Why You Shouldn't Follow Beauty Trends

You might have heard speculation recently that some members of a super-famous family had their trademark derrieres made smaller. You probably already know exactly who we’re talking about, right? All it takes is a candid, un-retouched photo of someone on vacation for speculation to run wild. Think pieces and YouTube videos cropped up everywhere: “Is the Brazilian Butt Lift Going Out of Style?” 

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Like them or not, the Kardashians have had an outsized influence on beauty trends for a while now. Lip fillers owe some of their current popularity to Kylie Jenner’s famous pout, and Kim’s always been known for her perfectly round, perky derriere, leading to the rise in popularity of the Brazilian Butt Lift. (Remember when she had her backside X-rayed to prove she hadn’t had implants?!) So it makes sense that when the Kardashians make an aesthetic change, people take notice. 

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But does it mean that if you were thinking of getting a BBL, now you shouldn’t?? Can cosmetic procedures and MedSpa treatments go out of style?

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Well, the bad news is that yes, they do go out of style. In the late nineties and early aughts, breast implants were all the rage. Back then, having a smaller backside was seen as “ideal,” and super round, perky breast implants were the big trend. Nowadays, the trends are completely different. And the Kardashian’s latest developments suggest that perhaps those trends are changing yet again. 

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The good news is that beauty standards for women are always changing. Why is this a good thing, you ask?! We get it. It sounds super counter-intuitive. The pressure to keep up with certain trends can feel intense, and this goes for everything from what color of eyeshadow is currently considered trendy, to what lip shapes are popular, to big changes like plastic surgery. But what this really shows us is that there’s no single way to be beautiful. 

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Trends will cycle in and out, as they have done throughout history. You can draw a line–not a straight one, but a line nonetheless–between the voluptuous statues of Hellenistic Greece to the exaggerated hourglass silhouette of Marilyn Monroe to Kim Kardashian herself. (Let’s leave The Met Gala Dress discourse for another time, though.) Each decade has its own beauty standards and trends, and a lot of them inevitably come back. Trends are how the fashion industry and beauty industry persuade us to buy more things. But we also know that following trends, while fun and exciting, isn’t the same as having style. 

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To have style means you pick and choose from trends when they suit you, and leave them alone when they don’t. Having style means that you are true to yourself first, and you do what makes you feel good regardless of if something’s on trend. Who cares what the Kardashians do to their bodies–if you think a BBL would look good on you, that’s all that matters. Likewise, if you’ve never felt like doing lip filler, you don’t have to–it should be about what makes you feel good. We came up with a cheat sheet for how to determine if you want to make an aesthetic change because of external pressure, or if it’s really what you want to express yourself: 

• Will doing this make me feel more confident? 
• Would I care if the look I like is suddenly declared “out of style”?
• Is there anyone else I’m trying to please by doing this, or is it just for me?
• Do I find myself worrying about what someone else thinks of this change? 
• Will making this change make my life better, and if so, how? 

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If you think on these questions and jot down some answers that come to mind, you’ll have a better idea of whether you’re motivated to follow a trend or if it’s truly for yourself. At Upkeep we believe everyone should be able to use beauty treatments as a form of self-expression and self-care. So yeah, we are always paying attention to the trends because it’s fun. But we know that what ultimately matters is a woman feeling confident and happy in her own skin. And every woman should be free to pursue whatever that means to her.

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