Getty / Stefanie Keenan thecelebrityfinder/Bauer-Griffin and Photograph Illustration Becky Jiras
Social media being unhealthy on your vanity is just not a contemporary take – everyone knows all too effectively the sensation of doomscrolling late into the night time evaluating your self to individuals who appear to have your dream wardrobe, home, automobile, job, fill-in-the-blank. Born from this, notably inside TikTok, are limitless tendencies that take up the FYP, and whereas some are flash-in-the-pan (keep in mind, cottagecore? Brat girl’s aged aunt. . .), there are some that stand the take a look at of time and proceed to realize traction. The skin-care and sweetness group isn’t any exception to this, and amongst these tendencies, one which has dominated over the previous couple of years is the “clear woman” aesthetic, which has amassed over two million hashtags in its varied kinds on TikTok.
The “clear woman” doesn’t have a transparent definition however will be acknowledged by her slicked-back bun, glowing pores and skin, and neutral nails. She forgoes full-coverage basis in change for a lighter tinted moisturizer and doesn’t do a lot past brushing her brows and dabbing on a contact of lip balm earlier than she’s prepared to go away the home. Whereas it sounds harmless sufficient, this exclusionary magnificence customary will be extremely isolating and disillusioning for somebody like me. As a South Asian woman with pimples, my pores and skin is rarely clear. From breakouts to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation to genetically predisposed darkish circles, my routine requires an arsenal of merchandise earlier than I can hope to duplicate the glow of the clear woman. There isn’t any quantity of tinted moisturizer that’s going to realize the look that TikTok is telling me it could actually.
Picture Supply: Courtesy of Sidra Imtiaz
It looks like the one strategy to be on development is to have clear pores and skin or completely easy, styled hair, and belief me, if that was an choice, I’d select it 1,000,000 occasions over.
Seen because the poster baby for the clear woman look, many influencers sharing tutorials are emulating Hailey Bieber and like her, they too are white, blond, and have clear, blemish-free pores and skin. Branding this as a development that may be achieved by anybody with the appropriate steps has sinister undertones. In 2025, are we nonetheless selling Eurocentric magnificence requirements? It looks like a step again from the pores and skin positivity motion we noticed in 2020, and the issue is the assumption that with the appropriate merchandise, anybody can obtain the identical look. This simply isn’t the case for thus many people. For each piece of content material I see that depicts an influencer making use of a dab of concealer to her flawless face or mentioning how she simply must cowl her barely seen darkish eye circles, it feels increasingly more like I’m in a dropping battle. If I keep on with the naked minimal make-up, as a “clear woman” would do, my pores and skin is blemished and uneven, and I don’t really feel like my make-up is doing the work it ought to be. If I’m going for full protection for day-to-day, then I’m outdated and overdoing it. It looks like the one strategy to be on development is to have clear pores and skin or completely easy, styled hair, and belief me, if that was an choice, I’d select it 1,000,000 occasions over.
And the rule of opposites requires the speedy, unconscious conclusion: If I’m not a “clear woman,” then what does that make me?
It begs the query, is that this what’s resulting in the rise in pre-teens investing in costly, energetic skincare that they merely don’t want nor ought to be utilizing? And what ought to we, as ladies, do otherwise to make sure the conceit of little women isn’t primarily based on one thing so out of their management, just like the state of their pores and skin or the feel of their hair? Using the language across the development is what takes it from being an harmless social media second to one thing extra deeply problematic. The phrase “clear” being related to wanting a sure means perpetuates the narrative that those that sit outdoors this field – like individuals of shade or acne-prone, coily-haired women – are merely not. And the rule of opposites requires the speedy, unconscious conclusion: If I’m not a “clear woman,” then what does that make me?
Sidra Imtiaz is a contract British Pakistani Muslim magnificence author and PR skilled primarily based in London, however usually within the US. She has written for Refinery29, Glamour, InStyle, Bustle, Who What Put on, and PS.
