Ingrid Nilsen Wants Women To Stop Apologizing For How They Look | NYT Opinion

Daily makeup, nightly skin care, weekly manicures, monthly facials and quarterly hair appointments. It can be expensive — and exhausting — to be a woman. In the Video Op-Ed above, the beauty guru and YouTube creator Ingrid Nilsen challenges women to start asking whom we’re getting dolled up for — and stop apologizing for how we actually look.

That’s not to say you should throw out your makeup bag because the world’s on fire. During the Great Depression, cosmetic sales actually shot up by 25 percent. In the 2001 recession, revenues from lipstick increased 11 percent in the United States. As the economy shrank in 2008, nail polish sales skyrocketed 65 percent. As Ms. Nilsen notes, a little indulgence may be the pick-me-up you need to get through tough times. But before you click to buy, it’s worth asking: Who is it actually for?

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