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The clean girl aesthetic promises minimalism but demands time, money and effort. Is effortless beauty just another impossible standard?

If it takes 10 steps and ₹30,000, is it still ‘effortless’ beauty?

If the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ on social media demands a natural, flawless look, why does it come with a hefty price tag and heftier expectations to always look well put together?

In a tutorial titled ‘ minute no-foundation make-up routine,’ actor Alia Bhatt created what she called a “sunburnt glow” look using about 15 beauty products amounting to anywhere around ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. The result? Radiant, sunkissed skin with barely-there touches on the brows, lips, and eyelashes. Was there a palpable change before and after using these products? Not really. But that was the point. Welcome to ‘clean girl aesthetic’: an Instagram trend that insists you must look natural—only better. 

The clean girl aesthetic: a luxury disguised as minimalism

Ever since Hailey Bieber and Sofia Richie posted videos of their soft make-up looks on Instagram and TikTok, the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ has become social media canon. Of course, both the celebrities are associated with  beauty lines—Beiber as the founder of Rhode and Richie as the beauty director and investor of Nudestix —creating products that cater to the same aesthetic, which might either be a sweet coincidence or a well-planned marketing move. Either way, it worked. By 2022, #cleangirl had amassed over 650 million views on TikTok and over 3,95,000 posts on Instagram—the same that Rhode was launched. 

By 2022, #cleangirl had amassed over 650 million views on TikTok and over 3,95,000 posts on Instagram. Image: Instagram.com/rhode

By 2022, #cleangirl had amassed over 650 million views on TikTok and over 3,95,000 posts on Instagram. Image: Instagram.com/rhode

Brands like Gisou, Summer Fridays, and Glow Recipe, which started as skincare/hair-first labels, have entered the ‘clean girl’ market with tinted moisturisers and glow-enhancing oils. Image: Instagram.com/gisou

Brands like Gisou, Summer Fridays, and Glow Recipe, which started as skincare/hair-first labels, have entered the ‘clean girl’ market with tinted moisturisers and glow-enhancing oils. Image: Instagram.com/gisou

In response to the growing penchant for slick glossy lips, glowy skin, and cushiony-flushed cheeks, in the past five years, a slew of beauty brands have launched globally with the same ideology as brands in the past—Merit, Refy Beauty, Saie Beauty, Tower28, Fara Homidi, and Jones Road.

Closer home, Indian brands like Forest Essentials, asa Beauty, indē wild, and Purearth introduced skin tints, creamy highlighters, lightweight concealers, and tinted lip balms. But most of these sit firmly in the premium-to-luxury category. 

The mania around nailing effortless beauty isn’t restricted to make-up alone. Even brands like Gisou, Summer Fridays, and Glow Recipe, which started as skincare/hair-first labels, have entered the ‘clean girl’ market with tinted moisturisers and glow-enhancing oils. Minimalism might be trending, but this is  a heavily packaged, high-budget version. 

The unspoken rule: look beautiful, but don’t look like you tried  

Bollywood has long romanticised women with long, luscious hair, kohl-rimmed eyes, and rose-pink lips and cheeks. Growing up, many Indian women were encouraged to use turmeric for tan removal or hair oil for shine—but boldlipstick or jet-black kajal was mostly frowned upon. The message is clear: look beautiful, but make it subtle.

"THROUGHOUT HISTORY, BEAUTY HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH PRIVILEGE"

Dr Kiran Sethi

In a tutorial titled ‘10 minute no-foundation make-up routine,’ actor Alia Bhatt created what she called a “sunburnt glow” look using about 15 beauty products amounting to anywhere around ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. Image: Youtube

In a tutorial titled ‘ minute no-foundation make-up routine,’ actor Alia Bhatt created what she called a “sunburnt glow” look using about 15 beauty products amounting to anywhere around ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. Image: Youtube

Psychological research backs this up. Women who wear more make-up are often viewed as ‘less human’. . Beauty editor and content creator Komal Basith notes, “Victorian manuals for beauty recommend ‘natural’ ways to enhance women’s features, like using soot from candles to line the eyes. Meanwhile, overtly looking like you had any make-up on was best left to the ‘painted ladies’ of the night. What we’re seeing now is a backlash of sorts to those ideals, and when that happens, ‘clean beauty’ tends to come back into fashion. It ties in with the patriarchal notion of what women are supposed to look like—beautiful but without trying.” 

Is ‘natural beauty’ just another term for ‘expensive’?

Whether it’s semi-permanent brow tinting or consuming collagen drinks, today’s ‘natural’ is the product of serious investment. Natural beauty has become yet another agency of quiet luxury, notes Dr Kiran Sethi, a New Delhi-based dermatologist and author of Skin Sense. “Throughout history, beauty has been associated with privilege. Now, it is also associated with youth. Both are seductive, and when combined, they can be extremely persuasive.” 

In 2024, Pamela Anderson walked the red carpet at the Paris Fashion Week without make-up. Alicia Keys has been doing so since 2016. Their bare-faced choices were praised—but never replicated. Instead, we got microbladed brows and hair Botox.

This natural beauty aesthetic is endorsed as a means to “look expensive,” inducing an unwanted element of classism in this standard. Image: Instagram.com/summerfridays

This natural beauty aesthetic is endorsed as a means to “look expensive,” inducing an unwanted element of classism in this standard. Image: Instagram.com/summerfridays

Indian brands like Forest Essentials, asa Beauty, indē wild, and Purearth introduced skin tints, creamy highlighters, lightweight concealers, and tinted lip balms. Image: Instagram.com/asabeautyindia

Indian brands like Forest Essentials, asa Beauty, indē wild, and Purearth introduced skin tints, creamy highlighters, lightweight concealers, and tinted lip balms. Image: Instagram.com/asabeautyindia

“Gone are the days when we dressed up once a week,” says beauty content creator Tarini Peshawaria. “Add the constant expectation to look like you’ve not had a single dark circle upon waking up, or that you don’t look like a tangled mess, the problem worsens, leading to a new wave of ‘semi-permanent’ or ‘permanent’ beauty treatments.” 

Sapna Vaid, a semi-permanent make-up specialist at Mumbai-based spa The White Door, says that there has been a massive surge in the popularity of services like lash lifting, lip blushing, and microblading. “Beyond convenience, many opt for semi-permanent make-up to achieve a flawless, symmetrical, and polished look without the need for daily make-up application.” 

The cost of such beauty services ranges from ₹35,000 to ₹80,000 per session, and may require a follow-up session within a year at an additional cost of ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 depending on the choice of service. Similarly, fillers, Botox, hair Botox, medi-facials, and other in-clinic facial symmetry-fixing treatments come with bigger ticket sizes, starting at ₹25,000. Ironically, this quest for ‘effortless’ beauty demands more effort, time, and money than ever before.

“CONSTANT COMPARISON TO FILTERED IMAGES MAY LEAD TO SKIN DYSMORPHIA, OVERCORRECTION, AND DEPENDENCE ON AESTHETIC TREATMENTS”

Dr Jaishree Sharad

“While the overdone face is still mocked and feared, the naturally elevated look reflects wealth—it’s for those who have access to the best [of services]. The emphasis on removing the work from the look speaks of privilege, comfort, discipline,and access. That FOMO is real,” says Sethi. 

Treatments and services aside, even the make-up products used to achieve the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ feature non-drugstore products—Rhode’s milky toner and lip balm, Merit’s foundation stick, Rare Beauty’s liquid blushes, Milk Makeup’s primer, Charlotte Tilbury’s pressed powder and lipstick, and YSL Beauty’s mascara are staples to attain such a look. This natural beauty aesthetic is endorsed as a means to “look expensive,” inducing an unwanted element of classism in this standard. Minimal beauty, therefore, ends up translating into maximal everything else. 

“The unrealistic notion that beauty should be effortlessly attainable, suggests it is an inherent trait, without disclosing the efforts involved. Ironically, achieving this natural look often requires substantial effort and resources, from skincare routines to cosmetic procedures,” says Mumbai-based dermatologist Dr Madhuri Agarwal, underscoring the paradox of natural beauty.  

“I love doing make-up; it is a great way to express myself. But I also think it is important to feel comfortable in my own skin without it

“I love doing make-up; it is a great way to express myself. But I also think it is important to feel comfortable in my own skin without it" says Krutika aka @TheMermaidScales. Image: Instagram.com/themermaidscales

“Sadly we don’t want to admit that perfection or flawlessness aren’t natural, that they take work,

“Sadly we don’t want to admit that perfection or flawlessness aren’t natural, that they take work," says Dr Kiran Sethi. Image: Dupe

“It shows how society has a narrow view of beauty—praising a flawless, polished look while pretending it’s natural,” says content creator Krutika, who goes by @TheMermaidScales on Instagram. 

Social media’s obsession with effortless beauty

As we mindlessly scrollthrough impossibly polished faces on Instagram, the algorithm wants us to play catch up. “Everyone (including myself) is constantly bombarded with pristine-looking images of polished women, through every medium possible,” says Shalini Kutti, a beauty content creator. “Be it billboards along your daily commute, Instagram when you’re scrolling, or advertisements when you’re just chilling, it subconsciously signals to our brain that this is what we should look like too.”

Actor and content creator Dolly Singh  strongly attributes a feeling of inadequacy about her beauty to social media. “Thanks to social media, and everyone being on it all the time, there has been a definite shift in how much importance is given to beauty. The whole herd-like culture of following celebrities and influencers on social media has caused an obsession with looking perfect all the time,” she shares. “As someone who keeps up with social media, I still find it overwhelming to see the number of treatments and procedures that have entered the market. There’s no right or wrong, but the demand [for them] just goes to show how far we’re willing to go to look ‘flawless.’” 

Beauty standards, set by social media and the rampant celebrity culture on it offer a version of natural beauty, that blur the line between effortless and enhanced. Image: Rhode.com

Beauty standards, set by social media and the rampant celebrity culture on it offer a version of natural beauty, that blur the line between effortless and enhanced. Image: Rhode.com

Basith adds that we are looking at ourselves more than ever—regular Zoom calls, posting on Instagram—and hence we are just more aware of how we look. “There is a desire to look more ‘camera-ready’ in a way that we just wouldn’t think about earlier. We want to seem more ‘done’ at all times.”

Such beauty standards, set by social media and the rampant celebrity culture on it, offer a version of natural beauty, “blurring the line between effortless and enhanced,” says Krutika. “When I was a kid, I would watch movies and admire the luscious hair that women had, unaware of [the use of] extensions. Today’s generation is mostly online, well-aware of things, and yet the distorted presentation of natural beauty can influence them,” says Singh. “I, for one, do feel that I think too much about my beauty, or how I can perfect it, and it overwhelms me so much that I end up doing nothing. Since there is too much material to compare myself to on the Internet, I do feel less confident about my skin and face. My mental health, understanding of beauty, self-confidence, and the amount of self-scrutiny have all been influenced by the content I consume on social media,” she adds. 

Through her experience, Vaid feels like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are driving the demand for hyper-realistic, undetectable beauty treatments like microblading, lip blush, and lash enhancements. “The rise of trends like the ‘clean girl aesthetic’ and ‘soft glam’ has made semi-permanent procedures more desirable, as they help achieve effortless beauty with minimal daily make-up. Viral videos and client testimonials showcasing brow corrections, lip neutralisation, and lash enhancements propel these treatments to become more mainstream and accessible. When high-profile figures openly share their experiences, such services feel like a regular part of beauty maintenance.” 

But this exposure and accessibility come with their own set of risks. “Constant comparison to filtered images may lead to skin dysmorphia, overcorrection, and dependence on aesthetic treatments,” warns Dr Jaishree Sharad, a celebrity dermatologist and author of Skin Rules. “This pressure can erode self-acceptance, causing anxiety and dissatisfaction. As a dermatologist, I want to promote healthy, realistic goals, not obsessions.”

What natural beauty really entails

Krutika flips between dramatic make-up and  bare skin on her Instagram. “I love doing make-up; it is a great way to express myself. But I also think it is important to feel comfortable in my own skin without it. Showing both sides, whether it’s a bold look or my natural self, is a reminder that beauty isn’t one-dimensional. It’s about embracing the many versions of yourself.” For Krutika, and many others, natural beauty is not about doing less—it’s about doing what feels right, irrespective of trends.

Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are driving the demand for hyper-realistic, undetectable beauty treatments like microblading, lip blush, and lash enhancement. Image: Dupe

Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are driving the demand for hyper-realistic, undetectable beauty treatments like microblading, lip blush, and lash enhancement. Image: Dupe

The cost of such beauty services ranges from ₹35,000 to ₹80,000 per session, and may require a follow-up session within a year at an additional cost of ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 depending on the choice of service. Image: Dupe

The cost of such beauty services ranges from ₹35,000 to ₹80,000 per session, and may require a follow-up session within a year at an additional cost of ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 depending on the choice of service. Image: Dupe

“Sadly we don’t want to admit that perfection or flawlessness aren’t natural, that they take work. You can’t have a lineless face at the age of 75 naturally, for example. We have set expectations that can’t really be met, and the need to pretend to the world,” says Sethi. 

“If you’re putting in the effort to look a certain way, I’d say that’s amazing. But if you are trying to make that effort just to adhere to what is trending, remember that societal beauty standards will always keep changing,” says Krutika. “You can never fully meet them, no matter how much effort you put in, because they’re constantly shifting.” 

Peshawaria confesses that natural beauty’s definition in her head has been morphed too. “I definitely feel my most confident when my hair is washed and blow-dried, my nails are done, and I’ve taken a long, hot shower, applied a tinted moisturiser, and some lip balm and blush. But then, at least, this is my version of feeling beautiful, and not necessarily a trendy routine off social media.”

“When natural beauty is defined by perfection, it distorts reality for everyone,” says Kavita Khosa, founder of Purearth and author of Beauty Unbottled. Singh says that as a viewer, she tends to gravitate towards women who are naturally themselves. “Their dark circles, wrinkles or [skin] texture don’t matter to me, despite comparing myself with what I see on social media. The real challenge is to constantly remind myself that this is how I define beauty, and every other standard is man-made,” she shares. “When we embrace our natural beauty, we free ourselves from unattainable standards and step into a more sustainable, joyful relationship with ourselves. Acceptance fosters long-term well-being, deep self-trust, and timeless beauty—one that is nurtured through care, not corrections,” concludes Khosa.

Comparisons are everywhere—but the version of beauty you subscribe to is entirely yours. So, the next time you indulge in an elaborate 10-step skincare regimen or a glass skin-inspired make-up look to flaunt that picture-perfect skin, pause and ask yourself: Are you doing it because it brings you joy or are you just falling in line with yet another aesthetic dressed up as empowerment?

Also Read: Why is Gen Z oscillating between unapologetic body acceptance and unrealistic beauty standards?

Also Read: The trends that will shape India’s beauty and wellness landscape

Also Read: Has internet culture killed individuality when it comes to make-up?


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