From Iceland — Icelandic Facebook Groups: Beauty Tips!
Iceland has a peculiar obsession with Facebook groups. Think about it: with about 330,000 inhabitants is not unusual for a group like “Vegan Iceland” to include literally every vegan in Iceland (for the record, there are almost 13,000 members) or for “TRAPLORD$$$” to have all, uh, Icelandic troll commanders (3,000). From “Best Bit?” (“the best bits,” in English) to [name redacted because it’s the group people sell drugs in]in this new series, we’ll delve into the murky world of Iceland’s Facebook groups… so you don’t have to.
If you have heard of #freethenipple or raising awareness about sexual violence #silence, then you’ve already touched on the monotony that is “beauty tips!” Facebook group. There are about 33,000 girls in the group — there is a special group of 13,000 for women over 30 — or one sixth of Iceland’s total population. That’s right: a sixth of the population is in the Beauty Council! group. This group has klout.
Beauty tips! was founded in 2014 by Áslaug María Agnarsdóttir as a platform to talk about, uh, beauty tips. And while members still post questions about makeup, hair and clothes, the group has grown to include much more. The #silence movement – where women changed their profile pictures to highlight their experiences of rape and sexual violence – started as a beauty tip! entry. The group has also become a platform for discussions about #freethenipple, the Slut Walk, and other “feminine” issues. Beauty tips! Is like support for girls – it’s always there when you want to talk about periods, fuckboys or mascara.
Even Grapevine itself has had a few brushes with Beauty Tips!. After we published our scathing concert review “Damn Justin Bieber,” The article was posted on Beauty Tips!, where hundreds of comments contributed their two cents, most of them angry. We were accused of everything from being extremely jealous of the Biebs’ talent to just being incompetent to write a music review at all. But that didn’t catch our attention – we live by the mantra ‘Haterz make you famous.
Today, a beauty tip! is probably the largest Facebook group in Iceland. There’s still a lot of quality content, but recently I’ve noticed that there’s been an influx of “Like if your favorite is Kim!” Heart if it’s Khloe! Wow for Kourtney!” style entry. I’m not a big fan of them — I mean, who would pick anyone but Kim?