To find beauty treatments a bit cringe now

[SueSuddio]

For years I've seen the beauty standard rise and rise, do you think we've reached peak?

I don't understand how and why people have the time and money to pay for it all - Botox and fillers are now mainstream, eyebrows now need laminating or tinting, nails are now expensive gels, lashes need extending, blah blah blah, all on top of necessaries like hair cuts / dye.

Now we've kind of peaked & it's got a bit excessive, does anyone else find these looks a bit cringe now? It's not my money or my life, but I can't help but think what a waste of time and money.

I know live and let live but I can't help to take an interest because as a woman I'm a target for these treatments too.

I have never done tattooed eyebrows or eyelash extensions but I always make sure I take my usual makeup with me on holiday and that they are relatively full so there isn't any danger they would run out half way during the holiday (as I may not be able to replenish easily).. I would squash everything in the clear airport makeup bags and use dh's allowance ad well. Would pay for check in luggage too if it's not too expensive so I don't need to worry

I dunno about you but my dh takes a lot of pictures of me on holiday. I want to look my best or at least not worse than my usual self. I imagine eyebrows and lash extensions would make you look your best without doing makeup (a lot of
women don't want to do makeup while on holiday or perhaps they don't have much luggage allowance or they are going out for dinner somewhere lovely). My makeup routine is 7 minutes so it doesn't take much time and we rarely go to very fancy restaurants on holiday that need dressing up..

I often look back on photos from my holidays and I don't want to think- oh I don't look so nice in that photo. Eyebrows and lash extensions is just like permament brow powder and mascara..I don't much care for brows and lashes tbh, my focus is skin so I wear highlighter and blush and full base, and my eyes are just a simple line and lid tint with subtle mascara. Plus a shit load of primer and setting spray and powder cos my face eats makeup lol..

I think the thick, powder-brows trend is definitely over. I see very few women with scary brows now. Also the really fake eyelashes look seems much less popular.

When I was in my 20s, most young women had the teeth they were born to have, save for orthodontics. Nowadays, the beauty standard for most young women is to have perfect, white teeth. I have had my teeth whitened and I cringe a bit when I look at photos of my yellowish teeth when I was younger. But no-one noticed at the time, nor the amalgam fillings I used to have as pretty much everyone had one or 2.

I’m in my 40s and have a team of 25-28 year old women at work. Literally none of them have big eyelashes or eyebrows or veneers. I don’t know where you’re all seeing this homogeneity.

Maybe you just want to claim it so you can feel superior. When in reality no generation is that homogeneous.

I’m live and let live about it as it’s none of my business, but I can’t help but think that, on young women, it doesn’t actually look that good and makes them look older even.

I am willing to accept that it might be a case of confirmation bias and we only see the over-done, ‘bad’ cases of botox and filler on young skin, but i have a feeling it’s more than that and it really is generally an ageing look when you’re young.

Luckily I am unprofessional and an idiot so can continue getting my nails done 💅

Absolutely agree. I wear make up every day unless I'm staying at home. I have my hair trimmed every 4 weeks and professionally coloured every 8 weeks. If I didn't it would be straggly, flat and a combination of mousy brown and grey. Really ageing. I started having BIAB nails in January. They are beautiful and unbreakable and I absolutely love them. I go for short and classy. I'm 60 this year so inch long nails with plastic bits stuck on aren't for me. I keep my eyebrows tidy. I would never ever have anything injected into my face

PHEW 😁😁

I have 3 kids in around that age bracket (slightly younger). Over the years, I've had probably thousands of their friends and peers stream through the house, from primary school through now (university and post-grad), not to mention that many of my friends have children around the same age. It's true that the young woman are often less scruffy than we were at that age, and spend more time on skincare, but I can't think of even one that has had any obvious enhancements, beyond orthodontia and maybe hair stuff (both of which we most certainly had done when I was that age).

Exactly @CertainUncertainthese threads so often just become an unpleasant coven of judging - so far, by my reckoning - the young, the thick, the fat, and the poor.

Solid work, ladies! So proud 👌

We had to save 70k to buy a 2 bed flat.. I was 26 then in 2019 and I remember telling myself I couldn't buy charlotte tilbury makeup which I really wanted until I saved x amount for the deposit.. That particular contour wand I wanted was £29. I bought clothes from Dorothy perkins or monsoon outlet or charity shops and had my hair cut at a salon for £30 once a year. Did all this help me save £70k..no it was having a dh with a london mum who let us live with her..

I am guessing these beauty treatments cost a lot more but probably not 70k. I started to buy expensive makeup during the pandemic cos we couldn't go anywhere and I thought what the hell. Now buying cheaper makeup (Korean and also drugstore favourites from revlon, bourjois and nyx I find on amazon) with only a few premium products (setting spray, powder, charlotte tilbury highlighter and a chanel highlighter stick) cos I am having a baby.. it does help during maternity leave but long term kids cost so much that I am not sure this would make the world of difference.

I dislike the look but people spending their cash keeps the economy going

This reminds me of a trip to Liverpool a couple of years ago. I couldn’t believe how dressed up and glam the women were - dresses, heels, clutch bags, hair done, full make-up, tanned etc. and they smelled incredible. I think it’s nice that there’s variety across the country, though I do prefer to dress more casually myself. Least of all because I can’t imagine how costly it is to have a whole separate going out wardrobe of heels, dresses and bags, on top of all the extra grooming, hair extensions etc. I actually don’t know how so many young people seem to afford this? Is it because they live at home?

I dunno, between the ages of 16 and 25 I spent huge amounts of time, effort and most of money on looking like this (variously) with further iterations in between. Wasn't paying anyone to inject stuff into my face but, oh my god, the plucking!

My parents used to say I was trying so hard to be different exactly the same as my friends. Sums it up!

This what I came to say!

I have light Botox every six months. Apart from that, I don’t subscribe to the fashion/look the OP has described. I don’t wear any make up, apart from some mascara and a good moisturiser, on a daily basis. Having Botox is the reason I am happy to do that, as I really like the way my skin looks (plus prescription strength tret that also helps with that).

No-one has noticed, including my own mother, but people often comment that I am “looking well” in the first month or so after it kicks in.

It actually took me years to realise that nearly everyone I am friends with has Botox - it just never came up in conversation and I hadn’t realised, although I did think I seemed to be aging much more noticeably than most of them! None of them have that “look” in the slightest. Another friend has a tiny amount of lip filler, as her top lip was thinning with age - I wouldn’t have known unless she told me, it’s really subtle but she feels good about it so obviously thinks it’s worth it.

I’m completely unapologetic about the Botox, I like the way my skin looks. I am also happy to have a great hairdresser, and I like staying slim as I feel healthy and like the way clothes look on me when I am slimmer.

The young women who are into the lashes and brows presumably feel the same, and that’s fine. It’s not my style, and it’s not my teen DDs, but is certainly isn’t on my list of things to feel judgey about.

You could save around £6k - that's £6k you don't have to ask someone else.

Although you may know loads of woemn who have Botox it is actually rather rare still across the uk as a whole - just in case anyone thinks “oh it’s normal so there is no reason I should be left out”

And I am from up north - but clearly the wrong part of up north because I don’t recognise the stereotypes being touted here

I tend to backpack 2 months at a time in Asia. Don't want to be lugging makeup around ( assume I'm the one who was considered "sad" to my SPM so I didn't need to worry about makeup lo. Have to take moisturizer though as greatest majority of it sold in Asia has whitening agents in it and I'm pale enough lol

I find it surprising that so many twenty something women are having lip fillers and other “ tweakments”
Either this generation have self esteem issues fuelled by SM or too much disposable income, I’ve no idea
I think Au naturel looks far more beautiful.
i’m 60, with decent skin im happy in
Never used tretinoin, retinol etc
Less is more.

And on the other side, a way for people to demonstrate to others that they have money

A lot of the time though it the women who have the least amount of money that get the most stuff done

Wow reminds me of my teens I had dark lip liner and purple eyeshadow as well as dodge cheap dangky earrings

I really loved watching her on screen. She was beautiful and really stood out because she didn't look identical to everyone else and her facial expressions were so authentic because she wasn't botoxed to the max.

one final observation- if someone mentioned that they had work done I would say “oh I would never have guessed “ because it’s politer than anything else - so don’t trust the feedback people give you

Not everyone is that polite, you obviously haven’t met my mother 😂

Well perhaps that observation is based more on knowing what friends have had done? Quite a few of mine have very subtle treatments that I never would have guessed.

@uncomfortablydumb60 Are you really patting yourself on the back for never having used tretinoin? I mean, it's face cream, not a facelift.