As a woman who promotes and teaches beauty, I feel it’s my responsibility to paint a realistic picture of the beauty industry.
First of all, we take a model, who’s already a freak of nature - is 6 feet tall, probably too young to have developed a bust and hips, yet...
Then, we have someone like me - a veteran master artist makes her for 2+ hours up into some amazing god-like creature, looking like she hasn’t a drop of makeup on, then...
We have an incredible stylist who puts get in the most amazing clothes, props and background, then...
We take a master artist photographer, who knows his craft so well, he could take a witch and make her look like an angel using lighting and angles and camera genius, then....
We take several hundred pictures - hundreds and hundreds of all different angles and motion and movements - all the while tweaking makeup and lighting and shouting directions and suggestions at the model, with our expert eye, to create amazing works of art. And...
Let me tell you, a good model is an amazing artist - she pushes her body into amazing angles, she knows what she puts closest to camera, looks bigger, and what’s further away looks smaller. She can completely manipulate and distort and image with her “dance”. Then....
Out of the hundreds of images, 80% of which are crap and deleted, we choose a final “money shot”, and then...
That image gets edited by an expert master artist editor, who painstakingly edits and manipulates every speck - does things like makes her legs a third longer, cinches in her waist, makes eye colour pop, every blemish, every hint of cellulite, is turned into the most perfect skin you ever saw...
And then... she’s put on a billboard ...and we wonder why we don’t look like that, and some of the men in our life wonder why we don’t look like that.
Now, as an artist, I LOVE creating great art. There’s something very addictive about it. But, this is no more real than a painting of an imaginary creature.
Now, if you think social media is in anyway different to this, I hate to say, you are wrong! With a click of three buttons, a woman can change her nose, eyes bigger, face slimmer, waist slimmer, make cellulite disappear, and waaay more filters are used.
I read a blog by one amazing influencer showing how she gets those amazing eye makeup images you see on Insta... she: spends hours creating the makeup look, takes hundreds of photos under intense lighting and amazing camera, chooses “the one”, then runs it through SIX different apps to edit it in six different way, for hours, before she’s done and it’s ready to post.
I personally love and appreciate the art and talent that goes into such, but it should be WELL known and understood for what it is.
I’m all for putting our best foot and our best face, forward, taking pride in our image, as it does lift us and others (ever been around someone who hangs around ungroomed, in tracksuit all day?) and I’m all for learning and teaching the tech on how to do this, to be healthier and look our best (it is a fun art and fun create) but we are all different, should embrace our unique beauty and talents and value, shine a flashlight on our best side, put the flaws “in the dark” and live happily ever after.
Nuff said.
♥️
Jacqueline Kalab
Celebrity & Fashion Makeup Artist
Founder Jacqueline Kalab Beauty
These images are not necessarily the kind I’m referring to, but they give an idea of what can be done. You can never tell with expert editing
Thank you to marinagiovanni.com
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