Made up Truths - How Make-up Creates the Real Me

By Ines Imdahl

Traditions
Painting faces is an ancient tradition. In addition to beautifying the skin in the form of facial jewellery, face painting had other functions. As war paint, it was meant to intimidate others and give wearers courage. As part of ritual fertility cults, it was a sign of seduction and readiness to conceive. It defined belonging to a particular ethnic or religious group – distancing wearers from other groups.

Nowadays, make-up is very often part of women’s everyday lives, their body-care habits and personal styles. What women want to signal with it can, in turn, be very different: in addition to sending erotic signals – something we tend to think of first - many women seek to exude more confidence. From concealing and covering up small blemishes and highlighting individual facial parts such as lips or eyes through to complete transformations, make-up boasts a very broad range of applications.

Taming Nature
But the key thing is: women who wear make-up don’t feel like themselves without make-up. Without it, they feel “incomplete”, and almost undressed. Without their make-up, and just as nature intended, these women feel out of sorts with themselves when standing in front of the mirror in the mornings. They experience themselves as “natural” only - as defined by their very nature - when they have completed their morning make-up rituals. In this respect, women always talk about the fact that they like to “look natural”, but have a harmonized and flattering image of nature in mind.

Between beauty ideals and self-determination
How much color, mascara and lipstick is right for me or the situation? At what point do I feel made up – what isn’t enough to cover up nature’s little cruelties? The process of balancing between too much and too little make-up always touches on the question of contemporary beauty ideals. Through make-up women try to do justice to these ideals and try to not be dominated by them at the same time. The balancing act exists in trying to find your own personal style within the existing ideals. In other words: women are aware of the latest make-up trends and often base their ideals on them. But at the same time they “rebel” against social standards and remain true to themselves in key areas. This may mean that they always apply eyeliner in the same way or feel a certain color of lipstick is essential.
Ultimately then, between ideals of beauty and personal style the made-up truth exists - the “natural, authentic” self.