How Society Influences Women to Use Cosmetics

She stands in front of the mirror. She looks at herself and feels that something is missing. She doesn’t feel complete.

So she looks at the makeup kit and cosmetics on the dressing table—her saviors. She starts touching her cheeks, applying concealer, and dabs a hint of blush or lines her eyes.

While she is doing it, there is a silent question echoing in her subconscious:

Will I be more accepted now?

For women, cosmetics are masks and their armor. Cosmetics are their identities. And some use them as their crutches.

But we rarely ask:

Why are so many women conditioned to believe they need cosmetics? Why are they covering up their skin and features?

To find answers, let’s look into different factors and reasons.

How Society Influences Women to Use Cosmetics

Society has always held and sold narrow ideals of beauty. It is worshipping fair skin, flawless complexion, sharp features, voluminous lashes, and glossy lips.

Society is very clever and knows how to influence women to use cosmetics.

To do that it has different channels such as cultural norms and rituals, celebrities, influencers, advertisements, movies and music industries.

Let’s look into these channels one by one:

1. Cultural Norms and Rituals

Young girls or old women, different cultures have set certain rituals and practices for them.

• In Indian traditions, a teenage girl first wears kajal or a bindi during puberty.
• In Western culture, a girl’s first lipstick or nail polish is often a celebrated “first”.
• In East Asian cultures, pale skin has long been a symbol of social prestige. This has led to using whitening creams and powders for many generations.
• In Middle Eastern traditions, feminine celebration happens when they follow the ritual of applying henna, kohl, and fragrant oils.

Are these practices harmful? No. They can be joyful and expressive.

But, the problem starts when beauty rituals become gendered obligations rather than personal choices. Then rituals are not culture anymore, they become control.

In many conservative or traditional societies, cosmetics are tied to a woman’s respectability.

Why is a well-groomed woman seen as cultured? Why is a bride expected to be heavily adorned? Why is an older woman required to cover her greys or wear makeup?

How does society and cultures have come to this point? The answer is not simple. It’s not like these standards are enforced through rules. They are passed through comments, glances, and gestures.

When a daughter sees her mother touching up her lipstick before guests arrive or applying full makeup to attend a party, she learns a lesson:

To be accepted, you must appear more beautiful. To be admired, you must appear enhanced.

Over time, cosmetics stop being beauty products. They become tools of cultural compliance.

Further marriage markets have fueled the use of cosmetics to the next level.

There is so much pressure on new brides, to look good on the wedding day that their bridal beauty routines begin months in advance.

Women can’t resist these rituals, because society has a clever way of shaming them:

• Don’t you care about our tradition? We all have been doing it for ages.
• It’s your big day—you should look your best.
• What will people say if you don’t put in effort?

It’s not about what she wants. It’s about what others want her to be.

2. Advertising Industry

Women’s beauty is a billion-dollar industry. From small companies to big corporations, everyone wants a chunk of it. The more the better.

So advertisements help them achieve this goal.

The advertising industry is a master of human psychology. It knows how to create insecurities in women via ads and print media.

They promote narrow beauty ideals to women around the world. You should have fair skin. You should have wrinkle-free faces. Your lips should be plump. Your cheeks should be rosy. And make those eyelashes thick. Everyday, they tell you that these are the benchmark of desirability.

And while they manipulate women like this, they convey the same message:

“You are incomplete without our cosmetic products. So buy them today and look complete and beautiful.”

Cosmetic ads don’t just suggest women buy this or that product, they show transformative results. They show that women who are using such products appear enhanced. Their self-worth and social acceptance have increased.

These ads deeply influence women’s perceptions of beauty and push them to use products continuously to achieve unrealistic standards.

3. Celebrity Endorsements and Influencer Culture

Celebrities have a huge impact on society. The way celebrities set beauty standards, no other elements in society do.

They showcase flawless appearances. Women crave to look like them. They want to be accepted and loved like them. So when women see their perfect skin, shiny hair, sculpted faces, and radiant beauty, they want to know what product they use.

Unaware young girls and women forget that what they are seeing is a polished version of their favorite celebrities. Many of them are not aware of the behind-the-scenes efforts that a celebrity’s PR team does. They don’t know how much heavy editing is involved in their print and digital representations.

Cosmetic brands are quite aware of celebrities’ appeal, so they routinely partner with celebrities to promote different cosmetics. Together, they create aspirational allure that entices women well.

Recently, influencers have further reinforced these standards set by celebrities. They also promote cosmetics through tutorials, product reviews, and sponsored content.

Every day, celebrities and influencers are subtly communicating to women that beauty and cosmetics are synonymous with success and acceptance.

4. Movies and Music Industry

Movies serve as a powerful medium that normalizes extensive cosmetic use. They have always presented the female protagonist as the most beautiful person around in their storytelling.

But do we see these women characters without makeup? No. Except few movies where women characters are required to be raw.

Female protagonists often wake up perfectly groomed, reinforcing unrealistic beauty expectations. In real life, how many women wake up like that?

Whether it is a James Bond girl or a romantic heroine, iconic film characters create lasting impressions. It pressures women to emulate their looks through cosmetics.

Similarly, women pop singers promote cosmetics because they wear heavy makeup in their songs or events. They glamorize certain looks—like bold red lips or dramatic eyeliner. Young girls and women idolize these pop singers, so they buy cosmetics to achieve that look.

5. Social Media Filters

Image editing tools and filters are everywhere on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. So when everyone around on social media is posting filtered photos, it becomes hard for a woman to post an unfiltered photo.

Young girls and women are using filters to alter their appearances subtly. It has perpetuated beauty ideals that are unattainable without cosmetics.

If they look better in their digital avatars and not in real life, it’s a problem. So it becomes necessary and desirable to use cosmetics to maintain the ideal they have created.

6. Peer Pressure

What is common in social environments like workplaces, educational institutions, and social events? They implicitly encourage cosmetic use.

In such environments, women feel pressure to appear polished and presentable. People there associate makeup with professionalism and respectability.

In colleges, if a girl wants to join a group, she has to look cool. She has to wear trendy makeup like other girls in the group are doing. Otherwise, she will be judged by her peers. They will give her different labels.

Similarly, there are unspoken beauty standards that exist in the corporate world. If they want to be seen as confident, competent, and composed they have to use cosmetics.

Why?

Because studies have shown that men are more likely to perceive women as “well put-together” when they wear makeup.

In male-dominated industries, appearance becomes not just a personal choice, but a strategic one. It’s not a case of vanity, it’s survival.

When a woman chooses not to wear makeup, they face the consequences. They are not taken seriously. They get ignored in meetings. They get ignored for client-facing roles. Then she quickly learns what the unspoken rules are.

And when it comes to social events such as weddings, parties, and formal gatherings, pressure to use cosmetics intensifies further. If a woman is not wearing makeup in such events, she is not prepared. She is not putting in effort and she doesn’t have respect for the occasion. If other women are coming prepared, why can’t she?

Unlearning Begins With These Questions

Society will keep doing what it does to influence women in different ways. Today, society is more about commerce and economy than humanity. So let them do what they do.

Women can decondition themselves from society’s long conditioning. They can unlearn set beauty standards. To do that, they have to reflect on the following questions:

1. Do Women Really Need Cosmetics?

No. Women don’t need cosmetics biologically, emotionally, or spiritually. But psychologically, many women feel they do. Here’s why:

• Cosmetics can provide a sense of control in an otherwise image-obsessed society.
• Women use cosmetics as their armor. It helps them face the world with more confidence.
• The beauty industry markets “using cosmetics” as self-love or empowerment, which confuses real confidence with external grooming.

2. Why Not Embrace Natural Beauty?

It’s not like women don’t want to embrace natural beauty. Many women are already doing it. And many women want to.

But they fear being judged. When it comes to job interviews, social events, or dates, they want to look their best, because that’s how they are conditioned.

They police their own appearance based on unrealistic standards set by the media. Many women are stuck in self-criticism. They believe that their natural faces and bodies are somehow lacking. Because they continuously compare themselves with air-brushed models, polished celebrities, or surgically enhanced influencers.

Further, many women feel insecure and experience trauma. Because people have bullied them in schools or colleges due to their looks. Because their family and friends neglect them as they don’t match beauty standards.

Today, women need role models who embrace natural aging or imperfections in public. And there is a lack of them.

3. Are Cosmetics Harmful?

Yes, many mainstream cosmetic products contain harmful chemicals, such as:

• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Formaldehyde
• Heavy metals
• Asbestos contamination

These have been linked to:

• Skin irritation
• Hormonal imbalance
• Reproductive harm
• Cancers (especially with long-term use or in under-regulated markets)

Some cosmetic products are more harmful, and some are less. In countries without strong regulations, women often use more harmful cosmetics.

And when women use multiple products daily over the years, these can quietly erode health without noticeable symptoms in the short term.

4. Why Do Women Still Use Them Despite the Risks?

It’s not like awareness about the health hazards linked to cosmetics is not growing. But still, there are millions of women continue to use them daily.

This is not because they are unaware. They know the risks. They have read the ingredients. Some of them have considered quitting it. But the truth is, using cosmetics isn’t just about beauty anymore—it’s about survival in a society.

Because society treats appearance as a currency.

Women’s bare face is perceived as tired. Their natural skin is associated with laziness or carelessness. So it becomes obvious for women to use cosmetics to cope with deeply ingrained societal expectations.

5. Long-Term Consequences of Cosmetic Use

Women should stop using cosmetics for temporary confidence and aesthetic satisfaction. Instead, they should focus on long-term hidden costs—both physical and psychological.

As we discussed above, harmful ingredients pose different health risks.

Besides physical risks, cosmetics affect women psychologically too. When they use cosmetics for long time, they become dependent on them. It becomes difficult for them to accept their natural appearance because there is pressure to rely on makeup to feel presentable. Over time, this dependency makes them less confident and hurts their self-worth.

On a cultural level, the normalization of constant cosmetic use reinforces narrow beauty standards for future generations. It teaches young girls to conceal their age, flaws, or natural skin texture, not embrace them.

Further, what begins as a simple desire to look better often becomes a cycle of continuous spending.

Women should look into the fact that cosmetics are more of a recurring expense. It quietly eats into monthly budgets, sometimes even at the cost of more essential needs.

This kind of spending is rarely an actual need. It’s often driven by emotional vulnerability and social pressure.

Moreover, at one end, the beauty industry sells the illusion of glamour and self-care, at the other, they harm the environment. A large percentage of cosmetic products come in single-use plastic containers. These containers are rarely recycled properly.

Beyond packaging, chemical runoff from cosmetic production pollutes waterways and soil. Also, these pollutants damage aquatic life, disrupt natural ecosystems, and enter the food chain.

In essence, every cosmetic choice we make has a ripple effect. We are not just impacting our skin, but the planet Earth also.

6. So, Why Does This Continue?

So, why does this cycle of cosmetic dependency continue?

The main reason behind it is capitalism. A machine that knows that insecurity sells and brings in big profits. Why does the beauty industry thrive? Is it because they empower women? No. They thrive because they constantly remind women what they lack.

Then comes the patriarchy. It is an age-old system that continues to define a woman’s value by how she looks. In patriarchy, appearances have more priority than what she thinks, feels, or leads. In a patriarchal system, women are expected to perform beauty to earn basic respect.

What makes it worse is the glaring lack of conscious education. In most schools and homes, there is no real conversation going on. There are almost no discussions about body image and self-worth. No discussion about media literacy. And no discussion about which products are safe to use and which are not.

These three reasons—capitalism, patriarchy, and lack of conscious education—ensure that the cycle keeps spinning.

7. What is The Way Forward?

Don’t shame women who wear makeup and don’t glorify those who don’t.

Women need to become more aware to bring real revolution. It starts by pausing long enough and asking themselves:

• Why am I using cosmetics?
• Am I expressing myself freely, or following a script I didn’t write?

True empowerment means using cosmetics as a personal choice, not due to societal expectations.

Women should be comfortable going out with makeup or without it. If there is a fear of going bare-faced, they should rethink.

Besides personal awareness, we need collective action too.

The beauty industry must be held accountable for the products it sells.

Women must advocate for cleaner regulations, demand ingredient transparency, and support policies that protect health over profit.

Schools should introduce media literacy early on. Teach girls to question the images they consume. Help them understand and recognize the truths and lies behind beauty standards. Tell them that society and corporations have constructed these standards for their own purposes and benefits.

But why let women fight it alone? They need support and safe spaces from men and every institution.

True change can’t come from individual rebellion alone. It must come from collective unlearning, honest dialogues in society, and a cultural shift that redefines what it means to be enough.

Until then, the mirror will continue to be a battleground, and cosmetics will remain more than skin-deep.