In 1998, Sephora came over from France and revolutionized the makeup industry in the United States. They are well known throughout the country as being the only chain store of it's kind. Their focus on makeup products and their recognition as being the only chain store to provide the variety of it's kind has given them the title of being the "beauty authority". But what makes something beautiful really? While some people might find beauty to be the things that make us all different, others might argue that beauty is the definition created by the consumer world as something that is pleasing to the eye created through the use of aesthetic products. Since Sephora is an international company dedicated to selling aesthetic products, it comes to no surprise that their main marketing strategy is linking beauty to makeup.

We live in a society where the use of makeup in women is a vital part of their lives. Our society has ingrained the idea that as women, we need makeup to be beautiful. When discussing makeup, author Carole Jackson is also a believer of makeup being essential to beauty, "When I was a young girl, I wanted so much to be pretty. Studying myself in the mirror, I saw a pale, colorless face and decided that I really wasn't pretty at all. After having my coloring analyzed by a professional color consultant, I found that I do not look pale and lifeless after all -- as long as I wear color that brings out the glow of my natural coloring" (Jackson 9). Our society tells us that we need color to be beautiful, and this color comes through the use of makeup. Here Jackson elaborates on the key areas to focus on, "Each of us have a unique skin tone. Finding the colors that best compliment this tone brings out our special beauty" (Jackson 10). Just like this author, many women grow up believing ideas such as these that without color/makeup one is not beautiful. We see how this concept of beauty is exploited in the ways in which Sephora labels items and areas of their store as "beauty" items and areas.

This site will be dedicated to the use of discourse analysis II to reveal how Sephora manipulates the idea of beauty comes from using makeup into selling the products they provide in the store. A discourse II analysis "works with similar sorts of materials (like in discourse I, visual images and written or spoken text) but is much more concerned with their production by, and their reiteration of, particular institutions and their practices, and their production of particular human subjects. This difference can be clarified by looking at how two exponents of these two kind of discourse analysis use the term 'archive'" (Rose 227). This will dissect the different ways in which Sephora links beauty to makeup through how they present and advertise their products within the store, and name the makeup studio in their store as the "beauty studio". Lastly this site will also go into the way in which Sephora groups items together and labels them as "beauty to go".

The idea that makeup is what makes someone beautiful has been one engraved already into our heads and Sephora is merely using this to their advantage. A social psychological study conducted proved that "Male peers who judged the photographs of women wearing their typical cosmetics deemed them to be more physically attractive than men who saw them without their cosmetics...Our results provide clear evidence that these college women's body images were more favorable with their customary cosmetics than without them" (Dawson 354). Based on this study we can see how cosmetics/makeup are viewed as products that make one beautiful. The idea of beauty is one that is very important and relevant in our society, that it affects our daily lives; "The 70% of the world's female population refrains from the ordinary living activities (giving their opinions, dating with their boyfriends, performing a physical activity, going to school and work or going to an interview) due to their dislike of their appearances"(Kar 17). One can interpret this as proof that beauty is an important aspect of life therefore being beautiful is essential. Women have come to believe and incorporate these ideas into their life, "Many women who say at least some makeup is essential express their feelings that wearing makeup is indeed as important part of being dressed" (Beausoleil 52). The importance based on the usage of makeup has become an essential part of how women view themselves today. This concept has been so perpetrated into women's minds seen in this example, "You know when I just want to give myself a lift, when I put on lipstick I look better...many women say that when they look better, they feel better" (Beausoleil 52). Putting on makeup makes women feel better about themselves and helps achieve that goal of lifting their self esteem.