The popularity of 'exotic' make-up

IntroductionMake-up, as a way to enhance or alter the appearance or features of the face or fragrance and texture of the body, is now gaining an increasing popularity among people all over the world ranging from young to old, and female to male. Since there is s need, there is a way. People started making-up thousands years ago. The well-known Egyptian Queen Cleopatra may leave you an impression of black eyeliner and green eyeshadow, which is a strong evidence of how womn did make-up 5000 years ago.

However, the trend of make-up keeps changing according to the process of globalization, the reshape of idea on beauty and the development of cosmetics. This article is going to discuss the heated trend as well as the reasons of pursuing 'exotic' outlooks as a global phenomemon. Exotic make-up is about taking over make-up trends that explicitly takes over cultural practices and semiotics in order to index 'other cultures'.

This article is going to illustrate the popularity of people's pursuits on exotic make-up by analyzing it's characteristics, possible reasons, and the influence. The article is devided into three chapters: chapter 1 is about the current of Make-up online and offline; chapter 2 is the analyses and findings on why exotic Make-up is popular among people; and chapter three draws our attention on the influence that exotic make-up brings to social and cultural changes.

The urrent Trend of exotic Make-up 

In this chapter, we are going to find out the current trend of Make-up from both online and offline.According to idea ofare ing network society which is(Castells, 1996)widely spread of online mass medias provides people  platforms  make-up tutorials, which scauses the wild thriving of make-up YouTubers and eauty Vloggers.  makeup styles from different races and regions are also popular with makeup lovers a the world, which produces a need of exotic makeup tutorials. 

A famous makeup YouTuber named Wenwen Fitzgerald compares how Asian and Western makeup look different. As she mentions in the video, Asian makeup pursues a natural and  outlook, while Western makeup emphasizes the sense of contour and health. The differences exist in every part of the makeup process. 

For example, the foundation of Asian make-up is slightly brighter than the original skin color, on the contrary, Western make-up uses a darker shade to fake a tan; for the concealer, Asian makeup matches the concealer shade with foundation concealing dark circles and blemishes, Western makeup contours the face shape and highlights high points;

when it comes the the eyebrows, Asian style keeps the brows one shade lighter than the hair without harsh shape, but Western makeup fits the brows to the raising brow bones shaped with dark shades; and for the eyes, Asian makeup needs double eye lid stickers to fake or broaden the eye sockets which does not apply to the born eye sockets of Westerners. There  possibilit that this YouTuber has some stereotypes over those two different makeup styles though, the positive comments and likes coming from different ethnic groups however prove that she is approbated.

Figure 8: Taylor says bye to her old reputation(s). @Wenwen Fitzgerald

Yialoon, a Chinese makeup tutor from Douyin app, posts  both tutorials of Asian make-up and Western makeup. One of her Western makeup video achieves 584.6 thousand likes whereas the Asian one gains 117 thousand likes only. It is interesting that her Western-style makeup videos attract five times more audiences than the other.

Figure 7: Memes like these may have started this weird phenomenon. @Yialoon

Picture 2: Yialoon's Western make-up is more popular than her Japanese make-up

An Asian makeup tutorials compilation on YouTube collects Asian-like makeup videos from a wide variety of , which stimulates the popularity of Asian style makeup around the world. The tutorials by an American make-up YouTuber called Elle Byrd are played by 3.7 million people, compared with other normal Western tutorials that she made, the exotic makeup wins an unexpected success.

Picture 3: Korean style make-up fom Elle is liked by more people

The The cosmetics industry also get inspaired by the popularity of exotic makeup, which accelerates the evolution of exploring foreign market and developing new products. Take foundation shades as an example, for the products reflecting skin colors perfectly represent  diversity, cosmetics companies locate themselves as global by promoting more shades in order to attract costumers.

The make-up brand of Rihanna, Fenty Beauty, sells foundation with 40 shades choices.However, the professional makeup brand MAC even has 60 shades for foundation.Despite of skin color, cosmetics companies also develop products like colored contact lens and double eyelid stickers which enable makeup users to exceed  limits and present themselves the way they want.

eason for Popularity

The popularity of exotic make-up is caused by various reasons. To begin with, there is no denying that celebrity influence plays an important role in the popularity of exotic make-up. When a person is interested in a culture or a pop star, he or she will imitate what the people in the cultural do and the way they do it. The most accessible way is to imitate the makeup and clothing.  

According to a survey by Li Ying, a professor of jewelry fashion design at Hanyang University in South Korea, two-thirds of foreign tourists who buy Korean cosmetics are affected by K-POP. As Wallerstein (2004) indicated, the world culture itself has a trend of gradually tightening and integrat, similarly, makeup cultures will go through the process of conflict, cognition and finally achieve the integration.

Apart from celebrities, the platform offered by mass media provides people with the access  various styles of makeup. Castells (1996) points out that with the rise of the network society, traditional communities are replaced by networks. By means of technological innovation, the thriving of social media platforms as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook as well as Twitter encourages makeup lovers from different regions and ethnic background to show their proficiency in the makeup field, which has aroused curiosity of audiences all over the world.

Besides, internationalization as well as globalization also play significant roles. At the current stage, globalization is in the process of accelerating, intensificating, deepening and broading. Information transfers freely. As a result, people are informed by new cultures and social phenomena, which enable them to get deeper into new cultures and new items. In this case, the attempt to having a different outlook shows how the interconnectedness of fashion styles and concepts of beaty becomes deeper and broader.

Another crucial factor affecting the popularity of exotic make-up is orientalism by which foreign things are considered interesting and attractive because of the fact that they are exotic. Taking the American beaty tutor Elle as  an example, her Korean style make-up videos reached an unexpected success because of the fact that Korean make-up style is considered foreign to her subscribers who are supposed to be American make-up lovers or people who are familiar with Western make-up style. Vice versa, the ideal subscribers of Yialoon are Chinese, so there is no denying that Western make-up is considered cool and special and win more likes.

When it comes to the cosmetics industry, developing and selling new products makes huge profits. Data suggests that with its brilliant content of marketing, the UK health and beauty industry is now worth £4bn, with sales of cosmetics increasing £55m from 2016-17 alone. In the US, the demand for beauty is even bigger, with the sector expected to rise from $80bn to a whopping $90bn by 2020. 

No brand has had a bigger impact on beauty in the last couple of years than Fenty. The company – which is owned by Rihanna – launched in 2017 with a 100% digital campaign, largely geared around Instagram and influencer content. Built on a ‘beauty for all’ concept, Fenty launched its foundation in 40 different shades, thereby setting the tone for its inclusive, body positive, and diverse marketing.  Supported by more choices and exquisite make-up production, make-up lovers are able to present themselves they way they want.

The Possible  on Social and Cultural Change

The popularity of exotic makeup has already caused and will go on causing plenty of changes in social and cultural scape. Firstly, it alters the idea of beauty, to be more specific, the definition of beauty will be more contended. Dark skin colors could be a trend, so do thin chinky eyes. Male and female have equal access to the makeup field. Every single persons fights for an equal platform against beauty discrimination and unfair cultural resources distribution (Fischer, 2014). They can be whoever they want by making-up.

Secondly, makeup brings people similarity together with dissimilarity. By doing makeup, people look quite same but also differ a lot all depending on themselves, which illustrates the concurrence of integration and diversification.

Thirdly, as an unavoidable result under the progress of globalization, the popularity of exotic make-up can describe how globalization is going to some degree. Appadurai (1996) points out that one of the cultural consequences of globalization is that local cultures will be affected by globalscapes. Cultures of fashion of one certain area will reshape according to the popularity of the exotic make-up style. 

Transnational, flexible, dynamic

To sum up, the popularity of 'exotic' makeup is affected by five most important factors, including celebrity influence, social media platforms, networking and globalization, orientalism and economics. With the rise of the network society and progress of globalization, people are engaged in access various cultural and physical resources.

Orientalism works psychologically, influencing people's idea of beauty. Moreover, economics stimulates the development of cosmetics industry which is led by the current beauty demand and also provides make-up lovers with make-up necessities. As Castells (1996) mentioned, nations under the wave of globalization will become more transnational, more flexible, more dynamic and less predictable.  a trend now and  probably will be change in the near future. 

Reference

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, culture & society, 7(2-3), 295-310.

Castells, Manuel (1996). The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Vol. I. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Fischer, T. (2014). Makeup, YouTube, and amateur media in the twenty-first century. University of Calgary: Undergraduate Film Journal, 3, 1-8.

Wallerstein, I. M. (2004). World-systems analysis: An introduction. Durham and London: Duke University Press.