Why Do Women Wear Makeup?

This is an excerpt from an article that I contributed to in September 2019 for UpJourney. For the full Article click here.

Most women wear makeup because wearing makeup has become a subconscious expectation in society. Due to advertisements and magazines, women grow up seeing an unachievable beauty ideal that subconsciously teaches them that their appearance is not good enough. The solution to fix this 'problem' is to wear makeup. Most mainstream makeup brands' advertisements focus on pale, thin, traditionally beautiful women in order to make their consumers feel inadequate; when a brand's consumer feels inadequate the consumer is likely to subconsciously believe that buying the product will improve their appearance and make them "beautiful."

Makeup used to be worn by both men and women but became an accessory only for women in the nineteenth century when Queen Victoria made known her opinion that makeup was connected to vanity, femininity, and the devil. At that point in time, wearing very little makeup was in vogue. As time has progressed makeup trends have changed, but the idea that makeup is only for women has stayed the same.  

I have found that women, when asked why they wear makeup, generally respond in two ways. The first way is that wearing makeup makes them feel good and they like the way they look while wearing it. The second way is that they feel inadequate or don't like their appearance when not wearing makeup and therefore use makeup as a way to hide their insecurities.