Is Beauty a Promise to Happiness?

Abstract

When I was a little girl around the age of five I was introduced to make-up. I fell head over heels in love with it. Needless to say, my love for make-up hasn't changed and it has expanded to all types of products for skin, hair, and body. I wake up in the morning and I wash my face because there are advertisements that tell me a clean face is beautiful. I brush, and perhaps whiten my teeth because having white teeth is important to being beautiful. When I apply make-up for the day time, I don't use as much eye liner as I would if I were going out at night because there was a magazine post about the correct amount of eyeliner based on certain occasions. Up until college I was unaware that the methods I was taking in order to be what society deemed as beautiful was all because I wanted to be happy with my appearance. It is through my passion for cosmetics that I have come to wonder, why. Why is beauty so important to our culture, specifically women, and why is it framed as "happy"?