The beauty industry’s biggest con

[Mumoftwo52]

I truly believe that one of the beauty industry’s biggest cons is making women believe they need to wear foundation. Whenever I say this to friends they reply ‘oh but I definitely need foundation for discolouration / spots’ but SO many women wear foundation when they have perfectly lovely skin. I just don’t get it?

Watch celeb / model / influencer skincare/makeup routines and they always use foundation. Even if you have the odd spot or red patch, doesn’t it look better to use concealer? I think foundation often looks cakey and really obvious on the skin.

Obviously people can and should use what they like on their face, but it saddens me to think people feel like they need to wear foundation when their skin is perfectly fine!

I think the biggest con in the beauty industry is expensive 'anti-ageing' creams,

Most of the beauty industry is a con.

This

I don’t know as I really need foundation. ☹️

sure it's only a con if they force you to buy it ? 🤷 no one forcing you to buy it or put in on your face. you are allowed to go make up free and wear nothing. I personally love foundation no one influencing me to wear it. I love trying different ones and experimenting as with all types. If you actually following the trends now it's lighter foudnations or the more glowy look. trinnys best seller is BFF which is a light foundation slash tinted cream that adapts to your skin tone. I wear foundation to make my skin look better and not as grey

The biggest con is that filler makes you look younger. No, filler makes you look older because it shouts out "I'm so old I need filler".

I grew up in the 90s when we were heavily encouraged to wear foundation from a young age, and many of us would get the wrong shade so we were rocking the orange look.

Of course no one’s being forced - but it has become the norm to wear it and I’d bet the vast majority don’t need to.

so did I but the difference was then we didn't know what else was out there only max factor pan stick or the elizabeth Armen pan robbed from your mammy. it was trend. trends are around for ever. like the thin eyebrows etc. its not something that has been around only recently. it's been around for 100.tears from wearing red lip every day of the 5os to the harsh Eyeshadow of the eighties. I would actually say now it more normal to wear less. where past generations wouldn't have stepped outside the door with out a full face of make up at 9am in morning.
when I was younger I had severe acne and wore lots of make up to try and cover it up. to make me feel better note because i was forced too. my own mother wore barely any make up. nowadays people are more educated and treatments more available people cam treat it better and better cover up avaliable if they want

Right, and my issue is not about women with severe acne wearing foundation. It’s with the millions of women who have lovely skin and still wear foundation because they have been conditioned to believe they need to. I literally just watched a beautiful celeb doing a makeup routine on Vogue’s YT channel and she puts foundation on her lovely, fair, freckly skin and it totally baffles me.

But maybe her fair, freckly skin makes her feel insecure? Yes we should all be able to love ourselves exactly as we are, but let's be realistic, many don't. If people want to do small things to help them feel better, I don't think they should feel shamed into not because someone else doesn't want them to do it.

I use a BB cream because it makes me feel more confident. I wear foundation if I'm doing a full face for a special occasion because it makes me feel good.

I’m not trying to shame the individuals who wear foundation. I’m shaming the beauty industry for selling us a lie that we need to cover our natural skin with a layer of coloured liquid to look good.

In the last 20 years , foundations have come on in leaps and bounds. I love the newer serum ones that give you a light go. Definitely events out my skin and have had good results from the likes of No7 which are non - expensive.
I feel like the biggest con is women feeling that they have to have injectables. So not the botox, fillers themselves as such, more the pressure to get procedures.

People think they need to wear it because so many other people wear it and so the look of foundation is normalised and that’s what they think they “should” look like. I stand next to friends for photos and look like a ghost in the photos (or a beetroot face!) but strangely, in real life, I get lots of compliments on my lovely healthy natural looking skin. Go figure!

edited = not people.. women, of course. It’s always just women.

Beauty industry : thin equals pretty.

but why do you allow it to annoy you ? if its a you tube channel its more likely its her job and is being paid for it..she could be washing it off after it for all you know. and like with tv and social media you don't have to watch it. there is an off button..just wear what you like and don't let it bother you what anyone else says. I bounce between light glow make up to heavy make up or none at all depending on occasion and how I feel.
it's like my mother on law telling me I have no need to dye my grey hair. it's beautiful I don't agree I detest my grey hair and pay for it to be coloured. I love it when I leave the hairdrasrs with nice coloured hair and a blowdry. I choose to do that no influencer etc force's me to and it makes me feel.good

I definitely need foundation as I have acne and scars. But I do agree that not everyone needs it. I'd love to have half-decent skin so that I could avoid foundation, as it it so time-consuming to apply. It's also time-consuming to find a suitable one that doesn't cost fifty quid, and each time I find one that suits me, it gets discontinued and I'm back on the hunt again.

the beauty industry is a commercial business and has been for over a 100 years it's there to make money. it's up to you where you spend your money

Agree. I wear makeup everyday but hardly ever wear foundation. I don’t really get the point of it. If I want to cover something then I’ll just use a bit of concealer. Generally, I’ve learned my skin look better without foundation, and I’ve tried lots. Including some v. expensive ones!

The entire beauty industry is a complete con.
Let's just imagine it didn't exist at all, how exactly would the lives of women be worse ?

Really? Because I don't think the beauty industry gives a crap about what you think, but I'd bet that individual does. Who is going to feel shamed? An entire industry or the end user? If you don't want to shame someone, don't target them. Don't use them as examples about what annoys you.

I stopped wearing foundation 15 years ago.
I'm very happy with this.
My skin is not perfect, but it looks fine.

I have perfectly smooth and lovely skin, never had a spot problem in my life but I definitely NEED foundation because my face is literally covered in uneven skin tone, broken blood vessels on my cheeks and sun/age spots. I spend a minimum of £35 - £40 for a bottle of foundation and there’s some really beautiful, glowy, amazing coverage ones on the market. Foundation is a holy grail IMO

I think some of the comments here prove the beauty industry has done it's job.

If everyone just went au natural then no one would feel self conscious about their capillaries, age spots, uneven skin tone. We have been conditioned to believe that this is unattractive and therefore feel less confident when our skin doesn't meet this ideal. We may be putting on the foundation for us and no one else, but only because of social conditioning for our entire lives making us feel less than happy without it.

I agree with you, OP. It's not that we're forced to wear it, but that we're brainwashed that we need it. I always hated rubbing it into my skin - it feels so counter-intuitive to put stuff into your pores. I gave it up years ago.
DS has a lovely GF who is always caked with foundation. The other day I saw her without any makeup and... her skin is beautiful. I have no idea why she wears foundation. Except that it's accepted that good grooming requires it.
My biggest bugbear is shoes with a narrow toe box, which is pretty much all of them. Our toes should be the widest part of our foot; well, certainly for most of us. If you look at indigenous people who don't wear shoes you'll see what I mean. I live in Vivobarefoots (and similar) and my feet aren't squashed with bunions coming any more. But yes. Foundation! No thanks.

This ^