True Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

  Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
~Franz Kafka

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I just thought of sharing this video to you all. I was randomly fidgeting with my MSN Messenger when this link popped out of the advertisment page. It was really agonizing to watch how this beautiful lady ironically ruined her face by inducing cooking oil into her skin, in hopes of achieving a softer skin. It made me think of how many people out there, not only women, have succumbed to the promise of “beauty” through cosmetic enhancement procedures such as steriod and botox injections.

The idea of growing old and looking wrinkled is just an abominable thought to most people especially those who are getting out of their prime and moving into the middle-age life. It is vanity. It is superficiality. And sadly, they are quite the inevitable disease of twentieth-first society. When you switch on the television, a number of facial products and cosmetic enhancement clinics show people a promise of looking better and feeling better.

It’s just not vanity, it is a psychological problem which people from all walks of life can fall prey to.

Living in Toronto, I thought cosmetic advertisements here were bad. I was wrong. When I went back to Manila a few months ago, it was worst. I was in the car with my family, on our way to Batangas, when I saw billboard ads along Edsa which just horrified me. Belo advertisements was just everywhere. Fact is, you can see from a far how much she aka Belo struggles to just even open her mouth and give this smile that makes one think she has boulder of rock underneath that so-called pretty and no-blemish face. Another ad which caught my eye was this billboard showing a plus-size girl with a conscious face. She looks embarassed because of her figure and the marketing team of this product thought it would be a good idea to portray a “what-not-to-be-like” attitude to its consumers.

Beauty that is literally hard as rock.

A marketing strategy that outwardly makes people feel bad about themselves is outrageous. To age, to grow old is a beautiful thing that most people each day take for granted. We envelope ourselves and fall prey to the marketing strategy of these companies whose only goal is to make profit at the expense of their consumer’s self-esteem. 

True, no one wants to suffer from acne. I, myself, got all hyped the other day when I saw I was breaking out. True, no one wants to look at overly-gorgeous-fied models and ponder why we can’t all look like that. Nevertheless, there are ways to sustain a natural look without the use of surgical procedures or diet pills. Drink Green Tea. Go to the gym.  Wash your face after waking up and before going to bed. Eat fruits high in anti-oxidant. These are a few things one can do to keep a healthy lifestyle and still look fabulous. Personally though, I don’t go to the gym. I tried. I failed. Why? Because I finally admitted to myself that I am and forever will be a lazy ass who’d rather sit on her bed and read a book than travel 30mins and go sweat inside a gym. I’m still waiting for the day that my dad will buy a threadmill so I don’t have to go out and workout in some place with other people. I’m not anti-social, don’t get me wrong. I just like my privacy sometimes. I mean, if I had a threadmill at home and felt the need to release some gas, I can do it without bothering to look who’s around. Got me? haha.

My, my, it has really been awhile since I’ve actually written something like this, haven’t I? I’ve been too busy lately with work, friends, family stuff, myself and of course, the bf.  Hectic as my schedule might be, I won’t trade them for anything in the world. Except maybe… for an original copy of William Shakespeare’s first folio edition containing all of this works…. *Cough nerd *Cough.  But anywho, hope you guys watched the video and learned something new. NEVER put cooking oil into your skin, guys. Or, any other chemicals for that matter. It’s just plain scary. Always think long term and not short term because what you do to yourself today, can and will affect you tomorrow.

That is all.

Adieu.

ps. How do you like the new layout? =p

Sources:
http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/70978