot can be between 4 to 8 hours long. So imagine that the model in front of me has spent hours upon hours in makeup application and yet their pictures are still extensively edited before being approved to print. All their facial imperfections are removed, the skin is lightened, the pores on the nose or minimized, there eyes are brightened up, and every now and then we have a client ask the photographer to straighten out the bridge of her nose or even take her braces off in photoshop. Don’t get me wrong I am fascinated by it I even get a chuckle when a girlfriend will Face-tune a group photo of all of us and I get a flashback of what I look like when I was 20 years old!
What I am trying to say is this: what is expected is something not even the most beautiful among us can attain, and trust me I have seen some of the most beautiful women sit in my chair. Yes some of my clients do you have perfect skin but these are very young ladies. Everybody has imperfections. I know we always say that true beauty is within. We say that we just need to “be ourselves.” However, the truth is, we are still a product of our environment, and none of us–whether guy or girl–can escape that subconscious realization that we are not measuring up. I have noticed lately since the lock down ( COVID LOCKDOWN ) the majority of my clients that have come into the studio or very self-conscious. I’m wondering have they spent so much time on social media that they have been comparing themselves to people that they follow? I told a client of mine today that I thought it was a good idea that she start to Unfollow some of the people on social media that did not make her feel good about herself. If you find yourself looking at someone’s social media page and you start questioning whether you measure up, I highly suggest that you hit Unfollow! I always love posting before and after pictures so that women can relate to the woman in the before picture. Because that’s what we all look like! NO we did not wake up looking like the after picture. Try loving on yourself a little bit more and start looking from within and find the things that you love about yourself and start making sure you tell yourself every day why you love YOU! OK my rant is over... Sheila Ybarra
