Cross-Cultural Beauty Standards

By Madison Norris

[mmnorris]

Nigerian Makeup

This week in our cultural makeup journey, Maria, Liz and I decided to go for a bold choice and focus on the cultural makeup of Nigerian women! Personally, being someone who greatly enjoys makeup and the details within it, I was very excited about the bold and intricate style of makeup often worn by women within this culture. Although I attempted to recreate the beautiful art women in Nigeria model every day, I certainly did not do it justice. Not only was this a type of experimental makeup for me, but it was also very clearly not made for me. Being a white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed female, the bold beautiful colors contrasted with my skin tone and features in different ways than those of Nigerian women.

So, to begin this very bold and bright look, I began with lining and filling in my eyebrows to create a strong angular look. To enhance this even more I used concealer to shape the brows and make them that much sharper. Secondly, I focused on the eyes, blending multiple colors such as teal, purple, orange, and even a hint of yellow. Continuing on, I added a smaller wing liner to the eyes and topped it off with mascara. To complete the look I added a full coverage foundation, concealer under the eyes, on the forehead, and on the chin, and contour, blush, highlighter, and bright pink lip gloss to finish it off.

After completing the makeup, I can honestly say that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the look. Although I thought the colors and the way that they contrasted with one another were beautiful, I didn’t feel as though it looked quite as flattering on me. So much so that as soon as I had taken pictures for this post, I removed it right away. I think this is something interesting to note—this style of makeup that looks so beautiful on the women of Nigeria simply wasn’t the most flattering with my complexion and features. However, the look is still obviously very bright and beautiful. I find this trend within the makeup quite interesting due to the cultural role that women play within Nigeria.

Upon further research, I learned about the incredible emphasis that Nigerian culture places on upholding traditional gender roles. In an article given by BBC News, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her book, We Should All Be Feminists, were highlighted due to the way in which they inspired the #BeingFemaleInNigeria movement—a movement that encouraged Nigerian women to shed light on their own personal experiences living with these gender roles. What I found very interesting was that many, if not all, of the posts using this hashtag implied in some way, shape, or form that being female in Nigeria means being labeled as a traditional house wife.  

In America, the Feminist movement has reached new heights, and has consistently caused a great deal of controversy by encouraging women to go to extreme lengths in fighting for their rights—that however deserves a blog post of its own! With the Feminist movement moving forward and moving quickly in the United States, women have begun to be viewed in a much different light. We are no longer simply raised to be housewives. However, women in Nigeria are still handed this role, and told that it should be the root of their identity as a whole. Due to this lack of ability to express oneself through work and creativity, I believe Nigerian women use makeup as a way to present something that is, in a sense, their work—something they can take pride in. Similarly to Arab women that we discussed in our last post, Nigerian women refuse to allow themselves to be conformed, constrained, and restricted within a specific box. Therefore, makeup becomes their outlet in expressing who they are.  

Overall I think makeup within Nigerian culture is used as a way of truly reflecting the beauty and integrity of women. Not only are such vibrant colors used simply because they compliment their deeper skin tones, but also as a way to express such vibrancy within their personalities. This is the true meaning behind the gift of makeup—the ability to embrace one's God-gifted beauty and truly express what they believe to be a strong, feminine, and beautiful self.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33239356 

[mmnorris]

Arab Makeup

In past posts when looking at different cultural styles of makeup, both the Japanese and French looks were relatively simple. Although they may have taken time and numerous products to complete the look, the result was in fact rather simplistic. However, this time we will be focusing on makeup inspired by the Arab culture, which is much bolder and noticeably more dramatic. Liz, Maria, and I found that Middle Eastern women tend to go for particularly dark—and honestly, quite intense—makeup, especially around the eyes.

I began the look by starting with my eyebrows. In doing so I focused on making them very thick and defined, as this is the style often desired in Arab makeup. Once I completed the brows I then moved onto my eyeshadow. To create the classic Arabic look I went in with many different colors, while carrying all of them outward past my eye to really elongate its shape. After completing the shadows, I went in with a deep black eyeliner and created a bold wing on the outer corner of my eye. To enhance the boldness and elongated shape of my eye even more so, I took the liner all the way back to my inner corner and created a type of miniature wing there as well. Finally, after completing this intense eye makeup, I completed my face makeup with foundation, concealer, bronzer, blush, and highlighter, while keeping everything rather simplistic and matte. However, as commonly done in Arab culture, I lastly used my bronzer to create even more chiseled features, to top it all off.

Upon completing this look on myself, I honestly felt a bit uncomfortable, as I typically tend to keep my own makeup rather minimal—and especially seeing as I have blonde hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion which is quite different from the traditional Arab woman. Also, it was interesting that while wearing this makeup myself, I realized how much of a contrast there is between the traditionally modest attire of middle eastern women and their bold, even sultry makeup style. I noticed that the style makeup was done in a way which purposefully gave the eyes—and face all together—a much more defined and sculpted structure. Due to women in the Middle East often having to cover most of their body other than their face, because of governmental or religious purposes, makeup can be used as a freeing form of expression.

Within the U.S., both women and men are able to dress in ways that they feel are representative of not only their culture, but also themselves as individuals. However, in other cultures, this is not always the case. Oftentimes in Middle Eastern countries, women have strict guidelines regarding clothing and modesty, which often only allows the eyes and facial features to be seen in items such as a hijab. I know that if I personally had to wear clothes that fit my body in this way, I would feel very insecure about appearing feminine. I wonder if this is ever something Middle Eastern experience in their own day-to-day lives. If so, perhaps because of these feelings of insecurity in their appearance, makeup may become another form of self expression, as well as a way of expressing women’s femininity, as the feminine structure of their bodies are so concealed. In this way, I think the bold and defined makeup often seen in Arab cultures is not only a way for women to allow themselves to feel beautiful—as all women wish to—but also a way for them to embrace their feminine nature and grow in self-confidence.

While makeup is a universal way of expressing one’s unique beauty, for Arab women in particular it is also a way of showing the sultry and vibrant aspects of their femininity as a whole, along with the possibly more independent and strong aspects of their personality.

[mmnorris]

French Makeup

This week, we continued to study differences in cultural makeup, by taking a deeper look into the beauty standards of the women of France, and the ways they desire to enhance their features. After doing research, Maria, Liz and I found that the French focus on doing their makeup in order to simply enhance their natural features. In order to do this, I kept things very simple and created what Americans would call a no makeup makeup look—which is typically what I prefer to do myself.

I started by cleansing my face and adding a nourishing moisturizer to rejuvenate my natural skin. After doing so, I applied a light bb cream all over my face. This enabled me to achieve an evenness throughout my skin tone, while still allowing the imperfections of my natural skin to show through. Once doing this, I very lightly concealed under my eyes and any larger blemishes on my face. Once I felt my skin looked like itself, just slightly better, I moved on to enhancing my features. In order to keep everything looking as natural as possible, I used a small amount of bronzer to slightly contour my cheekbones, and a bit of cream blush in order to give my cheeks a naturally flushed color. I then added the slightest bit of highlighter to give a natural shine to my complexion, and filled in my eyebrows a bit in order to make them look fuller. Lastly, I used a bright red lipstick, as is so commonly done by the French to enhance their lips.

After creating this French inspired makeup look on myself, and not only seeing but also experiencing it, I felt quite comfortable—aside from the bold lip, that is. Through the popularity of this technique, in which one enhances the face’s natural features rather than applying heavy amounts of makeup to drastically transform the face, it can be assumed that women within French culture may have higher overall senses of self-esteem. In fact, this is quite a common difference between genders, as men statistically tend to have higher self-esteem. Within my own personal experience, as well as those of friends’, we as women often compare ourselves to one another. So much so, that we even compare the nitty gritty differences in the features on our faces, such as the length of our eyelashes. This has lead to excessive trends within American makeup, which prevent it from being used as simply a means of expressing oneself through enhancing their natural features. Instead, makeup can become the means to transform these features entirely. Today, this is seen with women, but even more drastically in men as well.

However, rather than using makeup to completely transform what appears to be the entire structure of one’s face (as often done in America), the French embrace and enhance the natural structural features they were given. Perhaps through this expression of what makes a person beautiful within French culture one can argue that the differences seen in genders, specifically in regard to self-esteem, may be less drastic. Moreover, this greater sense of self-esteem may also correlate to the culture’s high levels of independence amongst its people. 

Ultimately, I think makeup is meant to be used as a sense of self expression, but can easily be made into a way of covering one’s insecurities—especially for those with lower self-esteem. Personally, I loved wearing the French inspired makeup look because I felt as though I was genuinely enhancing my natural features and expressing my truest self, while feeling confident in doing so. 

[mmnorris]

Japanese vs. American Makeup

Since I was little, I have always been fascinated by makeup. When I was young I often played with my mom’s products and attempted to doll myself up to look and feel beautiful. Now that I am older and have studied different techniques and styles of makeup, that fascination has turned into a bit of a passion for me. As I have done individuals’ makeup for their proms, weddings, etc. I like to consider each person’s face a unique canvas. Along with this, I find the different styles of makeup done throughout different cultures quite interesting. So, to dive deeper into the differences in standards of beauty across different cultures, Liz, Maria, and I decided to try to create different cultural styles of makeup, and therefore observe differences in what different cultures consider beautiful.

To start off, I had Maria be my model, while Liz took pictures. We started with a popular Japanese inspired look. After watching several tutorials on makeup inspired from this culture, we found that the overall objective is to make the face look as doll-like as possible. To do this, I kept Maria’s skin very matte with bright rosy cheeks and eyes. When applying these colors to her eyelids I kept my brush strokes in a downward motion, in order to create a drooped eye effect. Along with bright colors on her eyelids, I used white on the lower water line in order to really open the eye up and create the illusion of a larger eye. This Japanese makeup look also uses contour beginning under the cheek bone and taken all the way down to the jaw line in order to create a v shaped face. Lastly, this look also emphasizes straight and short eyebrows at an attempt to narrow the face.  

The style of makeup which is achieved within this Japanese look truly represents the interdependent personality, as it strives to present a childlike and doll-like effect. The makeup look presents this personality type because it portrays a young, innocent, and dependent individual through its enhancements of childlike features. Through this, Japanese culture appears to see beauty as young and vibrant.

After creating the Japanese look, I then moved onto the American style of makeup. In America, we often like to keep the skin matte, yet add definition and color to the skin with highlighter, contour/bronzer, and blush. Americans tend to use a subtle amount of peachy toned blush just to the apples of the cheeks to bring some color into the face, along with a large amount of highlighter to the cheek bones and nose. When it comes to contour however, the American and Japanese techniques are very different. Rather than starting under the cheek bone and taking the contour down to their jaw bone, Americans strive for the look of a strong shadow directly under the cheek bone. To accomplish this, I placed contour directly under Maria’s cheek bone, and then went back to sharpen up the line using setting powder. Now for the eyes, I created a warm and bronzy look all over Maria’s eye. When applying this, I kept my brush strokes in an upward motion in order to enhance the eye and really lift the structure of the face entirely. Lastly, and most importantly of course, the eyebrows. American makeup puts great emphasis on full, arched, and long brows, to also lift the features of the face all together.

One of the things I find to be most interesting in comparing these two culture’s styles of makeup, is that the Japanese tend to desire that their face look small and petit, while American’s wish to lift the structure of their face entirely to create and more defined look. This really shows the more independent personality seen in Americans because it strives for a strong, mature, and bold appearance.

After creating these two looks, I think the differences in the styles of makeup is very interesting because it shows how culture truly affects the individual persons standards of beauty