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.

YABU to care about this stuff. That is not a normal level of attractiveness (not that anyone should care) they all look like drag queens! It’s a hyper sexualised look, copied from pornography. Awful. You couldn’t pay me to look like that.

Quit with faux outrage.

The question was how many women with this aesthestic are doctors and lawyers. Not many. Anyone with eyes who leaves the house every now and then knows that.

I’m with you op - although when I see this look, I never compare myself unfavourably to them. Imo, to ‘copy’ a look of the majority is incredibly insecure. I look how I want to & work with what I’ve been given & i’m happy with that. Celebrate individuality.

Get off sm for a bit and stop watching that kind of TV for a bit, it's clearly affecting your mind.

I had a manicure recently and one of these girls came and sat next to me, she was having an off day from being glam as her hair was unwashed and a bit matted, I could see the extensions, her hands were orange from the tan that was now just a tide mark on her face and she was having her fake nails sanded off to the grubby stumps they actually were. Smoke, mirrors and money is all it takes to look LI.

The look is just a fashion phase and in my opinion, those girls all look like they need a good wash.

you know the most recent love island winner has not only a degree but a masters?

It seems to be a quintessentially British thing( or Anglo-saxon). You don’t see the same amount of ‘‘em grooming in Europe. It’s all very, very natural.

I dislike that look too. It's all fake. Fake hair, fake lashes, no pubes, massive tits, also often fake, big lips, fake tan....I look back at previous eras and there are some real natural beauties who are more realistic and attractive. This current trend really isn't. Just my opinion.

It's quite possibly all that weird contour makeup technique.

Haven't read the whole thread sorry but you could try not watching it and it's ilk? I stopped buying magazines 15 yrs ago. They did not make me feel good about myself and I wasn't about to spend £400 on a blouse of £2-3k on a fairly run of the mill handbag. And that was just Grazia or similar not bloody Vogue. I considered myself a high earner but you'd have to be single with no mortgage and family income for that sort of expenditure on what was mostly polyester fast fashion.

Find more normal "windows" you'll be surprised at the change in perspective you will get.

You’ve not considered the generations of genetic engineering that goes into breeding for that Crufts aesthetic? Often to the detriment of the health of the breed?

Or seen the huge amount of preening and special diets that these celebrity dogs go through to achieve the look and to get ‘show ready’?

That's a good point, to be fur.

😂

I feel for you and I relate. I want to provide you with some compassion and empathy as a fellow female who also often feels the same pressures.

First of all, I think we need to acknowledge that this aesthetic that is often pushed by not only LoveIsland but other sh*tty programmes like Married At First Sight or whatever it is and the other vast array of vacuous reality TV shows that are spouted out these days - don't get me started on Social Media like Instagram. It IS a problem and I think we do need more diversity. I feel extremely sorry (and often outraged) on behalf of fellow females because female self-esteem will NEVER thrive in such an environment that we find ourselves in these days.

There absolutely is way too much emphasis on appearance and there's a privilege that comes with benefiting from the genetics lottery or having access to money that can afford endless beauty treatments.

Please don't feel inferior though - don't feel plain - instead focus more on what other qualities you bring that perhaps others don't - focus on your talents, your kindness, your quirks, other parts of your personality!

I have to agree - I think previous natural beauties are much better than this current aesthetic. Sophia Loren for example, she was curvy and promoted eating!

What I would tell people who feel less than, and where I live it needs to be pageant standard, is the main thing you need to actually focus on is teeth. If you are saving up for one thing, I was watching a team of doctors consult on makeovers and even the plastic surgeons and dermatologist agreed that veneers, teeth whitening or Invisalign make the most almost invisible difference to how you look. Don’t whiten them to that aggressive white though. It seems to work on a subconscious level. But find a dentist who specialises in natural results. Before you go down the route of having to constantly stick eyelashes on.

Not sure how old you are but last year I had an epiphany that our bodies are just a vessel for our personalities. It is no good looking like 'Love Island' if you haven't got much of a personality.

Being middle aged, that 'aesthetic' screams insecurity to me. A lot of effort is made to disguise the person's real features. To me it just looks like a mask - a porno inspired mask.

Try and remember what it's like when you fall in love: you become fixated on the colours in someone's eyes, or the shape of their jaw, or their hands. Men have the same process. Be proud to be an individual instead of a plastic that no one can tell apart from the others.
I always remember Jennifer Grey from dirty dancing: had her nose job and ruined her career because she was no longer unique, she just looked interchangeable like the others.

One is a GP, one is a solicitor. The rest are at/finished uni or in professional, well paid job roles.
Regardless, the comment was in response to the poster saying these women couldn’t hold a conversation on politics or whatever.
There is a lot of judgement and jealously on mumsnet when it comes to other women

...its literally lip, cheek, jaw fillers, veneers, false lashes, hair extensions. The noses are generally nose jobs.

I don't look at people with fake most things and think they are good looking - I think its a character flaw to want to be that fake. In an ideal world we would project on the outside what we are in the inside so its kind of saying these people are only interested in superficial things. Health and happiness is a much more attractive than fake bodies!

They look ridiculous. All fashions do when you look back.

They blend in on LI because they’ve all had something done to their face or body. It’s rare to be naturally drop dead gorgeous? I’ve only seen perhaps two people in my life who were visually breathtaking. I’m not saying a lot of people are not attractive, but model material? No.

Googled Bella and Gigi- Bella probably resorted to surgery as her sister is (imo) naturally beautiful. Bella looks frozen.

Step away from social media, it’s unhealthy.

You know intellectually that only a small percentage of people look like this (miniscule percentage without filters, plastic surgery and hours at the gym/hairdresser/makeup artist)... But you don't know it in your heart.
I'd suggest looking carefully at what media your consuming and consider cutting out social media, those kinds of TV show. Teach your subconscious a new normal and realise your normal and that's ok.

I honestly don't personally know anyone who thinks this looks good! It can look glamorous on an Instagram photo but in real life they look so fake and plastic.

There are very few people who look effortlessly that perfect. I'm not keen on that artificial look myself and am also too lazy to achieve it. However, from seeing videos of people doing their make up I would say that most of them look unremarkable without a heavy layer of make up and lots of beauty treatments like waxing contouring and eyebrows etc. It's not realistic at all.

I've just Googled 'who was the winner of 2023 Love Island', and she apparently graduated from the "university" of Bedfordshire. So perhaps not the most highly educated of professionals, really.