In recent years, the concept of skin care—specifically, of skin care as a phenomenon that invites unlimited expenditures of money, strategy, and time—has exploded kaleidoscopically.
As feminist discourse has gone mainstream, the beauty industry has tried to cover some of its tracks. At the Times Magazine, Amanda Hess recently wrote about how the term “anti-aging” is going out of fashion.
Something similar is going on today with a certain popular beauty look, which we might label “Instagram model.” The look evokes both nakedness and airbrushing and is made possible by technology.