I’m ashamed to admit that I spent the majority of my teens at the whims of the Kardashian family and their multi-billion-dollar beauty empire. I went to extreme lengths to emulate their look. In 2015, I scrambled to buy Kylie Jenner’s viral lip-plumping kit that she promised would produce a pout like her own. The wages from my first job were spent slowly collecting each MAC Cosmetics lip pencil that she’d recommended. I would shade my eyebrows using a deep brunette pomade to match hers. It was Kylie’s older half-sister, the famous Kim Kardashian, who taught me how to contour my face (via a YouTube tutorial, no less). You could say I was influenced. But I’d argue it was deeper than a mere surface-level influencing – the family set a standard of beauty that continues to reign today in the form of the archetypal “Instagram face” (think button nose, sharp cheekbones, inflated lips). And women like me followed along.
A decade later, I’m no longer as impressionable. And that’s why I’m alarmed by the Kardashians’ recent move into total plastic surgery and tweak-ment transparency, following years of cloak-and-dagger and pseudo-denials. Last weekend, Khloe Kardashian, the eldest sister of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, published a list of her facial procedures. They included, but were not limited to, a nose job, skin lightening, Botox, filler, collagen injections and regular “salmon sperm facials”. Only weeks earlier did Khloe’s 27-year-old half-sister Kylie share the specifics of her second breast enlargement procedure, including the size, placement and doctor. When a fan asked her to share the magical components – presumably for their own upcoming appointment – Kylie obliged, writing: “445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!!. Silicone!!! Garth Fisher!!! Hope this helps lol.” It was dubbed by fans as her “boob job recipe”; dished out so candidly as if it were instructions for whipping up a quick pasta dish. Their mother, Kris Jenner, also recently named the New York City-based facelift specialist who was behind her latest glow-up.
