Uneassy Podcast

The podcast discusses the concept of makeup therapy and its history. It explores how different cultures and time periods viewed makeup and its significance. The hosts discuss their personal opinions on makeup therapy and its impact on mental health and self-image. They also mention how social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram play a role in promoting makeup therapy. The podcast includes quotes from individuals who share their experiences with makeup and its effects on their self-esteem. Overall, the podcast raises questions about the positive and negative aspects of makeup therapy. And we're gonna get the chance to like chop it up and stuff cool that's great I love this I don't know how to start it Hi everybody okay I'm sorry I wasn't okay so welcome to the NSA podcast today's topic is makeup therapy my special guest for today is sit back hi guys hello so this is gonna be a quick podcast about just makeup therapy what you think about it we'll dive into the history first and then we'll get into questions I didn't even think makeup therapy was a thing I'm not gonna lie I didn't think so either but then I did like while I was doing the research I was like oh I get it I was so I was so negative about it I was like these people are lying doesn't help anything probably hurts everyone I could see that for sure right I'm excited to hear so let's get into the history of makeup so ancient Egypt used makeup as a sign of welcome power to feel the God so like eyeliner the blue blue eyeshadow the stunning like red lips the classic Cleopatra oh yeah they they were like we're the Queen's we're the God and so the Romans they viewed natural beauty as moral God goodness so like they didn't care about makeup they were like if you wore makeup you're like they were like you're a bad person you're evil surprise surprise okay so in the 1800s makeup was again a show of power and status white men wigs white women wigs so she made a resurgence of course but in the form of like white face makeup and like powder will in the 1900s painting one space again became more vulgar came more like it became more seen as like sexual than it became then it wasn't like beauty oh and the 1900s yeah to associate with prostitution so it's just going back and forth oh yeah whatever people feel at that certain time is definitely how it's viewed so then we get into 1920s with like Hollywood glimmer and glamour very much like beautiful red lip mold like you know what I mean yeah I like the Marilyn Monroe look almost yeah exactly uh-huh and then as soon as we hit the 1960s it was seen as like a cultural movement so now we're talking about no makeup because none like I'm fighting for my rights and that's the statement right so that was the 1960s that was like the women's movement moving into the 70s so it like they were they saw makeup at that point as more like a way to force them in the patriarchy mm-hmm I see okay so being free of that makeup definitely the power and interesting I feel like it's kind of opposite maybe maybe it's coming back because I feel so empowered when I have my makeup on and that's and that's our so so as you say that do you feel that that's maybe no longer the case we're getting into something else like do you think the ideals are still current from some of those times or maybe something different I don't know I think that in my personal opinion I feel like we've moved so much forward in terms of makeup as like an art form I mean like the type of makeup that we see nowadays I feel like you wouldn't find anybody in the 1920s like that like drag full makeup like some of these people on tik-tok and stuff they have they do like full makeup looks with like paint and it's a whole art thing so it's hard to believe that's like confining them into a woman role when they're looking like a naked mole rat you know right I don't know if that's necessarily gonna dispower them however I do think that like the natural makeup look trend you know what I mean can have a harmful effect towards what women feel like they should look like of course and aspire to that's that's what I was that's what I thought more of right now is the the original idea of it being brought from patriarchal standpoint and the kind of women being like well now I can't go out the house with makeup because people are gonna think I'm trying to like do something right and instead it's like not to wear these giant lashes and be like I'm out on the town looking cute looking fly feeling gorgeous yeah and I think it's important to note that we're from California too I don't know how it'd be like in Alabama if I flew away with these lashes oh yeah well I'm sure many of the girlies would stand for it oh I'm sure me it probably depends on the area what the interpretation would be so where do you see makeup therapy the most I maybe because it's like oh I think it's a newer concept as of right now but where would you see it the most if you do see it um I don't see it very much on social media I think majorly where I see it would probably be like tick-tock or like Instagram's really good just like the younger people talking while they're putting on makeup and talking about how calming it is and doing it I feel a lot of people do it right before like events and stuff they're like put my makeup on with me makeup story time yes yes those like those makeup story times I initially so how I came to have this podcast is because during like when I watch tick-tock in the morning before I had to go to class like I'd see people being like here's my makeup therapy and they just talk about how like don't you don't need to meet expectations as a it's oh it's usually women it's usually what I'll say is is that and it's usually being like don't let men do this or have put a stance on relationships or stand on business but more but but as I was making this podcast and recently like literally before I got here one of the ones I saw was a caption of why do you do makeup and it was the sound was chattering and then they were doing makeup and it was silent you know what I mean so they're saying it just I guess I'm interpreting it they it gives them a clear of mind they like they feel comfortable like whatever worries they have it's just very silent yeah and I think I could definitely see that I feel like when I did a lot of makeup back in high school a lot of people asked why I would put on makeup every day and what I would tell them is like it's like my coffee in the morning it's like my warrior I like I put it on and I feel like I'm better able to tackle the day so I could definitely see why I would give that therapeutic kind of feel for sure so then do you feel like you are you don't know it but do you feel like you are unconsciously doing makeup therapy I think I think I might be unconsciously doing makeup therapy yeah yeah maybe maybe more so back them me yeah I would say that I would definitely say me too like I said when I like I started to there when I was like it's it's a form of like control like I like I'm like well all these things are happening in my life I can beat my face and like walk out the door and feel fine right that's what I'm gonna do so I want to I'm gonna share with you some quotes I've gathered from websites like helpful insight from photographic journalism and another blog called set your beauty standards about how they feel about makeup therapy and then I want to hear what you like think about it I'm ready okay so from photographic journalism on how makeup affects society Alice who's 21 says I do think that if I wasn't introduced to it so early on in life I wouldn't have become so obsessed with having the perfect face so and then Tasha it doesn't give the age but we'll just assume she's somewhere around that age range says I have always struggled with my skin so when I put makeup on it helps me make me feel more comfortable in my body and then this set your standards beauty article says it serves an aid in their anxiety and gives them a sense of control in a way to sit in their room and just de-stress like they were saying how they pour some wine put on a movie like light their room how they wanted and just go to town on their face so we hear that what do you what do you feel I mean I feel like for one I think covering the imperfections is a bad like thought to have in coming in to makeup for sure I do think that younger kids especially you know Jenna alpha right now as they're being introduced to the internet see all these influencers with makeup with this good skin and do believe that the normal and so maybe not so much leaning into makeup because I know that a lot of young people have leaned on to like the skincare routine train and trying to perfect how their face looks in that sense I do think that it can have some negative impacts I think for sure I think as a young individual I had a lot of blemishes on my face a lot of freckles I liked that my foundation could cover that and admittedly granted I looked as white as a goat so it definitely wasn't a better alternative and I think that's something you learn as you grow older it's like oh I thought this looked better on me this makeup looks better on me but I'm walking around looking like a clown so maybe this isn't so much better than my natural face mm-hmm but I do agree with the therapeutic as well because I think as an adult now I do make up less I still enjoy how my face looks I still enjoy how it looks without makeup and it's because I enjoy it without makeup that makeup comes so therapeutic to me right and then so like you when you hear that it's the mental health aspect it's the like almost like body image or not body image but like face face image of like oh I I don't like how my face looks so like here's how I'm gonna use makeup and what they said to me I was like well that makes sense but it's also kind of like negative right I think when I think that they're doing makeup therapy yeah to like make themselves look how they would like to look I'm unsure about how that helps their mental and they're like physical like self love right because now they see that it's achievable to fit that ideal body image or face shape that they want but they have to put this work into it first so it's not even an aspect of like I want to look like her and I don't it's I want to look like this and I can mm-hmm and therefore I think that's why that initial person is like now I'm addicted I keep doing it because you want to maintain that pretty face that you put your your work into so then do you think it also can have the social aspect with it as well like like like social media is so quick to like kind of influence us and how we look and think and and even just our peers around us too besides social media it's so quick to like influence how we you know but do you think that like their environment is something that could also be a part of that oh 1,000% and I think that part of the reason people are so drawn to makeup now and these skincare routines is because there's so many parasocial relationships on social media and people see these people who aren't real who have surgery to have makeup artists put makeup on their face every day even people who claim to be natural who are not obviously you're going to think that you're not natural and that you're not deserving because you weren't born with these inherent things I also think that it has a lot to do with economic status too because I think a lot of richer people are afforded this luxury of this privilege and in beauty being able to buy these expensive makeup products being able to buy these expensive skincare routines and surgeries and if you can't afford that you're going to be wanting to replicate it in ways that you can and it's not going to make the same result and it also might cause very harmful implications as well I'm so happy that you mentioned the economic part of it because I was when I was doing some of the research some of these research things said that there was a like that their economic status is what helped them to like kind of have this whether it was positive or negative effects with makeup their economic status really like depended on it because you know they'd be whether they'd be able to buy more right or not so let's go into a little bit more of the research and then we'll go right back sounds good so Sage Journal when they were doing their research they found that trend specifically emphasized both negative and positive effects with makeup confidence was a big benefit when they were making when they had people kind of use makeup more often but when it came to external factors uh-huh their families and their friends were like I don't know because just the culture around around it so they were like they kind of found that more detrimental which is again brings out the social circle kind of aspect of it um stringer link they launched a study with mostly people that didn't wear makeup had them wear makeup more frequently again and they said that self-image perception increased about 25% I thought it was so weird but I also was like well I mean if it's helping helping the girls out then you know right yeah exactly and so then we moved to like the National Library of Medicine they found a positive correlation between depression and use of makeup which again combats the last two right and then plus one found a positive correlation between makeup usage and self-image describing connections with family and friends saying that it was a way to deter from comments on their body as well as people that spent less money on makeup or more likely to be okay with their body interesting right so so the more makeup you buy the more crap you feel about your body right that's almost very counterproductive to what makeup is trying to do well yeah I like it's it's the way that all this that you could do these this research and the makeup aspect will always be no it's bad no it's good no people are confident no people are showing more depressive symptoms it's it's like very like kind of split but I think it's one of those things where it's like if you you're actively using makeup and you know why are you the reasons why you're using makeup I'm sure that it would boost the confidence that you need I would agree with that for sure so besides women ages of 18 to 25 that owns social media do you think any other specific populations are influenced by makeup therapy or makeup in general whether that be positive or negative I mean I definitely would say for both I think are like makeup as an artist such an expressive thing and so there's a lot of people that use it as a form of expression I mean I am not exactly sure that the competitions for art in terms of makeup because but I know that it is a thing it's a sport that people participate in and they put in a lot of into special effects makeup makeup for movies like that's a big form of makeup even though it's not the traditional makeup that we think of and like you know drag queens too are very connected with makeup and that's essential to their identity and how they portray their art form so I would say but I do think that there are some negative implications towards what these beauty standards are trying to do for other people I know that people younger than 18 a lot of children and young people are very influenced by makeup they want me I I recently in one of my classes like a lot of my classmates are talking about how busy Ulta has been getting like you can't go in without the drunk elephant thing I was gonna keep that one but no like people are in lines and lines for hours in this Sephora and according to my classmates it's primarily people like under 15 under 16 which is scary because I mean me personally even though I wore makeup back in high school I wasn't going to these name-brand like thinking that I needed to achieve something with this makeup to a certain price point oh yeah whenever these kids are getting this money I went to when I went to Ulta uh-huh that one time and I looked back and I saw a like a girl she couldn't have been like she may have been like early high school age maybe around middle school I saw her with Fenty in her bag and I was like oh wait where we get them where we get the money where'd we get where how did we get here I was like I don't know how she's gonna use this why is she using this right you feel she needs all this right go get lip gloss girl like if I dude if I was I practically had the Dollar Tree foundation paint right on my face I was in love with makeup I wasn't now that's not to demonize any younger people in doing that because I think that they feel a need to because these social media people are pushing that kind of image they want to look pretty they want to look older there's a big draw it'll be looking older but it's hard I mean doesn't I think makeup doesn't suit every like skin type or skin tone for that matter I mean makeups made to convince you that you can fit within one spectrum either oily or dry or darker and light and a lot of times they don't really reflect those in-betweens in the spectrum yeah that's why I that's also why I thought it was gonna be alive for a little bit because I as a darker woman when you go and it's 50 shades of beige ever since I in my whole 21 years of life I'm not expecting I'm not expecting black women to come on to social me and be like this is makeup therapy because a lot of times makeup was like this there's so many shades and there's not one for me so why am I bothering and it's a chore I mean you're suddenly having to look for this this perfect skin tone that they're convincing you somehow it doesn't exist when it like it's clearly your skin tone right I just okay so but on the flip side of that is like they half the reason why black women are using makeup therapy as a thing is to show other black women and men because there are there's a good majority of black men on there too that also do a lot of makeup makeup therapy to show that the whole black community that hey this is a product this works for us hey this is a product this works for us now you can use it yeah so it's beneficial I thought that I thought beneficial in that way and so when I didn't think it was gonna be that beneficial throughout I was like well no point another is so like okay I guess the community for sure so knowing that there are negative effects how would you how do you think you would go about finding a solution would you like preemptively find a solution try to like kind of maybe lessen the effects or would you find it for like afterwards like people are already affected and find it and like make a aftercare kind of thing for that I mean I do think that there's this big push online about like being so against makeup being anti makeup and like women are so much beautiful natural face but to a certain point I don't think women are just anybody in general is gonna listen we like makeup we like the art the reason there's such a long history of you talking about it all the way back to ancient Egypt is because we throughout society have have desired to do that I do think that it's just an aspect of a mindset right and how you feel about and the purpose of you doing it I think has shifted I I do think that we need to revert back to makeup as an art form as a meaning of expression and that doesn't always I I always tell this to people I think the natural makeup look I don't see a point to it I'm going to be angering a lot of people if it doesn't look like you have makeup on your face why'd you put so much time into putting makeup on your face right if I have makeup on my face I want people to see that I put time and effort into this art form I don't need them to see me as prettier than I was I don't need them to see my original aspect as uglier than it is it's just me expressing my art and my feelings to my face it's the same way that I would put on earrings or necklace it's to add to an outfit to add to what I'm trying to portray which shouldn't be involved in that like beauty aspect mm-hmm that's that's what I was thinking is like you know the quotes of like let's when did we stop putting on makeup let's put on makeup like right let's put that on right and it's not even because it doesn't necessarily have to be blue yellow pink like orange like it doesn't have to be crazy colors but like some something as far as you know somebody playing like black dots on their face and calling it a day is like yeah that's there's also the people that are like I'm gonna be the bad case of stripes and then I'm gonna walk to school like that and that's that's what I feel this day and that's and I want to put stripes on my face and not get looked at no I agree I think that yeah the art of makeup really needs to be emphasized mm-hmm and I just think that I mean the more that we put focuses on faces with makeup that are going towards this natural look and trying to obtain that it's just it's never gonna work out right is it it's actually I feel so bad when I watch tik-toks and people get on these tik-tok videos and they're like oh I'm so sorry I didn't have time to put on makeup or do anything to my face but I have to tell you guys there I wouldn't expect anybody to give me anything I wouldn't want you to put on a whole makeup routine just to be like hey guys so Walmart's having a sale that's like if I walked into your room and before I did and before I did I like did this walked into your rooms like hey let's go take out the trash and then like no exactly and I do think that these natural makeup looks they put a lot of time into making it look effortless when I think that within itself is just that the negative aspects that your research was discussed that's exactly what it is it's it's being like no makeup makeup and people are looking at me like well this is people what people are supposed to look like when they don't wear makeup well right is that my dark circles I look crazy I mean at the at the end of the day like you should never want to put on makeup to make your lashes longer to make your lips bigger right your face more shinier or less clear because that is an aspect of beauty you should go to makeup because you want your eyes to be blue or you want a weird rainbow on your cheek or to look like a clown that just came back after an after-party like that is me you you want to bring a joy to this thing that you're putting time into it is a hobby you don't like as much as I said earlier that it became a part of like a morning for me it's like it's also a hobby that I have interest in like trying to make that hobby into something that reflects my self-esteem my body image something that makes it about other people and the way they look at me just don't sit right with me no way no way well we're towards the end thank you guys so much for listening in on us thank you I hope you liked it have a good rest of your day guys I don't know if that's recording I wanted to make a comment before I was even if it didn't record you know my mom told me she was like do whatever you want and I was like mom that doesn't fucking help me I'm trying to see you like he turned off the fan actually now blowing right in my fucking face mm-hmm can you stop