What motivates you to look good? Friends or family? Yourself? The stranger walking down the street who you’ll never speak to? For me, I guess it’s a little bit from column A, B and, sadly, C.
A recent study by Olay found 84 per cent of Australian women are motivated to look good for themselves, however, Gen Y are most likely to be motivated for the benefit of, or to impress, other people such as their partner, colleagues or girlfriends.
Being a Gen Yer, statistically I fit into the category motivated by others – and while they definitely play their part in my general motivation to look good, if I was suddenly committed to solitary confinement for the rest of my life, I think I would still be striving to look good for myself.
About a week of slothing is generally all I can take before I want to eat healthily, scrub up and get my glam on. So even if my sole motivator were others, I don’t think I could live with my slothy self 24-7.
Appearance motivation wasn’t the only interesting statistic coming out of the Olay study. It discovered that 69 per cent of Australians wear make-up at least once a week, with only 36 per cent of people wearing make-up every day and a further 9 per cent not wearing make-up at all.
Before entering into the beauty biz, I would wear make-up most workdays and when I went out, however, weekends would usually be spent sans make-up. Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to find a day where I’m not wearing at least foundation, eyeliner and mascara. Guess it all ties back to wanting to look good for myself, friends, family and any old random on the street…
