Why We Love Weird Beauty Videos

If you've been secretly watching and enjoying Dr Pimple Popper and makeup slime videos, there's nothing wrong about it. There are real reasons why your brain loves the bizarre.

- Ruth Chew

Pimple popping and makeup slime. Two things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, except that millions of viewers are watching these videos daily on Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram. Follow the hashtag #oddlysatisfying and you'll find out.

The hashtag has 3.63 million posts on Instagram and counting. On average, at least one video with the #oddlysatisfying hashtag is posted on Instagram every minute. In 2020, Google Trends reported 24.6 million searches for such content globally versus 4.7 million in 2019 - that is a sixfold increase over two years.

There are myriad reasons why such videos draw so much attention. The global average for video consumption is 84 minutes per day, and it is believed that a number of those minutes are spent on video posts that trigger an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) - a tingling static-like sensation stimulated by certain sounds and visuals - through visuals that range from the mundane to the weird, like crushing makeup to create bright and colourful slime.

THAT ODD FEELING OF CALM

The idea of "oddly satisfying" and ASMR are often discussed together. The term ASMR was coined in 2010 by healthcare IT consultant Jennifer Allen, who started a Facebook group dedicated to the stimuli.

In 2015, 80 percent of participants in a study of 475 volunteers watching ASMR videos found that their moods improved just by watching the content.

According to Dr. Craig Richard, a professor, and researcher at ASMR University, a resource and news centre based in the US, you can experience ASMR by watching videos and listening to ASMR sounds. The tingling sensations you feel in your scalp and at the back of your neck can also lead to deep soothing feelings of relaxation, calmness, and comfort.