The Internet (and yes, Kim Kardashian) has ushered in the golden age of beauty
A revolution of sorts has been taking place in the beauty industry over the past few years. Once relegated to behind-the-scenes action (whether in an average woman’s bathroom or in a celebrity’s dressing room), the rituals of hair, makeup and skincare are now being openly talked about, dissected, and celebrated–but it wasn’t always this way.
Growing up, the prevailing mentality in my household was that if I wore makeup at all it should be in such a way that nobody could tell. I didn’t have an older sister, and my mother didn’t own any makeup other than mascara, so I didn’t experiment with makeup until college–and even then, it was all very natural and discreet. The goal was to have my crush think I simply looked that way all the time, and to have anyone see me using an eyelash curler would be to destroy the social contract that women must look put together but not betray the fact that some effort went into it. However, that way of thinking is starting to fall by the wayside.
The shift first began in the fashion world: the stylists behind the celebrities on best-dressed lists began to step into the spotlight themselves. Suddenly it was not only accepted but de rigueur for celebrities to talk openly about their stylist(s) picking out their Oscars dresses for them. The public is now quite familiar with not only the work that goes into the behind-the-scenes struggle of making a glamorous red carpet look, but many are even familiar with the names of famous stylists such as Rachel Zoe and Kate Young.
Now the beauty world is catching up in much the same way. The only difference is that this shift in thinking is much more surprising in the beauty industry. We seem to have made a giant transition from “wear makeup in a way that it doesn’t look like makeup” to “proudly share every aspect of your beauty routine with the world.” Beauty fans, rejoice.
There are a few key players to thank for this trend. Beauty moguls like Sally Hershberger and Charlotte Tilbury are not shy about sharing their accomplishments. Hairstylist Hershberger recently told Into The Gloss, “I want to be the biggest in the industry… I’ve always given my ideas to everyone else. I met John Frieda and did his haircare line for 10 years. The Sheer Blonde, the Brilliant Brunette, all that stuff. I was the first one to come out with keratin at home. I was the first one to do the beach waves for Bumble and bumble.” If you thought that the genesis behind your favourite hairspray was strictly a bunch of people in lab coats, think again. Hershberger, and others like her, are dispelling that notion. They’re giving a name and a face to the talented people behind our favourite beauty products.
Hershberger also credits herself with changing the look of celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Courtney Love, and Hillary Clinton, among others. “When I was in my 20s, I got a call from Julia Roberts—‘Hey Sally, it’s Julie. Can you come over and cut my hair off? I’m sick of it.’ She was sick of being known for all that hair. So I cut it all off. After that, the press just kept calling me.” Hershberger is not just a hair stylist, she’s a trendsetter–and she knows it.
She’s not the only one embracing the spotlight. Iconic makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury has 510k Instagram followers and loves it: “My [Instagram] notifications are on all the time. I like to see what’s going on. You get a real high [from it]. I love social media and the way you can communicate directly with everybody; you can get such instant gratification. You get to see how much people love your photos. It’s fabulous.” Being able to directly reach out to her fans on that platform has enabled Tilbury to have a greater influence than ever. Sure, Tilbury has been a household name to industry members, but now she’s accessible to everyone.
Truly, the surge of recognition for beauty as a worthwhile hobby or even career in its own right (right up there with fashion) is largely due to the Internet. Blogs like Into The Gloss and The Coveteur are showcasing the honest, nitty-gritty details of celebrities’ beauty routines, right down to the drugstore mascara they use and the amount of time it takes them to get ready in the morning. It breaks the illusion that a model or actress simply wakes up looking like that, and makes it okay for the rest of us to admit that yes, we spend time transforming ourselves with makeup, and perhaps even enjoy it.
Other publications, like the newly launched Beauty Papers, are putting their own spin on the idea of beauty: showcasing it as something important, something that has cultural impact and meaning, something that should be discussed and celebrated. And then there’s countless other websites and blogs for women who are interested in beauty, from Jen Atkin’s hair blog Mane Addicts to Robin Black’s Beauty Is Boring.
Of course we can’t talk about the golden age of beauty without discussing the influence of social media as well. Celebrities like the Kardashians now regularly tag and thank their hair and makeup “glam squad” in addition to fashion designers and stylists in their Instagram posts, acknowledging the work that went into creating their beauty looks. Kim and Kylie regularly discuss their lengthy hair and makeup routines, admitting that part of their day can take up to four hours, and that’s a massive amount of honesty from a celebrity.
Kim Kardashian in particular has been extremely transparent about her 50-step makeup routine with fans, even allowing fans to come watch her beloved makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic do her makeup while explaining each step (provided, of course, they fork over the $300 entrance fee first). Dedivanovic has amassed a massive Instagram following himself, with 1.4 million followers and counting. Some fans at their master class paid $1,000 to take pictures with the makeup artist and his entourage, while others had flown in from other countries just to learn from him. “Mario and Kim have built a relationship as important to Kim as any of her others: a creative partnership that has outlasted marriages and scandals alike,” explains Arabelle Sicardi, who attended the master class. “Mario helped make her as much as Kanye helps create her with outfit choices and Kanye-approved collaborators.” Such collaborations may have existed between celebrities and their makeup artists in the past, but never to such a public degree.
Smoke and mirrors is no longer the name of the game when it comes to beauty. Sure, the no-makeup makeup look is still extremely popular, but the difference is that women are much more willing to say, “Yes, this is my no-makeup makeup look but these are the 20 products I used to achieve it.” We’re seeing the death of #iwokeuplikethis, and it’s an exciting time to be a beauty fan. There’s suddenly an endless source of places online where beauty lovers can revel in their shared interests without judgement and soak up knowledge, whether from celebrity makeup artists and hairstylists or indie beauty vloggers. The beauty world is no longer just for those peddling products and those who are dubbed “vain” or “insecure” enough to buy them.
Today’s beauty industry is for everyone.
 has ushered in the golden age of beauty&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-03-at-10.52.28-AM.png&description= A photo posted by Mario Dedivanovic (@makeupbymario) on Aug 1, 2015 at 2:33pm PDT
A revolution of sorts has been taking place in the beauty industry over the past few years. Once relegated to behind-the-scenes action (whether in an average woman’s bathroom or in a celebrity’s dressing room), the rituals of hair, makeup and skincare are now being openly talked about, dissected, and celebrated--but it wasn’t always this way.
Growing up, the prevailing mentality in my household was that if I wore makeup at all it should be in such a way that nobody could tell. I didn’t have an older sister, and my mother didn’t own any makeup other than mascara, so I didn’t experiment with makeup until college--and even then, it was all very natural and discreet. The goal was to have my crush think I simply looked that way all the time, and to have anyone see me using an eyelash curler would be to destroy the social contract that women must look put together but not betray the fact that some effort went into it. However, that way of thinking is starting to fall by the wayside.
The shift first began in the fashion world: the stylists behind the celebrities on best-dressed lists began to step into the spotlight themselves. Suddenly it was not only accepted but de rigueur for celebrities to talk openly about their stylist(s) picking out their Oscars dresses for them. The public is now quite familiar with not only the work that goes into the behind-the-scenes struggle of making a glamorous red carpet look, but many are even familiar with the names of famous stylists such as Rachel Zoe and Kate Young.
Now the beauty world is catching up in much the same way. The only difference is that this shift in thinking is much more surprising in the beauty industry. We seem to have made a giant transition from “wear makeup in a way that it doesn’t look like makeup” to “proudly share every aspect of your beauty routine with the world.” Beauty fans, rejoice.
There are a few key players to thank for this trend. Beauty moguls like Sally Hershberger and Charlotte Tilbury are not shy about sharing their accomplishments. Hairstylist Hershberger recently told Into The Gloss, “I want to be the biggest in the industry... I’ve always given my ideas to everyone else. I met John Frieda and did his haircare line for 10 years. The Sheer Blonde, the Brilliant Brunette, all that stuff. I was the first one to come out with keratin at home. I was the first one to do the beach waves for Bumble and bumble.” If you thought that the genesis behind your favourite hairspray was strictly a bunch of people in lab coats, think again. Hershberger, and others like her, are dispelling that notion. They’re giving a name and a face to the talented people behind our favourite beauty products.
Hershberger also credits herself with changing the look of celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Courtney Love, and Hillary Clinton, among others. “When I was in my 20s, I got a call from Julia Roberts—‘Hey Sally, it’s Julie. Can you come over and cut my hair off? I’m sick of it.’ She was sick of being known for all that hair. So I cut it all off. After that, the press just kept calling me.” Hershberger is not just a hair stylist, she’s a trendsetter--and she knows it.
She's not the only one embracing the spotlight. Iconic makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury has 510k Instagram followers and loves it: “My [Instagram] notifications are on all the time. I like to see what’s going on. You get a real high [from it]. I love social media and the way you can communicate directly with everybody; you can get such instant gratification. You get to see how much people love your photos. It’s fabulous.” Being able to directly reach out to her fans on that platform has enabled Tilbury to have a greater influence than ever. Sure, Tilbury has been a household name to industry members, but now she's accessible to everyone.
Truly, the surge of recognition for beauty as a worthwhile hobby or even career in its own right (right up there with fashion) is largely due to the Internet. Blogs like Into The Gloss and The Coveteur are showcasing the honest, nitty-gritty details of celebrities’ beauty routines, right down to the drugstore mascara they use and the amount of time it takes them to get ready in the morning. It breaks the illusion that a model or actress simply wakes up looking like that, and makes it okay for the rest of us to admit that yes, we spend time transforming ourselves with makeup, and perhaps even enjoy it.
Other publications, like the newly launched Beauty Papers, are putting their own spin on the idea of beauty: showcasing it as something important, something that has cultural impact and meaning, something that should be discussed and celebrated. And then there’s countless other websites and blogs for women who are interested in beauty, from Jen Atkin’s hair blog Mane Addicts to Robin Black’s Beauty Is Boring.
Of course we can’t talk about the golden age of beauty without discussing the influence of social media as well. Celebrities like the Kardashians now regularly tag and thank their hair and makeup “glam squad” in addition to fashion designers and stylists in their Instagram posts, acknowledging the work that went into creating their beauty looks. Kim and Kylie regularly discuss their lengthy hair and makeup routines, admitting that part of their day can take up to four hours, and that's a massive amount of honesty from a celebrity.
Kim Kardashian in particular has been extremely transparent about her 50-step makeup routine with fans, even allowing fans to come watch her beloved makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic do her makeup while explaining each step (provided, of course, they fork over the $300 entrance fee first). Dedivanovic has amassed a massive Instagram following himself, with 1.4 million followers and counting. Some fans at their master class paid $1,000 to take pictures with the makeup artist and his entourage, while others had flown in from other countries just to learn from him. “Mario and Kim have built a relationship as important to Kim as any of her others: a creative partnership that has outlasted marriages and scandals alike,” explains Arabelle Sicardi, who attended the master class. “Mario helped make her as much as Kanye helps create her with outfit choices and Kanye-approved collaborators.” Such collaborations may have existed between celebrities and their makeup artists in the past, but never to such a public degree.
Smoke and mirrors is no longer the name of the game when it comes to beauty. Sure, the no-makeup makeup look is still extremely popular, but the difference is that women are much more willing to say, “Yes, this is my no-makeup makeup look but these are the 20 products I used to achieve it.” We're seeing the death of #iwokeuplikethis, and it’s an exciting time to be a beauty fan. There’s suddenly an endless source of places online where beauty lovers can revel in their shared interests without judgement and soak up knowledge, whether from celebrity makeup artists and hairstylists or indie beauty vloggers. The beauty world is no longer just for those peddling products and those who are dubbed “vain” or “insecure” enough to buy them.
Today's beauty industry is for everyone.
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