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!

Not really. They would have to be ladled on to get anywhere near the SPF they claim to have.

This is nonsense - pan stick was very old-fashioned then and there were many more products available in the 90s. MAC had a major impact for younger/trendier customers.

Try working in a school where it is a constant battle to stop pupils as young as y8 coming in in a face full of make-up. It's sad

It depends on the foundation, so many people use the same one they've been using for years 'just because' they're used to it, but there are so many different levels of coverage, effects etc that a decent one suited to your skin imo makes a difference (although of course no make is essential).

I’m in my 40s and never worn foundation, only concealer for spots. I don’t like the tide line foundation can leave where the colour doesn’t match neck/chin. Or the feeling of it sitting on my skin.

I grew up in the 60s and my Mother always wore foundation. So it’s a flipping long ‘con’!

For me, I have days when I do and days when I don’t. It friends how made up I want to look. It’s not a con though. A con is when you are being tricked. The only con is a conscious decision.

@Housewife2010 a friend of mine is a dermatologist and he advises to use foundation with SP throughout the year but coupled with sunscreen during the summer months

Why not just good facial sunscreen though?

anyway….almost anything the ‘beauty industry’ flogs to women but not to men is likely a con.
On concealers/foundation for acne and rosacea (I’ve had the former and still get the latter) men are conned into thinking it’s unmanly of them to use these products…the flip side of sexism.

Why just foundation? Why not all make up? I've never worn any. Don't see the need. Why pretend my face is anything different? Men don't feel the need to wear a mask, why should women?

I'm not a looker by any means. I just think it's better to accept who we are, physically, and focus on being healthy instead of being pretty.

Creams in general. Do you really think there are different types of skin? Face cream, hand cream, body cream...

That you are worth it but the animals products are tested on aren’t. Also how many companies pretend they don’t test on animals but they actually do. Ie they might not test the finished product on animals but they pay others to test the components for them.

Does he recommend that to men as well @Woollygreymittens?

If we all stop and think about it men dont wear make up so why do women? Men have just as many dark spots, uneven skin tones etc. the beauty industry is a con because it tells women they have to do things themselves because they are not beautiful enough!

I think i look better with a bit of tinted moisturiser, mascara and lip gloss - but do I? I’ve been convinced I need it. Men don’t need to make their eyes ‘pop’ so why do I?

That glowing dewy complexion looks much better when it’s because of eating a great diet, not smoking or vaping, drinking very little alcohol, wearing spf, having a great skincare routine and good quality sleep instead of coming from a bottle or tube.

My skin has been a work in progress all my life and I’m also very wan looking and I’ve been very grateful for skincare and make up products. Recently I have tested not wearing my tinted moisturiser for a couple of weeks and my skin is responding really well - I think maybe even though I like wearing wearing it, it’s not the best for me.

Even though I wear light, expensive formulas, sheered out, it still settles, highlights my lines, highlights any dry patches (having potentially created said dry patches). makes me shiny, and blocks my pores. I am interested in getting used to what my natural face looks like (still wearing blusher, mascara and eyeliner though!). I guess it’s just about making sure your slap isn’t automatic, particularly if you’ve been doing the same thing for years. Even day to day people have different needs.

I've always adored make up. As a child in the late 70's I loved playing with my older sister's discarded make up. I've been lucky to have always had good skin and have never worn or been interested in a full coverage foundation. Tinted moisturisers and lighter foundations have been around for years. In the 80's I wore No 7. In the 90's I had Clinique Almost Make up tinted moisturiser and their Balanced Make up. A previous poster was talking about the "harsh" eyeshadow of the 80's. I don't remember the Miss Selfridge, No 7, Boots 17 or Biba eyeshadows I wore as being harsh. I've worn make up regularly for 40 years now & never felt I had to wear a heavy base. I always want a tinted moisturiser or light foundation to look like my natural skin on its best day - never to look like my skin wiith foundation on.
I'm also happy to be barefaced too.

Because of the pigment in foundations they do have excellent spf function. Anything with pigment performs better than a clear spf.

@1apenny2apenny yes, he wears sun protection every day with a facial tint BB type foundation

I wear make up once a year. I can't apply it properly. I've watched videos and everything and I just can't get it. I dermaplane monthly, use a serum and I use a cheap moisturiser most days

It wasnt were i lived - wasnt even available in the country to buy at the time, Pan stick was hugely popular as was Rimmel heather shimmer lipstick, we were limited at the time of the shops available to us and what they stocked. Some lucky girls bought Mac in our last year of school, but they only got it cause they went to the USA with the opera for a few days

There's the shame. Thought you weren't trying to shame people OP?

And there's targeting individuals. This is hardly women building up women.

Lots of foundations contain SPF. Only a low amount - often factor 15. But that's got to be one good thing surely?

No one needs makeup.

I can go many days without wearing make up at all.

However, sometimes I do like wearing foundation and eyeliner.

Same here. I rarely (like once a year) wear makeup.

I continually get compliments on my lovely skin - which is just average v pale skin with some sun damage spots.

Bizarrely I get these compliments from women who have exactly the same looking skin but believe theirs is awful and must be covered up.

I have absolutely no issue with wearing makeup as a fun or creative thing, it just makes me sad that so many women think they are too vile to appear in public without it.

Are we to have no fun or lightness in life ??? There was a post yesterday about consumerism and many seemed to think we should live in homes with only the bare basics, dress in sack-cloths and buy nothing beyond the very bare necessities. Now today it’s foundation - women have been wearing foundation in some form for many hundreds of years.

Wear it or don’t wear it. I wear a light foundation in winter, purely because I think I look better wearing it, actually I know it makes me look better. I know I’d still look fine without it also. Some people enjoy the whole process of getting up, getting dressed in clothes that look well on them, putting on make-up, spraying perfume, etc. Some people don’t.

Having said that, I do think a lot of people have become obsessed with having the ‘perfect flawless face’ purely because of social media and camera filters and influencers. They show perfectly flawless faces on screen but take away the filters and you’ll see the pores, lines, dark circles, etc. You won’t see flawless skin but you’ll see a face where it’s quite obvious that several products were used to present a flawless complexion on screen.

But overall, if you want to wear foundation, wear it. It’s not the biggest con on the beauty business at all.