According to the internet, beauty is empowerment, but only if you buy the right serum, the right leggings, and the right lip combo. It’s hard to feel liberated when the algorithm is basically a salesperson in disguise.
In recent years, social media has transformed the idea of self-care into a glossy aesthetic pipeline. “Clean Girl”, “Soft Girl”, “Vanilla Girl”, and even “That Girl” all claim to help us become our “best selves”. But, behind the slick GRWM videos with flawless transitions and “morning de-shed routines” is something that looks a lot like a capitalist feedback loop: trends that demand constant consumption while pretending to be effortlessly attainable.
And for university students who are already carefully budgeting everything down to their groceries every week, chasing these trends may feel like running a marathon in a pair of overpriced shoes you couldn’t afford in the first place.
The Rise of the Aesthetic Economy
Aesthetics used to be creative. Now they function more like micro-brands you assign to your identity. The Clean Girl aesthetic is perhaps the clearest example of this, slick hair, glowy skin, minimal makeup and an “effortless” vibe that more often than not requires expensive products, good lighting, and a lifestyle out of reach for most.
As noted by culture critics, the Clean Girl look reinforces classism and elitism, disguising it as wellness or routine. The “effortlessness” is often built on invisible privilege: access to dermatologists, pricier “clean” products, or even simply the luxury to have the time to do a 15-step nighttime routine.
By presenting a beauty standard that appears natural, but is actually curated through consumption, the aesthetic blurs the distinction between authentic digital identity and elite consumer behaviour. It positions certain products as moral choices, “clean”, “minimal”, “ethical”, even though the beauty industry’s marketing often oversimplifies what these buzzwords really mean.
The Empowerment Trap
These trends work because they use the language of empowerment, telling you to “Invest in yourself” or that “You deserve luxury.” But empowerment feels suspicious when it always comes with Amazon links.
What used to be simple self-care, taking a walk, journaling, calling a friend, is now deemed insufficient unless accompanied by he right gadgets and glow. The algorithm convinces us that improvement is something you can buy, one product at a time.
And it extends beyond makeup or skincare; it’s the entire lifestyle, the matcha lattes, gel nails, and pilate memberships. The message is clear: it’s all attainable, but only through a curated chain of purchases.
“Clean Beauty” is Still Consumerism
Buzzwords like “non-toxic,” “organic,” “transparent,” or “clean beauty,” make products feel ethical, but they’re still a part of a marketing machine. Young consumers increasingly want sustainable and ethical options, and companies respond by branding themselves as “green” even when their ingredients or packaging remain environmentally questionable.
This creates an illusion of morally superior consumption.
Instead of encouraging people to use what they already have, trends push them to buy more and more.
Finding Wellness Without Breaking the Bank
Despite the critiques, loving beauty isn’t the problem, it’s how the industry turns identity into a subscription service. There are healthier ways to enjoy these trends without being swallowed by them:
- Buy intentionally, not aspirationally. Ask yourself: Do I really want this, or do I want the lifestyle being sold to me?
- Unfollow accounts that trigger comparison: Your mental health is worth far more than someone else’s “perfect” morning routine.
- Reclaim self-care as something low-cost: Self-care doesn’t have to be aesthetic; it can be messy and private.
- Enjoy beauty for fun, not validation: Beauty is a form of play, not a measure of worth.
The Real Flex? Doing What Feels Good For You
At the end of the day, aesthetics will come and go, but your worth doesn’t switch aesthetic with the algorithm. And here is something I want to make absolutely clear: Liking beauty, fashion, or routine videos doesn’t make you shallow or easily influenced. It makes you human. It makes you someone who enjoys creativity, colour, texture, and self-expression, the joyful parts of life. Loving beauty can be empowering. It can be a comfort, a form of self-care, or just something fun to look forward to after a long week of midterms.
The problem isn’t us.
It’s the systems that quietly raise the price of participating.
Beauty isn’t inherently toxic, but beauty as an obligation, beauty as a moral superiority, or beauty as a never-ending shopping list can be exhausting and expensive, especially for students who are already juggling tuition, rent, and groceries. And sometimes, trends make it feel like you have to keep up to belong.
The goal of this piece is not to guilt you for liking a trend, but to raise awareness about how marketing shapes the culture around us. You can enjoy beauty without letting it drain your wallet or dictate your worth. You can follow creators and recognize when a “recommendation” is actually an ad. You can collect products because they spark joy, not because the algorithm says you should.
Real empowerment comes not from buying the “right” things, but from knowing you get to define what beauty means for you. And the best part? That kind of empowerment is free.
References
- https://www.youthtothepeople.com/blog/to-the-people–youth-to-the-people/balancing-self-care-with-capitalism.html
- https://sites.duke.edu/thelilypad/2025/11/12/performative-femininity-dirt-behind-clean-girl-aesthetic/
- https://fhsphoenix.org/the-clean-girl-aesthetic-the-harms-of-trends/
- https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9206477/file/9206482.pdf
- https://gnovisjournal.georgetown.edu/the-gnovis-blog/2024/the-culture-industry-clean-girls-coastal-grandmothers-and-tiktok-consumerism-by-riley-tinlin/
- https://vocast.com/the-clean-beauty-movement-how-to-tap-into-the-rise-of-conscious-consumerism
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12553177/