Make-up abuse. (500 words-opinion piece)

Orange foundation, fake eyelashes, fake tan, nude lips, ‘perfect’ blond hair, thick black eyeliner, one-hair-thick eyebrows, and clumpy mascara. What have you done to our kids? They all look older by wrecking their faces with cheap, chemical-ridden makeup from a ridiculously young age.

The concept has hit teenage girls hard as they cover up spots with foundation, when eventually the spots get worse because of the products they use, so they put on even more and it goes around in a circle. I am ashamed of some people in my area who wear this entirely fake make up look because it gives the wrong impression. Not everyone in school slaps on the slap, but the people that do are getting make up banned for the people who wear it properly, as well as banned for themselves.

Role models such as Katie Price and Paris Hilton layer make-up on and are famous celebrities. This creates another reason to wear make-up as teens interpret that wearing lots of make-up makes you popular, and if you don’t, then you are sad. It’s intimidating too, in town and when I’m out, to see all the “popular” people wearing tons of make-up. It makes less confident people think that they have wear make-up too.

Make-up can really wreck skin, especially from a young age, giving you rashes, spots and eczema. Some people believe its ok to wear lots of slap if you wash it off every night and use good brands, however only a handful of people appear to do both. Being so ‘fake’ wrecks your hair too, as straw like hair is conceived from daily straightening, teasing and hair dye. Their hair becomes lifeless and doesn’t even react to a breeze because of the amount of hairspray they’ve used.

I am not implying that I am entirely against make-up, as I love to mess around and experiment with it, but there is a limit. I really think there should be a home-economics class in school but there isn’t. It would be good to teach girls to save up for better brands but use them less, instead of buying lots of cheap make-up, and the best ways of removing make up before bed and cleaning your face properly.

It makes young people look so much older, which isn’t always good as they would probably get served in bars or get in to night clubs if they wanted to, and people might mistake them for being tarts, and rowdy, drunken men might make a move on them, which is a great shame as underneath all the slap they are genuinely lovely, pretty, intelligent and funny girls.

I do hope that there is a way we can stop this, I would love to organize a way to take some people who don’t feel confident without make up or without looking orange, to get a professional makeover, where they could get tips on the best ways of choosing and applying foundation, and how to put on eyeliner and mascara properly and so on, as it would really boost their confidence and help them be more naturally beautiful, which I am sure they are under all that slap.

© anon.  09/11/2010