Beauty Design: Cosmetics as Will and Representation

Cosmetically-enhanced beauty is something that has existed for centuries. Over the course of the last century, however, a cosmetics industry has arisen that is worth millions. Its products claim to optimize visual appearance, to bestow inner and outer health and to delay aging, under a veneer of medical credibility and reliable results. The referential frame for cosmetics is constituted by cultural history and iconology, by semiotics and sociology, by psychology and rhetoric. Like fashion, ...