Makeup and Cosmetics

Egyptian Cosmetic Palettes

by Paul Roberts

Going Under the Knife: Examining Cosmetic Surgery

by Tyler Carson

forthcoming in Journal of Liberty and Society, 2012

The popularization of cosmetic surgery, particularly on women’s bodies, in Western cultures has initiated an academic... more The popularization of cosmetic surgery, particularly on women’s bodies, in Western cultures has initiated an academic discourse that identifies and critiques the social harms of this recent phenomenon. From this discourse has emerged a debate around whether some or all forms of cosmetic surgeries should be banned in Canada. Using a bioethical framework that observes the fact of reasonable pluralism and recognizes the diverse range of reasonable moral comprehensive doctrines, I posit that a liberal democracy cannot legitimately ban or restrict cosmetic surgery. In this short paper, I provide a brief exegesis of Rawls’ political conception of justice, utilizing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to substantiate my claim that a liberal democracy must refrain from choosing one comprehensive doctrine over another. Instead, the state must respect the fact of reasonable pluralism and therefore must provide a political and legal framework that allows each person’s comprehensive doctrine to be realized. I also address the legitimate concerns raised by feminist and other scholars who argue that societal constructions of femininity coerce women into desiring these surgeries. I ultimately argue that this critique approaches cosmetic surgery, as a bioethical question, from the wrong level of analysis; it evaluates the morality and social reasons for cosmetic surgery. In summary, I assert that a liberal democracy must resist engaging in these so-called debates around “the bioethics of everyday life” and instead focus on providing policies and laws that uphold a political conception of justice that does not impose a moral comprehensive doctrine onto the individual.

Becoming something else: Cosmetic consumption and excess.

by Sharon D. Lloyd

Abstract: 2nd Global Conference: Beauty: Exploring Critical Issues (September 2012: Mansfield College, Oxford; United Kingdom)

The term ‘sploshing’ is a contemporary form of sexual fetishism where a person becomes aroused when substances are... more The term ‘sploshing’ is a contemporary form of sexual fetishism where a person becomes aroused when substances are deliberately and generously applied to the naked skin, predominantly the face, or to the clothes people are wearing. These substances tend to be food based, but the ritualistic application is not far removed from the transformation that occurs when creating the made-up face and body. While historically the use of cosmetics has attracted attention for many reasons - including ritualistic and honorific, the context, like sploshing, has also been sexual. This touches on Georges Bataille’s theory of sexuality and excess, in particular, the “unassimilable waste products of the individual body, of society, of thought”. My analysis in this paper will therefore focus on contemporary visual texts that explore excessive cosmetic application to the face and body as instances of edifying and also breaking normative feminine narratives, through the application of make-up as a daily practice, and the editorial fashion image and fashion film.

By exploring the beauty image as a public form of sploshing, specifically the ways in which the excessive cosmetic application to the face and body are represented within the fashion industry, I will consider how each image as text embodies ideals of the carnivalesque by incorporating theories of the grotesque and the unruly. While Sandra Lee Bartky’s assertion that the ‘art’ of make-up’ is attributed to a woman’s effort to master feminine body discipline, and gives little rein to self-expression, I will utilize Mary Russo’s assertion that “The grotesque body is open, extended, protruding, (it is the) secreting body, the body of becoming, process and change” to posit that the characters embodied through excessive beauty practices are subversive and work to restructure the normative tales of female subjectivity.

Keywords: beauty, film, identity, female grotesques, fashion, feminine body, cosmetics, excess.

Slap! Cosmetic excess.

by Sharon D. Lloyd

Abstract: Beauty: The Face in Subjectivity, Culture and Art (April 2012: Southampton Solent University, UK)

“We're living in a time when people of all persuasions have become bolder than ever about the ways they choose to... more “We're living in a time when people of all persuasions have become bolder than ever about the ways they choose to express themselves: with a colourful palette of possibilities, You are the Artist, You are your own Subject, and no matter how fearfully you begin, you become fearless in the process.”

The 2011 press release by MAC Cosmetics proposed that through art and by way of make-up women are now able to express themselves freely using the act of excessively masking their facial features. The irony here is that women have long been cautioned about the inappropriateness of cosmetic excess, and to do so has previously meant to transgress a sanctioned code of performed femininity. This is a code that is defined in terms of the restrictions imposed on the female body – it’s clothing, movements, sounds and appearance. By giving the art of the application of make-up a more noble purpose than to achieve instant personal gratification, make-up has become a significant mode of representing the self. Associating itself with artists such as Marilyn Minter and Cindy Sherman, MAC cosmetics has highlighted the ambiguities created by the symbolic associations between performed femininity and the ‘image’ projected by the artist. Conversely the media coverage and critical discourses devised in response to women wearing excessive make-up exposes ‘the extent to which a woman's body is not allowed to be private: how a woman in public is seen as community property; and how the way she looks is still considered perfectly proper subject for discourse and criticism’. Ultimately the desire to be cosmetically excessive, ‘to slap it on’ has thrown into question what is traditionally considered beautiful, allowing ’beauty’ to operate beyond conventional archetypes of what is considered to be rationale and acceptable.

Line it up | Desenvolvimento de adesivos para aplicação de delineador

by Hana Luzia

Co-authored with Agnaldo Silva, Júlia Maciel Mendes, Júnior Souza e Maria Gabriela Fonseca.

Orientação do Prof. Fábio Campos / Grupo de estudo "Técnicas de Geração e Seleção de Alternativas".

O briefing do produto delimitou a criação de um novo cosmético que agregasse tecnologia e diversão, deixando de ser... more O briefing do produto delimitou a criação de um novo cosmético que agregasse tecnologia e diversão, deixando de ser apenas um produto de beleza. Porém, com base na pesquisa com o usuário, percebe-se a dificuldade das mulheres em usar o delineador líquido. Por falta de habilidade e/ou experiência, a aplicação é interrompida ou refeita várias vezes. Assim, a maioria das mulheres entrevistadas afirmou não usar delineadores líquidos por não conseguir aplicar o produto satisfatoriamente.
Devido a esse problema, não criamos um novo cosmético e sim um aprimoramento de um produto já conhecido no mercado, através de uma nova tecnologia de aplicação na qual é usada uma ferramenta simples e descartável: adesivo para pálpebra que funciona como molde para a aplicação do delineador. A diversão é garantida pelas diversas opções de formatos dos adesivos, resultando em desenhos variados e diversificando o dia-dia do usuário. A aplicação fácil e rápida também gera satisfação e diversão. Assim, aproveita-se a consciência do consumidor dos fins a que o produto se aplica e agrega-se confiança, buscando popularizar o uso do delineador entre as mulheres.

COSMETIC RECONSTRUCTION OF FACE

by DR.ABHITOSH DEBATA

JOURNAL OF DRIEMS 2100,VOL.2 ,MARCH 2011

‘Rita Hayworth gave good face’.

by Sharon D. Lloyd

Abstract: International Conference: Fashion Tales: Exploring Critical Issues (June 2012: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Milan)

Fashion film offers a unique opportunity to innovate and evolve the fashioned image, while the burgeoning emphasis on... more Fashion film offers a unique opportunity to innovate and evolve the fashioned image, while the burgeoning emphasis on the avant-garde suggests that the focus within fashion film itself is indicative of shifting definitions of performed femininity and identity, one where the negotiation of cultural norms of beauty are shaped by mass media and are therefore limited. Using an aesthetic that ‘elevates abstraction over narrative’, fashion film devised as a way to grab social media attention has developed into a popular medium for designers and artists alike to open up discursive spaces for fashion expression. It is here that the appropriation of cosmetic application is providing a significant contribution to hypermodern negotiation of identity and gender.

By discussing the contribution these atmospheric short videos have made to the way in which the body generates meaning in film and fashion, this paper seeks to uncover how the shift towards cosmetics in film is used as a vehicle to address gendered difference, performance and spectacle. This form of ‘cosmetic storytelling’ focuses on theatrical performance, as well as on representations of the cosmetic body in film and fashion. We know instantly what Madonna meant when she informed us that “Rita Hayworth gave good face”, so by presenting an analysis of some of the most influential current representations of the cosmetic body in film, which viewed together begin to form a ‘collective mythology’, a critical reflection of the shifting relationships between fashion, cosmetics and feminine ideals can be made.

Focusing on cosmetic imaginings used to manifest various representations of the face and body, imaginings that often that verge on the grotesque, otherworldly and monstrous, within cosmetic film there is nothing considered ‘beautiful’, natural or feminine to be found. And yet, the excessive use of make-up and cosmetically applied materials used within Gareth Pugh’s ‘Make-up-a-thon’, Lernert and Sander’s ‘Natural Beauty’ and Ellis Faas ‘A Family Affair’ provides a unique opportunity to explore notions of beauty because of the abandonment of traditional bodily construction. Like the use of fashion, the emphasis on the cosmetic body in film offers the potential to present ways to recreate the self, marking the body as individual and suggesting other ways of being.

Keywords: performance, beauty, film, identity, female grotesques, fashion, femininity, cosmetics

"Oltre la pelle. I cosmetici e il loro uso"

by Michelle Laughran

Published in _Storia d'Italia: Annali 19. La moda_ (Turin: Einaudi, 2003)

Cosmetics use in Italy from ancient times to the twentieth century. Cosmetics use in Italy from ancient times to the twentieth century.

"History of Fashion from Head to Toe: Cosmetics from Ancient Times to the Present Day"

by Michelle Laughran

Presented at Saint Joseph's College, 2003

A general paper for a lay audience about the gendered use of cosmetics in Western society over time. A general paper for a lay audience about the gendered use of cosmetics in Western society over time.

"Make-Up as Understructure: Renaissance Cosmetics as Renaissance Self-Fashioning"

by Michelle Laughran

Presented at the Costume Society of America, Region 1 Annual Meeting, 2003

This paper argues that the process of “self-fashioning” in Renaissance Italy encouraged the use of cosmetics. ... more This paper argues that the process of “self-fashioning” in Renaissance Italy encouraged the use of cosmetics.  The end result of this process will be the subsequent diffusion of cosmetics as a kind of essential “understructure” because of Italy’s role as an arbiter of taste in Renaissance Europe.

"'A Man Must Not Embelish Himself like a Woman: The Body and Gender in Renaissance Cosmetics"

by Michelle Laughran

Presented at the 15th Annual Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Miami, 2006

The introduction of cosmetics into the Renaissance fashion system was more than simply a straightforward... more The introduction of cosmetics into the Renaissance fashion system was more than simply a straightforward socio-economic indicator in terms only of direct financial investment in fashion.  Instead, socio-economic status was communicated by more than just expensive materials; it INCARNATED the very conceptions of health and character, both of which were supposed to be products of a noble complexion and both of which varied depending upon one's gender.  As a result, overt cosmetics' use would become more socially acceptable by women than by men.

Making-up Myra: Killer blondes, beauty and the Myra Hindley look

by Sharon D. Lloyd

Abstract: 1st Global Conference: Beauty: Exploring Critical Issues (September 2011: Mansfield College, Oxford; United Kingdom)

Since Marilyn Monroe, (and perhaps the advent of peroxide) the femme fatale has been increasingly displayed as a... more Since Marilyn Monroe, (and perhaps the advent of peroxide) the femme fatale has been increasingly displayed as a blonde siren. But the blonde as a killer and female grotesque can be an effective agent of cultural criticism and social change. Seen as glamorous and seductive, revered on film stars and models, and considered by Alfred Hitchcock as, “a symbol of the heroine”, blonde is not the colour that sits comfortably within the stereotypical image of killers. The Myra Hindley image of the peroxide blonde disturbs more than what she was party to, and those who are not aware of what she was part of can be enthralled by the picture alone. It is by any standards, good or bad, an icon. Marilyn and Myra have become part of a mythology, evoking desire and derision, that has generated not so much reverence and awe as fanatical obsession – we hero-worship Marilyn, we demonise Myra. Both are equally regarded as morally bankrupt and therefore societal deviants. Possibly what is most disturbing about Hindley and Monroe is that they are constructed, and that it is their very artifice that is held accountable.

To investigate the subversive potential of artificial cosmetic application this paper will propose that the interpretation of discredited made up women is a possible site of positive transgression of the norms of femininity. By adopting an obvious cosmetic enhancement of blondeness that is associated with criminality and the idea of the female grotesque, women have refused the limitations imposed on their bodies and embraced the political and ideologically powerful possibilities such visible deviant transgressions offer. Subsequently while the female fashioned presence has traditionally been viewed as the object of the male gaze, contemporary spectacles of transgressive women open up a discursive space for the female gaze and for female desire towards the ‘other’.

Keywords: appearance, beauty, cosmetics, identity, make-up, otherness, mythology, transgression, female grotesques

Organising the Cosmos and Destroying Monsters

by Sharon D. Lloyd

Abstract: 2nd Global Conference: Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues (September 2010: Oxford; United Kingdom)

Levi-Strauss’s aesthetic concern that the cosmetic mask is capable of ‘organising the Cosmos, destroying monsters and... more Levi-Strauss’s aesthetic concern that the cosmetic mask is capable of ‘organising the Cosmos, destroying monsters and introducing the arts of civilisation’ is used as the basis of this paper which seeks to decode the contemporary practice of make-up through examining the use of experimental application in (fashion) photography and catwalk performance as cultural text. In doing so, the paper will suggest that it is Charles Baudelaire’s two primary considerations of beauty, that of the eternal and the ephemeral, that reveal the crucial role of cosmetics in constructing new notions of femininity and gender. While the ostensible function of make-up is to conceal flaws and beautify the skin through colour and texture, it is also used to represent women as a kind of merchandise, or objectified spectacle, as suggested by De Grazia and Furlough. Contemporary manipulation of surface appearances to represent and mediate new notions of identity has meant that our understanding of the use of make-up is becoming more complicated since it has also contributed to the construction of identity, and no longer its falsification by offering a new language through which new demands, concerns and desires can be articulated. Making-up has become one of the tangible ways identity can be confirmed, signifying De Beauvoir’s modern ungendered identity to some and a revised female identity to others.

Examining the representational strategies make-up artists are using to negotiate between old feminine roles of identity and the new, and the ideology that underlies such strategies: this paper will outline the collaboration and creativity of make-up artists for fashion photograph and fashion catwalk, which is finding new forms of self expression surrounding the ideological concept of beauty. Lastly this paper will suggest that while fashion is transitory, it is contemporary make up that is constantly striving to become something novel and therefore make-up is in the position to rival fashion and become the new hallmark of modernity.
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Key Words: Appearance, beauty, cosmetics, fashion, identity, make-up, photography.

“Mains peintes et menton brûlé” : la parure tatouée des femmes thraces

by Luc Renaut

Parures et artifices, le corps exposé dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine, dir. Lydie Bodiou, Florence Gherchanoc, Valérie Huet, Véronique Mehl, Paris : L’Harmattan, 2011, pp. 191-216.

Dans cette étude sont réunies et analysées (avec le double outillage de la recontextualisation et de la comparaison)... more Dans cette étude sont réunies et analysées (avec le double outillage de la recontextualisation et de la comparaison) toutes les sources anciennes relatives au tatouage des femmes thraces (de l’époque classique jusqu’à l’époque romaine). Les peintres des vases grecs des Ve et IVe siècles reproduisent un répertoire constitué de motifs simples (points, tirets, chevrons) répétés et concaténés. Ce répertoire est comparable à celui d’autres traditions de tatouage féminin attestées autour du bassin Méditerranéen depuis une haute époque (Afrique du Nord, Basse-Nubie, arrière-pays égyptien, Arabie, steppe syrienne).
Pour plusieurs auteurs de l’époque hellénistique, le tatouage des femmes thraces, avant d’être une parure, était une flétrissure. Cette étiologie fantaisiste procède d’une vision ethnocentrée du tatouage.
À l’époque romaine, l’affirmation d’Hérodote selon laquelle les Thraces jugeaient noble d’être tatoué et vil de ne pas l’être est reprise, amplifiée, déformée et parasitée (en particulier par des notices relatives à la peinture corporelle des Bretons). Dion Chrysostome en vient en imaginer que les rois thraces pourraient avoir été tatoués. Il n’en est rien. Les femmes thraces tatouées vendues comme esclaves dans l’Athènes classique venaient de petites communautés rurales soumises aux déprédations des élites guerrières autochtones et/ou étrangères. Ces élites, étroitement liées au monde gréco-macédonien puis romain, ne se tatouaient pas. Des configurations analogues (élites non tatouées) sont attestées en Haute-Égypte (au Moyen-Empire), aux îles Hawaï et aux îles Marquises au moment des premiers contacts.

Recherches sur le henné antique

by Luc Renaut

Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Chicago), 68 (3) 2009, pp. 193-212.

Abstract : Abstract : http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00575481

Trust me I’m a regulator: the (in) adequacy of EU Legislative instruments for three nanotechnology categories (Food, Cosmetics & Medicine), in M.E.A. Goodwin/ B.J. Koops/ R.E. Leenes (eds.), Dimensions of Technology Regulation, Wolf Legal Publishing, pp. 205-235.

by Joel DSilva

Van Calster G, Bowman D & D’Silva J (2010), Trust me I’m a regulator: the (in) adequacy of EU Legislative instruments for three nanotechnology categories (Food, Cosmetics & Medicine), M.E.A. Goodwin/ B.J. Koops/ R.E. Leenes (eds.), Dimensions of Technology Regulation, Wolf Legal Publishing, pp. 205-235.

‘Performing Post-feminist Identities: Gender, Costume and Transformation in Teen Cinema'

by Sarah Gilligan

In Mel Waters (ed.) Women on Screen: Feminism and Femininity in Visual Culture. Palgrave March 2011

more http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=358164

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Screen-Feminism-Femininity-Culture/dp/0230229654/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289051546&sr=1-1