Monday, February 15, 2016

makeUP

Since reading about and discussing up-down spatialization metaphors, I have constantly been aware of the use of the word “up” in normal speech.  It is everywhere!  According to Lakoff and Johnson in the book Metaphors We Live By, “…spatial orientations arise from the fact that that we have bodies of the sort we have and that they function as they do in our physical environment” (14).  This fact leads to the concepts that happy is up and sad is down, consciousness is up and unconscious is down, health and life are up and sickness and death are down.  
What do the terms UP-and-coming, HIGH fashion, and makeUP have to do with the concept of UP?
I am very interested in makeup, fashion, and perceptions of beauty.  There is a technique in makeup design called highlighting where the artist uses light or shimmery pigment to accentuate high points on the face such as the eyebrows and the cheekbones.  Highlighting is usually done to make someone look more youthful.  High cheekbones have become a sign of beauty.  Are they simply a trend or are we scientifically prone to admire high cheekbones?  
I found an article titled “What your cheekbones say about you: Study shows brains make snap judgments on whether to trust a face ‘in a matter of milliseconds’”.  In the article, it is explained that “…higher inner eyebrows and pronounced cheekbones are seen as trustworthy and lower inner eyebrows and shallower cheekbones are seen as untrustworthy”.  Apparently up is also correlated with trustworthiness. 



MAC Cosmetics recently released a collection called Faerie Whispers.  “Live out your fairy tale with charmed hues inspired by the secret, wondrous world of fairies.  Skin looks soft and gently in feathery pinks and pearl-lit nudes.  Light up eyes with luminous wet or dry shades of new Foiled Shadows” (MAC Cosmetics).   


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