How often has your purchase of a beauty product or service been motivated because you felt good about how you look?
Stay with me- this is possible! Imagine looking in the mirror, and thinking, “my lips look luscious! I’d like a new color for them! Maybe something honey or jelly- I want to show these lips off!”
What are you connecting with in this scenario?
More often than not, a beauty purchase or service is likely motivated by the opposite emotions. “My ____ looks terrible, what can I do to make it look better?”
Think about 3 or 4 of your recent purchases related to your looks. Makeup, hair care, skin care, aesthetic services, medical beauty… Did the feeling that motivated that purchase have to do with I will feel bad/worse if I don’t make this purchase? Did the thing you were purchasing have to do with feeling bad about an aspect of yourself or your looks?
How much does feeling bad about how you look cost you?
… the business of beauty thrives on nasty business practices. You can’t sell cover-up if people like their natural skin; you can’t sell lip fillers without making someone feel that their lips aren’t full enough. It’s advantageous for advertisers to break down consumers’ self-esteem, make people focus on their “flaws,” so that these same advertisers can promise to rebuild that self-esteem with the shiny and expensive products they’re pushing on you.” ~ Quinta Brunson, She Memes Well
There are lots of ways we have found to alter the way that we look. From physical things done to the face, body and hair to ways of changing the color on the face, body and hair. It isn’t innately wrong or bad to experiment with looking different than you would without these products and procedures. And, changing up one’s looks is so much more fun when it is motivated by feelings of interest, pleasure, curiosity, and love.
We’ll continue to work on shifting how we feel about our physical selves in our weekly groups. For today, bring awareness to the emotions that drive your purchases and your decisions around changing how you look.
