Fake it till you make it...really?

I was brought up in a fairly protected environment – ok not all fairy tales (as I had mentioned earlier, I definitely was no “pinky girl”) but well I guess there just was a lot of stuff I wasn’t that interested in as a tween or early teen (e.g. makeup, shopping, etc. – I loved the Spice Girls though). A lot of stuff I kept for later on and honestly do not regret having lived each age differently and thoroughly.

When I met LFSTYLT husband some years ago, I remember him showing me all the fake stuff out there (hmm hmm…he apparently had developed quite an eye for plastic surgery, fake eyelashes, etc. – should I raise my eyebrow or laugh?).

In any case that was an eye opener for me…I knew of course about all this stuff – I am not completely out of this world – but neither was I really interested in it, nor had I resorted to it, nor had I developed an eye to spot all this…

I was pretty much shocked.

Whereas taking care of oneself and resorting to make up to enhance your features is perfectly normal, for me the rest is nonsensical. 

I believe that someone who basically doesn’t like him or herself / has complexes of any sorts, shouldn’t try and treat the symptoms but should focus on the cause and heal just that. 

Treating the symptoms will only drain you in a spiral of further symptoms to cure. 

Second big revelation was from a friend of mine, in the context of ever growing social media and the cult of “having to be cool and live a cool life” (and also have heaps of money you can show off seems to be appealing).

She explained to me the business of renting luxury items which was initially thought of for going to galas or so and which dramatically derived to rental for a cool pic or two.

Of course some accessories are cool and beautiful and make a nice picture. I won’t lie, there are some brands I am a huge fan of and when / if I can get my hands on an item with some saved up money, I definitely make a big deal out of it when I treat myself to it.

But: seriously? Renting out luxury items just for one or two pictures to show a fake life?

And so my astonishment reached a summit when my curiosity made me loose a couple of hours of sleep as I read revelations about some blogs I was following. They were actually giving me the keys to see some fake stuff.

In one case in particular, I had been so focused on the beauty of the pictures – and they really are beautiful arrangements from an artistic point of view – that I hadn’t realised that, yes indeed, the party pictures were actually not even showing guests and I had to acknowledge that it really did look like a huge mise-en-scène. (Once keys were given to open my eyes).

A lot of gossip I guess is just gossip and as in “real” life, one never knows the truth behind as one isn’t there in the moments.

But I don’t know if I was curious or astonished or disappointed of all these lies flashed at us every day and massively.

Here again, I am not that naive and clearly, influencer business etc attracts company marketing as it is a great new means for advertising. And that is ok, I always say I am a “marketing victim”. I love marketing, pretty pictures and trying out stuff.

But maybe I had naively thought that people supposedly blogging about their real lives would do that for real and not just be another version of the pretty completely re-made and re-touched woman posing for a shampoo which will give me that shiny, voluminous mane.

I still like reading those blogs and really enjoy beautiful pictures. But I do now take them with a pinch of salt and am enjoy to “Sherlock Holmes” these pictures – I have become quite an expert!