Face on Trend
Kendall Jenner for i.D Vice
Cosmetic surgery is nothing new. For millennia, we have altered our appearances with the help of professionals, but until recently, procedures did not have the precision nor prevalence as we see it today.
Whereas Botox was once the domain of the celebrity, now, every city has walk-in clinics for any injection you can imagine, for a reasonable(ish) price. To get the perfect body or face, celebrities have opted for more intense procedures. Chrissy Teigen and Kendall Jenner have confirmed going under to remove buccal fat (fat pads in your cheeks that give you a fuller face), with results showing strikingly chiseled cheekbones. Now, the spotlight is on veneers. While veneers have some medical benefits, many get them for aesthetic reasons, like having stained teeth or tooth gaps (normal things to have). And as these purveyors of beauty and culture get these procedures, the people who watch them follow suit. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported that, based on a global survey, cosmetic procedures, both surgical and non-surgical, rose 11.2% in 2022, with over a total of 32 million procedures done. And, such augmentations will cost you a pretty penny. Just speaking on veneers, they will cost you, on the low end, $500/tooth in the U.S., according to GoodRx. In Europe, veneers vary from country to country, but can cost anywhere from €1,800 to €6,500 for eight veneers as of 2022. Whether the everyday person can afford these procedures or not, the popularity is astounding. But as it becomes more popular to go under anesthesia, so too does its opposite.
Photo by Steven Meisel, 2005
“Natural beauty” has risen as fast as cosmetic surgery, but what it means varies. On one hand, natural beauty means embracing just that, your natural beauty. InStyle predicts 2024 will be the year of “skin streaming”, where consumers will reduce their skincare routine down to three to four staple products that fit your skin type. Graceful aging also falls under the natural beauty umbrella. Ariana Grande said to Vogue that she stopped using fillers and Botox in 2018 because “I wanna see my well-earned cry lines and smile lines. I hope my smile lines get deeper and deeper.” This honesty is welcomed from a celebrity of her status, both because she speaks to her relationship with cosmetic procedures and about why she stopped. However, as Dazed writer Daisy Schofield points out, natural beauty “has nothing to do with acceptance, rather it exposes how the goalposts are always shifting for women.” Natural beauty means nothing when you don’t have the same access to dermatologists and high-end skincare as Ariana Grande. Some older Gen Zers and Millennials have opted for a more “body neutrality” approach to aging and charming imperfections. Hashtags like SilverSisters and TikTok user expiredglutenfreebread (her definitely legal name) champion going gray as a badge of honor. Furthermore, a growing, vocal community criticizes cosmetic surgeries and the industry as a whole. Evie Girl Shop, the TikTok account for Evie Magazine, has a seven-part playlist about beauty culture. Three videos focus on veneers alone, stating “teeth do give us character” when critiquing celebrities’ dental work. And while denouncing the beauty industry’s obsession with surgery has often been tabloid fodder, phrases like “Instagram face”, “Smartphone face,” etc., reflect a rejection, or at least a prevalence, of many people today looking the same, and by extension, extremely modern.
Courtesy of Rhode Skin
Both sides are arguing, in a weird way, for the same thing: to pursue beauty free of judgment. The stigmatization of cosmetic surgery has often targeted women who get work done with misogynistic comments about vanity and a woman’s visual worth. However, it is the beauty industry that constructs and then preys upon women’s insecurities in order to convince them they need to go under in the first place. Even now, social media and news outlets are arguing whether or not Gen Z looks older than their Millennial counterparts, and why. Those who would benefit from Gen Z fearing they look older are the ones weighing in, like the beauty industry reps who interviewed for CNN. What will come of this debate is not yet certain. But so long as your skin is a trend, your comfort in it will fall out of style.
