Sick of the Love Island aesthetic

[Raspberryclouds]

Don't know what else to call it, and don't want to name names or post pictures of people as that's unfair but it's everywhere and makes me feel inadequate.
They've all got a tan, gleaming white teeth, microbladed eyebrows, mermaid hair (they never have short hair like me!)
Plump lips, false eyelashes, freckles, perfect cheekbones and perfect figures, flawless skin. Oh and all have these perfect tiny noses whereas mine is wide.
I know a lot of it is Instagram/filters but most of them look the same in reality.

I feel like some sort of potato in comparison because it seems that this is what's considered attractive. I live in Manchester city centre and there are ten a penny slim, statuesque stunning women with long flowing hair going on a night out.
I didn't think I was awful, but just feel so basic and unremarkable.
I can't afford to get consistent beauty treatments, eyelashes are expensive, I put a fake tan on myself but can't afford constant spray tans, constant teeth whitening and so on.
I need to learn to be happier with what I've got, but just feel so dull, does anyone else feel like this.

That's a shame you don't like your nose. I don't like mine much either tbh, but it's just a nose - it's the one I've got, and it's fine. It functions as a nose. It doesn't affect anything.

The Tango-tan look and trout pout will look soooo dated in a few years - the girls who are rocking that look now won’t be able to look back at photos of themselves without cringing!

I do keep fit etc. But I don't have the money to transform my face sadly.

TBH it takes serious time and money to look like that.
If you saw any of the LI girls with no fake tan, hair extensions, lash extensions, lip fillers and veneers I'm sure they would still be attractive but they wouldn 't look the way they do on TV.
Looking that way is a full time job and very expensive. It's their choice to commit to it but I'm willing to bet they won't be rocking that look in their 40s.

And Bella Hadid has gone through multiple procedures to look the way she does.

What is considered beautiful is driven by capitalism. All the girls who queued up for BBL surgery are now queueing up to get them removed.

All this is to say- don't pressure yourself to keep up. It will drive you insane and make you feel like shit.

I'm 28 and I just try to look the best I can within my own body type and natural features. I exercise, eat healthy food, wear clothes I like that flatter me and try and please myself first and foremost. I don't find the current trends beautiful- I much prefer looking at pictures of Liz Taylor.

The Love Island island aesthetic is only one step up from chav. It’s not a benchmark for beauty.

No, but you can do something about your confidence and happiness.

As others have said, anyone can look like this if you want to spend all your time and money on it. But damn why? For what it would cost in a year to keep on top of hair, nails, eyebrows, fashionable clothes, tan, etc let alone surgery, botox, cosmetic dentistry, I could do something amazing from my bucket list.

This is about you rather than them.

What do you like about yourself? Not just looks but personality/something that you are good at?

Don't waste your life comparing yourself unfavourably to others.

I spent my teens and twenty's believing that I didn't look good enough when in reality I was fine. I was way more attractive than I realised and women I always thought were stunning were very ordinary really.

By all means make the best of yourself, stay in shape, do your make up nice, dress in clothes you love, get a good hairstyle, but just ignore the love island look and be yourself.

Easier said than done I know, but that look will be dated in time anyway.

Some girls, probably early 30s, got on a train I was on last week. I had a carriage pretty much to myself and was sitting at a table.

There were six of them and they sat at the table across the aisle and also at my table.

They didn't cause me any offence or annoyance, as my first point.

But they looked exactly as you described, all identically so. The journey was long, and I looked a little closer.

Hair extensions, hair dye, time spend curling all that each day (I don't have that time, I work / play with my children), false nails, false lashes. Each of these things can be bought, though I'm personally against false lashes because of how they are made for 1p a pair in Thailand and similar, even though it looks nice. And as a side issue, my little boy in doing a drawing, pointed out that girls have longer lashes than boys. I took him to the mirror and pointed out that he had got that backwards, and that is exactly why women seek to lengthen theirs. This fallacy is perpetuated by cartoons aimed at the very young. We are drilling into them that women should have long lashes.

Anyway, to continue with these ladies. A lot of fake tan, plumped up lips, and a lot of make up. Looking closely at the faces, they had normal faces. I found myself imagining them without the hair and make up and sitting next to me ages 15 at school. Some had big hooked noses, like me. Some had small chins they possibly have a complex about. Some under all that make up were probably quite plain. All just like me. I felt really reassured.

But what I did wonder, is why as a society we women feel we have to do this to ourselves to look nice. That's the main issue for me.

though looks play a part, what I and I assume others, find attractive in another person is their way of being and their essence. It’s nice to look after yourself but you don’t need extreme measures

Moreover it's an aesthetic that feeds the beauty myth and affects people's mental health, both men and women. Women feel they're not pretty enough, and men feel they could never bag a girl like that. I think it's a feed-down from the porn aesthetic in some ways.

Most women don’t have the money to do the ‘love island look’ to a high standard, my friend gets false eyelashes put in and looks like she’s got two baby porcupine stuck into her eyes but it seems to make her happy.

That look is do not me whatsoever but I had expensive teeth whitening for my wedding. It didn’t last, I couldn’t give up red wine and black coffee for long 🤣

This is so true. I find it really quite depressing that so many women go for this look, who are they doing it for? It’s as if their only value is in a warped kind of sexuality rather than being wanted for their whole person

They look like Barbie dolls, and not at all like someone interesting.

If you were stuck in a lift with one, do you think you would have a conversation about politics, the arts, the climate crisis, what they do to be useful in their community?

Vacuous is the word, I think.

I know a young woman who goes for exactly that aesthetic, she would be lovely anyway, but spends an absolute fortune on her filler and plumpers, eyelashes, hair, nails etc. And yet she’s still not happy. The things that are wrong in her life can’t be fixed at a beauty salon. I know it’s partly a fashion thing and partly aspirational but also an attempt to control something in what is otherwise a bit of a chaotic life for her.

I always think the LI aesthetic is masking lack of confidence in their own appearances so they have to take steps (and spend a lot of money) to look like a LI clone. With money and time, you could look like that too. I don’t think it’s attractive at all though, the filled lips, micro bladed eyebrows, extensions look so fake and are rarely done well on the masses. I’d take someone with a natural look any day, even if they’re not traditionally beautiful.

Can someone post a photo of this look or name a celebrity that looks like this? I have most of the list but don’t think i look particularly “love island”-esque

@Raspberryclouds , there's nothing wrong with a wide nose. You have the right nose for your face.
Remember the cautionary tale of Jennifer Grey, or consider someone like Barbara Streisand - it's the non-standard nose that makes the face beautiful.

Viola Davis has a wide nose and is beautiful.

This is a ridiculous comment.
Dd and her friends favour this look- fake bake, lashes, extensions etc and are all intelligent young women. Most of them highly qualified and at university. Following fashion does not mean you are unintelligent or vacuous.
I thought that as a society, we’d on as women. Sad to see women judging others so harshly.

No more or less likely than getting a conversation like that with anyone. It’s not like you’re gifted intelligence in exchange for not fitting a particular aesthetic. Not putting emphasis on looks also covers not judging a book by its cover, surely?

OP, your confidence is something that you can work on, but it needs to come from within you, and shouldn’t be dependent upon tearing anyone else down. Not that you’re doing that, but a lot of the advice is suggesting you compare others unfavorably to yourself, which is the other side of the harmful coin to comparing yourself unfavorably to others. As cliche as it sounds, confidence does come within, and isn’t something you can build on a foundation dependent on comparisons to others.

The happiest women I know are quite plain and ordinary. The hot ones, by and large have the hardest time in relationships and dating. They attract too many knob heads and waste lots of time on them.

You do realise that all of this is fake?
and most don’t actually look good either, just very fake.
Watch some videos on catfish - most look very normal before they slap on the fakeness

Pink!

Shes 5'.4
Short hair
Athletic/strong built
Accepting and Confident in own skin
Positive

Her documentary on amazon is amazing and she's exactly the person I have my daughters watch and look up to so that they grow up not feeling like they have to be be carbon copies of the love island contestants.

I don't get the look at all but the people I know who look like it (and I know the look the op is referring too) are genuinely nice people who don't bitch about how others look

I don't have to get the look