The Ugly Side of the Online Beauty Community

As a student of media, I am constantly being inundated with opinions on social media and online communities. Social media offer a heap of benefits which have propelled many people to astonishing success – Ireland’s own ‘SoSueMe.ie’ is a well-known example of this. However, as I’m sure we’re all well aware, social media has an ugly side, and this can be clearly seen in the Online Beauty Community.  

Going online has changed the careers and lives of many makeup artists around the globe – their bedrooms became studios and their audience became the world. This of course, is a very positive thing, although it has in my opinion caused an awful lot of rather unhealthy competition between makeup artists. While I’m not speaking of the whole beauty community here, some unhealthy behaviours can and should be changed in order create healthy competition and a supportive environment in which makeup artists and beauty bloggers can thrive. 

The sheer volume of makeup artists online around the world is astonishing, and the numbers just keep on growing. With the help of YouTube, blogs and Instagram, people have access to thousands of makeup lessons in the comfort of their own home. Budding makeup artists being given the opportunity to grow and pursue their passion is a fantastic thing, however this can give rise to an unhealthy competitiveness and bitterness between people as they increase in online popularity. This manifests in ways such as makeup artists not crediting each other’s work, leaving hateful comments under posts and being generally unsupportive of each other. The beauty of social media is the fact that there are billions of people using it everyday, therefore there are more than enough followers for everyone. This cancels out any need to put fellow makeup artists down as there is an abundance of support out there for all talented beauty bloggers and artists who come up with their own creative content.  

Is exposure always a good thing, though? When makeup artists post their own creative looks online they can of course receive support, allowing them to grow in popularity and propel their career. However, in doing so they leave themselves wide open to their ideas being stolen, and newer artists and brands are particularly vulnerable to this. A popular beauty youtuber caused a stir recently when he accused a multi-million-dollar company of stealing the concept of a lesser known beauty brand. Regardless of your own opinions on whether or not this is necessarily true, large companies coming in and plagiarizing the ideas of lesser known brands is something that happens to people who post their work publically, and it is in complete violation of what a true beauty “community” should be. Could larger brands perhaps collaborate with smaller brands, allowing both companies to grow together and create products they’re proud of? My personal opinion is yes. 

As a long time lover of all things makeup, I would love to see the beauty community grow to be a more supportive and empowering place. Makeup is an art form, a creative outlet, and supporting other artists does not make anyone less ambitious, talented or successful. The true beauty of makeup is that it gives many people the confidence and power to take on their day, and I truly hope to see more makeup artists give that confidence and empowerment to each other as the online beauty community grows.  

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