Section:GDN 12 PaGe:9 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 16:36 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian
Tuesday 27 August 2019 9
doing makeovers on her family and
friends, posting the results online.
“I thought, why not get my talent
out there?” At fi rst, Sheeraz did the
makeup thing to honour her mum.
But soon it took on a life of its own.
“It was never what I wanted to do
full-time,” says Sheeraz, who is
studying for an apprenticeship in
accountancy. “It ’s more something
to do on her behalf and make her
happy. But now I really enjoy it
myself. I guess I’m doing it for her in
a way.”
As with any subculture, there are
diff erent tribes. Fans tend to divide
into two camps: the fi rst are lovers of
the haute-glam look popularised bythe Kardashian-Jenners and makeup
artists such as Mario Dedivanovic
and Kevyn Aucoin. Sheeraz falls
into this category, describing her
style as “Asian glam”: “a very glowy
base, full coverage, bright lips and
eyes, but also something that you
can wear to weddings and events – it
won’t just look nice in pictures.”
Meanwhile, creative makeup fans
prefer art-driven, colourful looks.
“With creative makeup there aren’t
many rules, you can do what you
want,” says Niamh Dunne , a 19-year-
old supermarket worker from Corby,
Northamptonshire. Dunne takes
inspiration from fi lms or TV shows
PHOTOGRAPHS: ANDREW FOX AND CHRISTOPHER THOMOND FOR THE GUARDIAN such as Stranger Things. After the
Lion King reboot came out, she
freehand-painted the amber and
ochre colours of an African sunset on
her chest. It took three hours.
Critics may say that young people
shouldn’t be messing around with
blusher – they should be focus ing
on their careers. But this is wildly
missing the mark: beauty is a very
lucrative career choice. Just ask
Kylie Jenner, who built a billion-
dollar fortune off the back of her
cosmetics company (although sales
are thought to be down ). Of the 80
women on Forbes’s so-called “self-
made women” rich list this year ,
10 are from the makeup and
skincare industries.
Sheeraz wants to become like her
idol, the beauty mogul Huda Kattan.
“Being a woman of colour and
getting to where she is from being an
average person is really inspirational
to me.”
I wonder if any of the teens
think it may be damaging to be so
focus ed on their appearance. They
all bat those concerns away. “Most
of the time I’m actually barefaced,”
Sheeraz says. “When I go to work,
I don’t wear it, because I’d rather
spend the time sleeping.” Dunne
agrees: “With teenage girls, there
is so much pressure on the way you
look – getting surgery and lip fi llers
and all of that stuff ,” she says. “I
don’t think it should be like that. I
don’t wear it because I think I need
it. I wear it because I enjoy doing it.”
It is not just girls who are
perfecting makeup techniques
you’ve never heard of, such as halo
brows or lollipop lips. Brands such
as Milk Makeup and Fluide have
created genderless cosmetics
ranges, while legacy players
including Chanel and Givenchy
have launched male lines. They are
targeting consumers like 17-year-old
Matt Tierney. “I remember sneakily
telling my mum I had a Halloween
party to go to when I was 14, so we
could go to Superdrug and buy some
makeup. She asked, ‘ Are you sure
this is for Halloween?’” He laughs.
Through YouTube, Tierney built
up the confi dence to experiment
with makeup. “If I didn’t see people
doing it online, I’d never have
gotten into it. I live in a little village
in Northamptonshire. I’ve never
seen anyone walking around with a
rainbow eye or in drag. You don’t see
that here.”
Of course, marketing makeup
to men doubles the amount of
product brands can sell. And there
is no doubt that consumerism isat the heart of this subculture – to
an alarming extent. Provenzano
takes me to her local Superdrug. “If
I’m in town, I’ll come in to have a
look,” she says, fi ngering a yellow
Revolution eyeshadow lovingly.
(Provenzano favours aff ordable
brands – although she has a few
high-end eyeshadow palettes by
the US brand Lime Crime – that
aren’t tested on animals.) Makeup
infl uencers such as Jaclyn Hill
have landed themselves in trouble
with their young fanbases over the
quality of their products – in one
case, her lipstick was said to contain
metal shards. Tierney bought the
James Charles x Morphe palette
after seeing it hyped online. “I didn’t
think it was that great, to be honest.
Maybe everyone saying it was
amazing was on his payroll.”
Regulators have started to step
in. In the US, the Federal Trade
Commission wrote to high-profi le
infl uencers to warn them against
“stealth shilling”, where they fail
to disclose they are being paid by
brands. Earlier this year, the UK’s
Competition and Markets Authority
secured formal commitments from
celebrities to be more transparent
about paid-for endorsements.
Even then, young people may
not be able to recognise when their
favourite online make up artists
are pushing products because
they are paid to advertise them.My favourite
skill is blending.
YouTube has
taught me
to blend my
life away
“What we see in the research is
that they don’t really recognise the
advertising in vlogs or on Instagram
as advertising, as much as they
do on TV,” warns Steffi de Jans of
Ghent University. She characterises
most beauty vlogs as eff ectively
advertising: the vloggers are either
being paid by the brand directly, or
receiving free products. And this
isn’t just a 30-second cereal advert
in a commercial break. “It’s hours
and hours in a row of advertising
messages, and they’re really
engaging with it.”
Subcultures have always been
consumer-adjacent: you buy
records, safety pins, miniskirts. But
the act of consumerism
isn’t peripheral to this
emerging beauty subculture- it’s integral to it. This is
consumerism as subculture.
Sheeraz estimates she
has spent about £1,000
on products from brands
including Anastasia Beverly
Hills and Huda Beauty,
whose palettes retail for £40
to £60. Can a community
that is so predicated on consumer
consumption truly be considered
a subculture?
Probably not, says Dr Rehan
Hyder of the University of the West
of England, explaining that it is
better to think of these teenagers
according to the concept of creative
fandom, as coined by academic
Henry Jenkins. “Fans aren’t just
consumers, but producers. They’re
not participating passively, but
creating a community in which you
share expertise, skills and collective
intelligence.” In the beauty world,
they use makeup to establish
themselves as persons of infl uence
and skill – like Tierney, who aims to
achieve 100k followers. “That would
be a massive milestone,” he says.
As teenage pursuits go, however,
it is hard to think of a more clean-
living way for young people to be
spending their time – a bottle of
shoplifted vodka being passed
around a park this is not. “I’m not
really a going-out person,” says
Dunne. “You just get hungover and
can’t be productive the next day.”
Tierney thinks that makeup gives
young people something to do.
“It’s quite wholesome,” he laughs.
“People who have no lives, sitting
in their room with a ring light on,
blending makeup on their eyes!”
(He recently got one of these
lights himself.)
Ring lights, contour kits, an
arsenal of brushes to make Picasso
blush: for teenagers today, makeup
isn’t a superfi cial hobby, but a
way of expressing their creativity,
hopes and dreams. Back in her
bedroom, Provenzano does my
makeup whil e telling me about
her ambitions for the future – she
aspires to be a makeup artist for
fashion shows. “Going to London,”
she says dreamily, eyeshadow
brush in hand. “The fashion weeks - Milan, London, Paris. Obviously
I can’t stay in Kettering and do
runways, because it’s so small.” And
as she applies my eyeshadow with
precision of a surgeon performing
keyhole surgery, I close my eyes and
think : “You’ll get there.”
Matt TierneyFrom top: Milly
Provenzano’s
‘eyebrow slits
everywhere’
look; Niamh
Dunne’s
Lion King-
inspired sunset;
and Björk’s
Utopia coverAiman SheerazRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws