Children’s make-up and self-confidence: more than a game, a key to growing up well

Why do our children love dressing up and putting on make-up? Fun? Fun with friends? Naturally, but not only. With its blushes, brushstrokes and bursts of laughter, children’s make-up hides a real development tool. Dressing up, coloring the face and embodying a character are all experiences that help youngsters to dare to assert themselves, express their emotions and build their self-confidence. And what if this moment of play also became a great opportunity to strengthen the bond between parents and children?

Dressing up and putting on make-up: an essential form of self-expression

Make-up at the heart of symbolic play

For a child, dressing up is no trivial matter. Behind the superhero, butterfly or fairy costume lies the need to explore the world and their own emotions. This is what psychologists call symbolic play: the famous imitation games in toy catalogs. As early as 18 months, a child begins to pretend, to act «as if» he or she were sleeping, eating, etc. As children become socialized in day nurseries and kindergartens, mimicry games become one of their main occupations. Disguise and make-up have the power to allow children to slip into a role and explore their imagination. After simply reproducing, the child experiments with roles, imagines situations, creates new roles and new stories.

Make-up as a means of expression

Choosing a character and evolving in extraordinary worlds encourages children to imagine the story of which they will be the hero. They’ll have to create their own narrative, and deal with the actions of other characters who will change the course of the story: adapting their posture as a knight, finding a magical solution or knowing how to end their adventure. Make-up allows each child to adopt the behavior of a character, reusing words they’ve heard and scenes they’ve seen in their favorite cartoon. By imagining situations in which they can be strong, funny, courageous or gentle, children showcase their personalities. By choosing a color, a shape drawn on its face, or an image of a tattoo on her arm, make-up expresses her creativity, her tastes and her emotions. Far from being a simple accessory, make-up becomes a tool for emotional expression. It enables the child to express emotions that are sometimes difficult to verbalize: a bright tone for joy, a stroke of blue to dream, a butterfly to feel free…

Make-up and self-confidence: understanding the link

From emotional learning to identity affirmation

Choosing a disguise or make-up is rarely a matter of chance (nor is it for adults, for that matter). As in a role-playing game, the character we play is often the opposite of who we really are. It embodies who we’d like to be, who we’d like to resemble, with all its qualities and strengths. It also tells us who we are, what we feel, think and believe we are. To get under the skin of your character, you need to :

• Act like him: take on his qualities, his physical abilities.
• Think like him: look at the world through his eyes, put yourself in his shoes.
• Feel like him: associate a person with an emotion, a reaction.

As in theater, playtime becomes an opportunity to develop empathy, to let anger explode, to free speech and emotions. Children experiment with different facets of their personality and develop their self-confidence. Make-up becomes a tool for self-assertion. It helps them learn autonomy and self-expression: «I can choose», «I can create», «I can be me, differently».»

Make-up for self-assertion

By choosing its shades, With the use of make-up, characters and motifs, children can assert their preferences and build a more confident self-image. Playful make-up encourages them to come out of their shells and overcome their shyness, taking on a different posture, sometimes more extrovert, sometimes more romantic. This process is essential to the development of confidence: he learns to make decisions, to take responsibility for his choices and to be proud of the result. Seeing yourself transformed reinforces your sense of power, pride, confidence and self-worth.

👉 Want to read more about building confidence and self-esteem? This should interest you.

When play reveals the parent-child relationship

What if, during a make-up session, the roles were reversed? The child takes the brush, the parent becomes the model. It’s a rare, almost magical moment when the adult relinquishes control and the child guides, observes and decides. It’s an opportunity for parents to let go of control, to observe their child’s creativity and even their need for autonomy.
This gentle reversal of roles opens a window on the parent-child relationship:

• Some parents discover a child who is more self-confident than they imagined.
• Others realize that they find it hard to let go and «not correct».
• Many of our customers have found that laughter, creativity and the unexpected can weld a relationship together.

When make-up becomes a symbolic mirror, it reflects the child’s perception of the relationship and his or her place in it. These moments reveal mutual trust, patience, complicity and sometimes tension. This reflection can be a (sometimes unpleasant) surprise for parents, who discover themselves through their children’s eyes. They offer a golden opportunity to express emotions. By letting their children experiment, parents also show them that they have the right to try, to make mistakes, to try again. By lending themselves to the game, parents become learning partners – not just guides.
It’s a great way to (re)discover each other, while sharing a light moment.

👉 Need help organizing a make-up workshop with your kids, read on. this.

Do you believe that make-up is really just a story about faces, monsters and animals? If you’re not convinced of the power of make-up to develop your children’s creativity and self-fulfilment, take the time to listen to them as they perform the biggest scene of their young lives. You’ll undoubtedly discover what’s at stake for them beyond the simple pursuit of fun and pleasure. At Namaki, we’re convinced that make-up for a child isn’t just about “doing what grown-ups do”. It’s a way for them to tell their story, to discover themselves, and sometimes, to better connect with those they love.