The Beauty Ideal - Articles - Zimbio

BEAUTY WARS: Skinny or scrawny? Fashion gets an ugly look at itself.

Fri, 5 Apr 2008 23:05:06 GMT

posted by Lazlo

Models Jen (size 12) and Marianne (size 0) squared off across the pond…and Jen’s the last woman standing. Probably because Jen ate breakfast.

As you might guess, I’m not a huge fan of those Who Wants To Make Me America’s Most Smartest Supermodel shows which pit skinny self-impressed morons against other skinny self-impressed morons, and which are judged by petty, sarcastic, self-enamored has-beens who hate every single contestant for being younger than they are.

I was, however, recently induced to watch season 2 of England’s Make Me A Supermodel, which featured model Jen Hunter, a gorgeous young mother who happens to hover somewhere around a size 12. The show’s producers (whose IQ’s are at least a standard deviation above any of the judges) let the judging panel, led by hosebeast Rachel Hunter, have their heads as far as insulting the “fat, lazy and greedy” Jen. The judges completely melted down as the popular vote put Jen through round after round, and English audiences got a front row view into the icy, hollow insides of Ms. Hunter and her evil minions. The result was that Jen’s size became her kryptonite to the weak, pasty horror of all the size 00 female contestants, who dropped like flies. Jen, eliminated after the swimsuit round, was nevertheless the last woman standing, as well as the first woman to walk into the lookbooks of Cape Model - a major modeling agency - in size 12 couture. While she continues to face prejudice in the industry regarding her size, she maintains both her her dignity and her bodyweight in stunning form.

Skinny wasn’t always the rage; the general preference has historically been for the women considered most beautiful to be voloptuous as an indication of good health and fertility. The fashion industry, which is in the business of selling clothes, not beauty or health, moved away from regular sized models to super skinny waifism in an effort to reduce the amount of attention that the models were diverting from the clothing. In other words, they didn’t look enough like hangers. Kate Moss resulted.

Even original supermodel Twiggy, known for impersonating a giraffe, is speaking up in defense of larger models.

“It’s very worrying,” Twiggy said in Los Angeles.
The 57-year-old pop icon has called on fashion magazines to ban unhealthily skinny models and for the modelling [sic] industry to be regulated.
Born Lesley Hornby, but given the nickname Twiggy for her reed-thin body, said she was naturally skinny when she revolutionised [sic] the fashion world in the late 1960s.
“When I was modelling through 16 to 20, when I got blamed for making kids want to be thin, I ate absolutely everything, but I was naturally skinny,” she said.
“I ate, but I had a really high metabolism.”
Today, many models, actresses and women in the public eye have lost large amounts of weight and Twiggy, without naming names, says it is easy to spot them.
“You get what I call the lollypop look,” she said.
“If somebody is not naturally slender, if their head is too big for their body, the chances are they are dieting too much.”
It is not just Hollywood’s young women that concern her, with Twiggy pointing to well-known actresses beyond their 20s who appear to be starving themselves.
“A lot of them aren’t girls,” Twiggy continued.
“They are women. You can’t believe somebody in their 30s and 40s would want to do that or go there.
“It’s incredible really.”

Europe has begun to reclaim fashion by insisting that clothing be designed for a larger range of sizes. As recently as last month, three models were fired during Milan’s fashion week for being too thin. This move needs to hop the pond and descend like a ton of bricks on the sort of people who would call Liv Tyler fat, post-haste.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Why The (Not So) Long Face? - why starlets all look the same

Wed, 6 Mar 2008 05:37:06 GMT

posted by Lazlo

Big, wide-set eyes. Round cheeks. Short, upturned noses. Pouty lips. Put it all together and what do you get?

A darling, adorable baby. Or a fame whoring media-crazed starlet.

It all depends on what you’re selling.

Hollywood, for example, is in the business of selling… well, everything. And nothing sells better than sex. After all, you wouldn’t want to buy a product-placed Pepsi sold by a troll, unless you’re a member of a small and, one would hope, anonymous fetish club. On the other hand, put that Pepsi in the hands of a bikini-clad “10″ lying on a tropical beach and presto - you’ve got yourself a market. But who decides exactly what makes a “10?” What kind of beauty sells best? Well, that’s all up to the advertising departments, which used to spend their days sifting and sorting through thousands of headshots and screen tests, looking for just the right combination of features - long eyelashes, big lips, angular chins and such. When they found the right combination, they poured their financial support behind that feature-blessed wannabe starlet, and bygod they stuck with her!

The starlet of today, however, faces an industry in which she is far more disposable (though less biodegradable) than her previous counterparts. Rather than fitting the project to the starlet, producers can just send the cast right on over to the nearest plastic surgeon to achieve the desired results. So what results do they consider desirable? Well, the results that leave the starlet looking most attractive to the widest range of people; in other words, results that resemble babyhood. Psychologists have long recognized that humans are innately hardwired to find certain features attractive, most particularly features reminiscent of a human baby. The smushed faces, large heads, long lashes, and smooth skin of an infant are no accident; they are designed to evoke feelings of attraction which help parents to bond with their children. Now plastic surgeons are attempting to re-create similar baby-like features in actresses and models, armed only with a scalpel, a syringe full of botulism, and a few pounds of “redistributed” fat.

BABY FACE

In 2006, Dr Martin Grundl, chair of applied psychology at the University of Regensburg in Germany, ran a study using computer-generated faces to find which features people found most attractive.

Women with high, wide foreheads were found more beautiful. Grundl says this is because we are attuned to prefer babylike features because they indicate youth and fertility.

“Given a set of female faces morphed with those of children, the test subjects were asked to indicate which version they found most attractive,” he says.

“The results show that childlike characteristics - large round eyes, a large curved forehead and a small, short nose and chin - can enhance attractiveness.

“Only very few (9.5 per cent) rated women with mature features as being most attractive. Most of the preferred female faces contained childlike proportions of 10 to 50 per cent.”

Actresses such as Charlize Theron and Helen Hunt and models Amber Valetta and Tyra Banks all have high foreheads.

Not only do these smushy, babyish features send a signal for attraction and attention; they also play well on screen. Faces so smushed-in that they all but disappear from the side cast very little shadow, allowing them to be easily filmed from several angels at once. They also provide the flattest, most basic canvas for the application of feature-enhancing makeup, which is why so many contemporary starlets are nearly unrecognizable when photographed without makeup. (High fashion models are the exception; they tend to have stronger facial features due to the fact that they work with professional lighting designers and relatively few poses, compared with actresses. Their trade off is that they have to have the body of a giraffe and a new career by the age of 22.)

But do we really want our sex symbols to go under a knife just so they’ll appeal to our inner pedophile?

Of course there are always exceptions, but take notice of some of the most famous faces in Hollywood, then decide for yourself if babier is really better. Personally, we hope adulthood comes back into fashion and soon, because the babyface thing is really starting to creep us out.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Best of Sephora-Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask

Tue, 17 Sep 2008 16:01:38 GMT

posted by caramelsweet6

Every year, Sephora announces its “Best Of” products ranging from skincare to gifts. One of the most popular products in this “Best Of Sephora” series is Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask($52). I’ve heard several raves on this product so I decided to buy the product and test it out myself.

Here’s what it is: “It’s a frothy mask that release oxygen into the skin, so your complexion is instantly brighter, fresher, and younger-looking.”

It’s formulated to deliver oxygen, Vitamin C, antioxidants, and moisture to give your face that extra glow.

My review:

After using this product, I was amazed on how fresh my skin felt. It works very fast and foams up as soon as it touches the skin. It did a good job brightening my complexion giving my skin life again. I now use it twice a week and I’m amazed on how gentle it is on the face. I feel like I just came from the spa everytime I use it. I give it a 5/5. No wonder it’s a “Best of Sephora” product. Good job Bliss!

Best of Sephora-Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask is brought to you by http://www.hotbeautyhealth.com.

BEAUTY WARS - How To Make A Pretty Penny

Wed, 27 Mar 2008 04:59:24 GMT

posted by Lazlo

‘Deal Or No Deal’ suitcase models enjoy a hefty paycheck.

Who says women don’t earn as much money as men? Oh, right. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Average pay gap by gender according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005

Well, not to worry ladies. Sure, you might be facing an extra rough couple of years financially, but take heart! There is always a way to boost your income right up into (or at least near) the men's bracket… just get pretty!

While it is true that women continue to earn on average about 30% less money than men in comparable positions, there are still a few fields in which women are the top moneymakers. Unfortunately for most of us, there’s a catch. Those rare fields in which women make more money on average than men are centered around women’s physical appearance, beauty industries like modeling and (dare we say it?) sex work.

Today’s case in point is NBC’s Deal or No Deal, which features models standing on the stage and occasionally opening a briefcase. Paparazzi kingpin TMZ recently conducted an impromptu interview with Deal model Claudia Jordan, who confirmed that she and her co-models earn a walloping six figures for their appearances on the show. Of course that’s peanuts to what host Howie Mandel makes, but it sure beats your average soccer moms’ meager salary.

So if you want to close that wage gap, get thee to a plastic surgeon!

The downside, of course, is that you’ll already need to be rich to afford the surgery and any resulting medical mishaps. And once you’ve squeezed in, sucked out, inflated, and tightened everything you can, you won’t look like yourself any more (but you will look like every other desperate chickiboo hoping to cash in). And no one will ever take your opinions seriously again. And you’ll have to remove more and more clothing in order to garner a pay raise. And you will still never earn as much dinero as the guy who owns the magazine that publishes your photo, or the guy who owns the station that broadcasts your image. And the same people who make money off of your looks will feel justified in referring to you as a “bitch” regardless of your actual personality (yeah, we’re talking to you Harvey).

But hey, it’s a small price to pay for “equality,” right?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Kerastase Ciment Thermique - Heat Protection Without The Hassle

Tue, 10 Sep 2008 15:32:25 GMT

posted by giannig

With massive popularity of heat styling tools, especially hair straighteners it is becoming more and more important to protect your hair from the extreme heat that hair straighteners, curling tongs and hairdryers extert on your hair. No matter how good the tools you use are - any extreme heat will sooner or later have a damaging effect on your hair. Causing the hair to split or breaking and making the colour of your hair fade.

I so have decided to look at a hrat protection cream that has proved to be mighty popular in our Hair Salon. So what is this product and what does it do. Well, it’s Kerastase Ciment Thermique. Basically it is a Thermo-cosmetic reconstructing milk which reinforces weakened hair - which is often the result of constant straightening, blowdrying and colouring of the hair. Activated by heat, Ciment Thermique covers the hair fibre adding a layer of protection and moisture to the hair. The hair is left firm, supple and strengthened with added shine. The best thing about Kerastase Ciment Thermique is that one application of the cream before styling your hair lasts for 3-4 washes, so there is no need to apply every time you style you hair in the morning.

ShareThis