Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder

Red lips. Thick eyelashes. Rosy cheeks. Flawless skin.

One may think a woman having these features would be attractive. These characteristics, however, turn out to be a façade for it is cosmetics that improved the woman’s appearance.

While cosmetics are designed to enhance one’s beauty, over amplifying faces with makeup can actually put people at several disadvantages.

With the constant application of makeup, the chemicals within the products cause a range of unfavorable reactions including acne, clogged pores, dryness and allergies. Also, an accumulation of chemicals creates problems like irritation and inflammation, causing skin cells to break down.

Although these situations can be fixed with simple solutions, makeup can also cause long-term effects for an avid user.

According to www.medindia.net, the skin absorbs almost 5 pounds of chemicals into the body in a year by the daily usage of makeup.

The constant application of cosmetics is more hazardous than actually swallowing the chemicals in these products as they get absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

Foundations, concealing sticks and other cosmetic products also commonly contain petroleum through products like mineral oil, liquid paraffin, paraffin wax and petrolatum.

These take away from natural fats in the skin and can actually produce signs of aging.

With the procedure of removing makeup comes wrinkles because of the rubbing, tugging and pulling of the skin.

Despite these results, women are placed in a never-ending cycle of buying beauty products to cover up what they perceive as their own faults.

Because of the heavy influences of peers and mass media’s portrayal of an ideal female image, a negative thought of a woman’s true self appears.

The more a woman unpleasantly thinks about how she looks, it seems as though more makeup is placed onto her face.

From what is designed to simply improve the appearance of an individual, cosmetics can also make a person look repulsive and actually hinder a woman’s appearance.

Because cosmetics damage the way individuals look at and feel about their own bodies, they promote dishonesty, insecurity and pressures to look a certain way.

If people did not aim to have a face that displays perfection, 97 percent of women would not admit they have at least one “I hate my body” moment daily.

With 80 percent of women dissatisfied with their appearance according to a report by Your Guide to Women’s Issues, one could understand why women continuously buy cosmetic merchandise.

Establishing the belief that beauty can be bought with money, an estimated total of $7 billion a year is spent on cosmetic products by women in the United States according to the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

The cost of beauty, however, should be priceless.

By taking away the opportunity to present a person’s natural beauty, some get the notion people are developing a dependency on having an artificial mask to feel attractive.

People, instead, should learn to accept and love the skin they are in.

By displaying the comfort they have with themselves, perhaps others will feel the same and know that their natural features are beautiful too.