Why do you want to feel beautiful? It seems like an easy question, but usually, the answer is repeated in a dubious way “I do it for myself! To feel good! It gives me more confidence…”.
There’s nothing wrong with these answers, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel comfortable in your own skin and more confident. But to what extent is beauty more important than other aspects? Well-rested nights, being who you are, having the mood for everyday tasks, waking up, and being grateful for those 20 minutes of sleep left on the alarm clock, are these things worth losing to wake up at 4 A.M to follow a beauty ritual?
That is a dilemma that HBO’s show, “Euphoria”, brings us through the character Cassie Howard, a young woman judged by her intimate life and her past. After her parents’ divorce, she saw her father become a drug addict and, later, she developed emotional needs and went through several abusive relationships.
In the third episode of the second season, Cassie adopts a complete beauty routine, including skin, hair, and makeup. The big question is why and how this is shown to the viewers. In an attempt to be seen by the boy she likes and, hopefully, to recover their relationship, Cassie wakes up every day at 4 A.M. She washes her hair, dries it, finishes using a vintage curler, uses a roller to deflate her face, skin treatment masks plus facial massage, creams, and makeup, taking up 3 hours when she could be doing anything else instead of trying to be seen by someone who doesn’t want to see her.
At the end of the scenes, Cassie appears exhausted and is no longer herself: her clothes and makeup are just like the boy’s ex. This goes way beyond a crush, doesn’t it? And it goes far beyond wanting to feel confident and beautiful.
Taking time out of our day to take care of ourselves is undoubtedly one of the most pleasurable things. Knowing who we are and feeling good about ourselves is essential to having more self-esteem. But we can’t let the imposed beauty standards change us to the point where we stop being who we are, let alone rely on a skincare routine that takes up 3 hours of our precious sleep and quality time.
The amount of girls who identified with the scene and shared on their social media that they had already done something similar or were really influenced and tried to put Cassie’s routine into practice is alarming.
Later, the show proves it was not worth the effort and that Cassie was negatively affected. From this, we can reflect on various aspects, and we can all have our own opinion, but we must keep in mind the meaning of skincare: taking care of yourself.