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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU To be bemused by current make up trends?

187 replies

misskelly · 02/09/2017 19:14

I'm in my 40's and have loved make up since I was quite young. Make up has improved so much over the last 20 years and the colours available for every skin tone has been amazing. Anyone can find the right products and enhance their features if they wish.

So, I ask why,why,why for the love of god has a trend evolved that can only be described as Widow Twanky. Why do so many women want to look like pantomime dames?

Is it due to a culture of selfies and wanting to look good in photos? Fake eyelashes, contouring, drawn on eyebrows and lip lines does not translate in the flesh.

I know this might come across as bitchy, but I'm honestly not trying to be. Especially when so many women could look amazing because they are spending a lot of time and money on their faces. Am I so out of the loop now that I just can't appreciate this look?

OP posts:
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5
NotACleverName · 03/09/2017 12:46

I prefer the thick eyebrows look to the heavily plucked/no eyebrows thing that was in fashion a while ago.

My eyebrows have never really recovered from the 90s pluck 'em as thin as sperm thing. That makes me sad.

Appraiser · 03/09/2017 14:12

My eyebrows have never really recovered from the 90s pluck 'em as thin as sperm thing. That makes me sad.

Mine neither @NotACleverName Sad I met my DM for lunch this week and she brought some old pictures to show my dd's. One was from when I was 16 and my eyebrows are non-existent! I asked her why she allowed me to do it but she just shrugged and said she'd done the same as it was the "thing" at the time. We've both never had thick eyebrows since.

squoosh · 03/09/2017 14:19

I like the strong brow look that's in fashion nowadays. Although only the ones that look natural. Dense jet black eyebrows with sharp right angles flatter no one. Skinny 90s brows looked awful.

squoosh · 03/09/2017 14:20

If your eyebrows are in need of a boost get yourself a bottle of black jamaican castor oil and massage a few drops in to your eyebrows every night. It's really helped mine.

Appraiser · 03/09/2017 14:23

Will try that @Squoosh I've now refrained from plucking them at all. I leave them to their own devices and my beautician sorts them out with a shape and tint once a month.

lasttimeround · 03/09/2017 14:25

Have not read the thread but I think the contouring highlighting stuff works really well in photos - but in real life where you see different angles and have different light it just looks like 'oh she contoured'.
I guess young women today mainly want to look good in pics on social media.

Polliver · 03/09/2017 14:35

Don't forget the bad old days of the 90s. I remember over plucked brows, frosted pink or brown lipstick that made everyone's teeth look yellow, eye pencil on the waterline, blue mascara, ridiculous shimmery bronzer that just made you looked both glittery and jaundiced...I could go on

Theresnonamesleft · 03/09/2017 15:25

At least with the rainbow makeup of the 80's, and the over plucked brows of the 90's you still looked like you. Yea you might look back now and cringe but you look like you.
Unlike these sharpie browed, contoured heavily girls today. In 20 years time they will look at the old pics with their kids and maybe their grandkids and will be asked mum/nan who is that?

Twelvety · 03/09/2017 15:40

Also with 80s\90s makeup, did you really wear it everyday? For school and work?

SkylarFalls · 03/09/2017 19:48

I remember reading about contouring in the Jackie magazine in the 70's, it isn't new but it died out for a reason

Yeah my mum had a whole dressing table of 70s white shimmer highlighter and blushers etc that she got flogged at make-up parties! It was never a day look though, dito later on the big pink 80s eye-shadow, those were all ocassional evening looks.

We used to do OTT 80s make up and hair round each others houses for fun, we didn't wear it out and about every day though

Tazerface · 03/09/2017 20:00

I enjoy make up too but I just can't get on board with these trends that make pretty teenagers look like middle aged drag queens. And the posing - dear lord, the stroking of the face while looking coyly at the camera, the pout.

I feel shitty even thinking that because I don't like to judge. But I clearly am. I like a done up look sometimes but the overdrawn lips and false lashes plus drawn on brows are always there.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 03/09/2017 20:19

I used to like Miss Selfridge lipsticks in the 80's. They had such cool names.

Iron Lady (metallic lilac) Madonnas Reddy, Copperknob. I'm sure there were others I just don't remember them.

Ttbb · 03/09/2017 20:19

If you are wearing make up and people can tell that you are wearing make up then you have done it wrong. As I once read somewhere on the internet the point of make up is to enhance your features not to create new ones that weren't there before

Cheesymonster · 03/09/2017 20:22

I agree heavy make up can look great in photos but downright bizarre face to face. I think I do a pretty good job of (subtly) filling in my brows, liner, mascara and a little bit of blusher but in photos I look like a toe.

StrangeLookingParasite · 03/09/2017 23:12

For lots of girls their teenage years aren't their beautiful years.

Mine certainly weren't.

Polliver · 04/09/2017 19:40

@Ttbb as a lover of red lipstick, i disagree. Why shouldn't make up be used to make a statement? To do it your way all the time would be boring, especially on nights out

Anditstartsagain · 04/09/2017 19:46

I have my eyebrows tattood as per the current trend for full brows they always look great imo.

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 04/09/2017 19:54

Iron Lady . Looked as if you'd held your lips under the cold tap for an hour.

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 04/09/2017 19:55

Did anyone else turn their hair orange with Sun-In then crimp for extra crispiness?

Polliver · 04/09/2017 19:58

@SchnitzelVonKrumm god I'd forgotten about sun in. Terrible stuff. I can still smell it

willdoitinaminute · 04/09/2017 19:58

My teenage nieces are talented artists and managed to get my DS12 to agree to being 'sculptured'. I have to say he made a stunning woman, the only give away was his football shirt. They did a fantastic job and he certainly didn't look like a drag queen. Unfortunately not all young women have their talent for shading and blending.

Anatidae · 04/09/2017 20:02

The best thing about the wiggly brows one was the picture, quite seriously labelled 'normal brow' they had as a contrast. It looked like something out of the rocky horror picture show.

Leave your fucking eyebrows alone...

Anatidae · 04/09/2017 20:06

Contouring is a technique for still photos - it just looks bizarre in real life

DeadGood · 04/09/2017 20:11

"Dh daughter does that thing where she has wings on here eye lids"

"Dd wings hers eyes her eyeliner is like a marker pen"

Winged eyeliner is a pretty classic look, it hasn't really gone out of style for over 50 years.

DeadGood · 04/09/2017 20:19

"For lots of girls their teenage years aren't their beautiful years. Far from it...

...I think that people have always tutted over women's fashions and this is just another example of that."

Agree with both of these sentiments squoosh