THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY – THE BIRTH OF THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY
The 19th century and early 20th century came about and changed everything. This period of time is what set into stone the perennial quest for beauty in all women. During this time period of time, media and advertising were introduced to the world and the beauty industry was officially born. The media plagued women with insecurities about their hair colour, weight, body hair, skin colour, cellulite, and of course, eyelashes.
In the past, women darkened their eyelashes with everything from elderberries to resin, but mascara products weren’t used until the 20th century when Maybelline was founded. At the time, mascara was a new invention costing only ten cents and swept the whole nation off its feet. Women felt like they had found the answer to all their prayers. Even though many Christians considered makeup to be immoral, famous Hollywood actresses glamorized it and promised that you, too, would be able to get their sultry and sexy eyelashes if you just used the mascara they did.
Hundreds of more mascara products emerged during this time, making nonstop claims about its lengthening and volumizing effects. Since then, the quest for longer and fuller lashes has grown into a full-fledged beauty and pharmaceutical market. The eyelash obsession is just getting started and not going anywhere anytime soon. As Nancy LeWinter of the Huffington Post says “Five years ago, the lashes you had were the lashes you had and you threw mascara on. Today, you’re getting extensions, you’re using Latisse, we’ve got the whole area of obsession over eyelashes!” brought about created a fixation and obsession
SOUTH KOREA MAKES A VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD OF EYELASHES
The wonderful people of South Korea were the ones who invented and discovered the art of eyelash extensions. Korean beauticians were looking for a new and exciting way to enhance the attractiveness of females in their country as early as 2008. However, whether their discovery of eyelash extensions turned out to be for the better or for the worse is debatable.
This is the case because modern day perspectives on appearance are completely different from the perspectives of those who lived in the past. Although looking one’s best is still a very important concern for many individuals – males and females included – it suggests that our natural beauty isn’t good enough and it is something to be remedied with artificial methods. It is a classic case of: is it too much of a good thing?
The beauty industry already has a very strong grip on many women, creating unhealthy obsessions and fixations on every single part of the body imaginable. Although eyelash extensions can and do help instill a healthy sense of confidence in many women, the fact that we feel the desire to continue creating more and more beauty-enhancing techniques to look as perfect as possible begs the question: When will this ever end? Will we ever be completely satisfied with our looks or is it a futile quest that leads nowhere? And even if we are satisfied with lash extensions, what is the next thing that the media is going to tell us is wrong with us that we will need to spend time and energy working to fix again? In some cases, it is a never-ending battle.