Fatalips!-Amelia Miholca

Shop Drop Project

My piece is based on the concept of how cosmetic brands exploit the female consumer’s self-esteem. Stores have entire isles filled with expensive make-up, ranging from mascara to lipstick, which claim to make the supposedly ugly female consumer more attractive. The cosmetic companies make these claims with no thoughtful concern about how they might affect a woman’s confidence in the first place but only about outselling their competitors. The particular cosmetic brand which I chose is Soap & Glory from Target because their entire product packaging is cluttered with overly enthusiastic promises, which reduce the female consumer to a doll who simply enhances her lips and she becomes instantly irresistible. This implies that she was less attractive in the first place, with her thin, normal lips. I changed the original crayon label from “Marvelips!” to “Fatalips!” in order to allude to the stereotypical femme fatale who is always attractive and uses her good looks to her advantage. Hence, the female consumer can use the “toxic” crayon and transform into a femme fatale. The “Fat” part of the title can immediately catch the eye and instill negative connotations and images associated with the word. The “toxic” label also means how harmful these types of products are to women and their perception of their true selves. The cosmetic products give the assumption that women need to change their appearance, wearing a superficial face mask like the woman on the label, in order for society to acknowledge her beauty. By accepting the belief that cosmetic companies are the answer to beauty, the female consumer lets them take advantage of her image and, thus, becomes a commodity herself.