BE-ING

A new look at makeup as a tool for identity exploration and transition

Photo courtesy of Jingna Zhang (www.zhangjingna.com)

“This is the new world, and in this world, you can be whoever the fuck you want.”
- Maeve, Westworld

In a recent interview I did with 938Live, I described the empowerment that makeup brings to women when they can discover and play with their identity transformation through looks. With makeup, each day offers a new opportunity to change—if they so wish. To that, the interviewer said,

“We can almost create our different avatar for the day.”

That analogy resonated with me.

Growing up in the ‘00s with access to PC and online role-playing games, I was creating digital avatars before social media and the metaverse popularized the term. There was a satisfaction in being able to dream up and personalize my avatar, and to even switch between multiple avatars within a game.

In recent years, I discovered the TV series Westworld. Set in a dystopian future, it’s a place where paying guests visit android “hosts” at a western theme park to indulge their fantasies, but only after taking on a new identity. A key moment in the guests’ journey is when they enter a train that takes them to the park. As they move from a high-tech setting into a totally different realm, they start to select their new look from the clothes, hats, shoes, and guns surrounding them—all contributing to their transformation into someone new.

Dreams and Identity

Who does the child dream of being when they first discovers the makeup on the dresser, a clumsy hand spreading red across their mouth, chubby fingers dipping into elegant powders, emerging with colors smeared across eyes and cheeks? A moment of playful exploration and emulation of adult gestures, an act of identifying with their early caregivers.

In the adolescent or adult world, social status, culture, and belonging become more closely associated with the use of makeup. Without the need to speak, makeup becomes a code that demonstrates to others who we are, what culture we align ourselves with, how we value ourselves in the eyes of others.

To the naysayers who associate makeup with the superficial, I say aye. It is precisely this external work that contributes to the creation of our inner world, an outside-in approach that supports our inner work/world. It is because we, humans, need to fulfill our individual longings, support our relationships or sustain our belief systems that we fabricate an identity to position the self in a particular space and time (Petriglieri, 2019).

Transitioning Through Identities  

The temporal nature of makeup makes it a relevant tool to explore identity. There is a certain non-commitment which allows us to experience the state of being another before deciding if it feels or looks right. Apply, remove, apply, remove.

The beauty ritual is in itself a period of transition, a bare face taking on layers of creams, powders, colors to reveal a different self. All while gazing at ourselves in the mirror, the eyes taking in our image. ‘This is me … or not”, so we ponder while internalizing our appearance and identity through the reflection. “It is a different me, but still me,” one might think to themselves. Or “This isn’t the person I want to be.”

And if the look doesn’t fit, the playfulness of makeup gives the user that power to remove it and start over. As Herminia Ibarra explains, dentity itself is temporal and not fixed, and as we find ways to adapt to new roles, we experiment with provisional selves before evaluating these experiments (Ibarra, 1999). The few minutes we spend in the dressing room, or in the beauty store touching the colors and textures, or online browsing products, imagining how they would transform our face—these are our daily experiments.

How might you use beauty makeup as your tool to explore your identity and build courage? Here I adapt the three basic tasks suggested by Ibarra to your exploration of image.

1. The observation of potential role models to identify potential identities

Gather images of people that catch your eye whom you would like to emulate. It’s ok to have variance. Ask yourself: What attracts me to this look? What do I think that image says about the person I want to be?

2. The experimentation with provisional selves

• Although a total makeover may sound novel and efficient, continuity is a challenge, and many find it difficult to follow through on a daily basis.

• Instead, set aside time to play and experiment. It could be 5 minutes to try out one new color, or 15 minutes to test a new technique. It’s OK to dislike something, make mistakes, erase, and start over.

3. Evaluate the experiments with your new look(s) against internal standards and external feedback

• Don’t be afraid to take photographs along the way. More a mirror’s reflection, they capture you in that point of time and allow a review of the visual, outward impression of your identity. Ask yourself: why do or don’t like it? What does the look say about me?

• Ask trusted friends: what impression do I give when I look this way?

Create Your Own Transitional Space and Time

These places for experiments are our transitional spaces. The privacy of our rooms provides a protective cocoon: safe, isolated, allowing for experimentation, far from the eyes of society.

Some prefer the supportive power of a group, a holding environment able to contain one’s anxieties around change. My time as a makeup artist, and later training beauty advisors in stores, has shown me that the best people to support this change are those able to hold the space for the client, from listening to acknowledging, to being able to spot and address projections.

• Is it in the privacy of your bedroom? Do you prefer to have help and support around you, perhaps in a store, or with friends? Some people prefer being part of a class or group to be guided. These transitional spaces “hold” us through the transformation journey.

• If you’re worried about what others think, do small experiments. For example, instead of showing up at a conservative organization with dark eyes and a blazing red lip, try a rosy shade and observe both yours and their reactions.

We are constantly becoming someone. As we take on new roles in life, at work, and society, makeup can service as a powerful companion in that transformation. From the outside in—little by little, or in a big jolt—we can build a new identity. All at our own hand. The more confident we are about how we look, the more we can become who we want to be.

Works Cited:

Ibarra, H. (1999). Provisional Selves: Experimenting with Image and Identity in Professional Adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 764-791.

Petriglieri, G. (2019). A psychodynamic perspective on identity as fabrication. In A. Brown (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of identities in organizations (pp. 169-184). Oxford: Oxford University Press.