What Is The Skin Positivity Movement?
Whilst there has always been a section of the skincare market fixated on the pursuit of the impossible, over the past few years there has been a shift towards ever more elaborate skincare routines and treatments to try and achieve flawless skin without the aid of makeup.
As the standards have become increasingly impossible for people to uphold, there has been a growing movement pushing back against this known as the skin positivity movement.
Initially forming as the acne positivity movement, it was a pushback against very specific standards of beauty that required smooth, dewy skin, with the implication, overt or otherwise, that people who did not have such smooth skin simply were not trying hard enough to attain it.
Skincare should not be about trying to eradicate imperfections but instead, natural skincare should focus on helping people to love the skin they are in, reduce irritation, keep skin moisturised and help people to feel more comfortable in themselves, figuratively and literally.
A lot of people have acne and it is as part of someone’s appearance as beauty marks, freckles and dimples are, so skin positivity brings that into the fore, often in the form of beautiful photography that emphasises the beauty in every person in a way similar to the wider body positivity movement.
The ultimate goal in this is to highlight the diversity of beauty and allow people to accept what they cannot change about themselves and be their authentic selves in everything they do.
As well as this, it helps to highlight to people struggling with their skin that they are far from alone and that the true goal of skincare is in the name; it should not try to hide or eradicate, but instead should help people to feel better.
It also gives people more of a choice in how much they want to take part in beauty, recontextualising skincare as something people do for themselves rather than as an obligation to others.
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