#Oddlysatisfying: What's up with our obsession with weird beauty videos?

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.

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 a myriad of reasons as to 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 per cent 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.

But why do people like watching gross pimple-popping videos that could very well stimulate feelings of disgust and discomfort? One study found that watching fear-inducing and visually unpleasant content satisfies the brain’s reward system of morbid curiosity in some people. Maybe, you want to see how your face might look like if you had cystic acne, compounded by poor beauty habits. Or for fans of horror movies, you might want to envision the different types of threats you could face by experiencing them vicariously through the film.

While this type of morbid curiosity piques the brain’s interest to gather more information about the situation (so as to avoid it), it often results in one consuming more of such content.

The ASMR phenomena is not restricted to weird or disgusting visuals like pimple popping. Repetitive videos like hair brushing, washing makeup applicators or nail painting can also inspire other emotions, such as an appreciation for your hands, while watching videos of people organising their vanities brings about a feeling of satisfaction resulting from the “soothing” aesthetics of neatness.

Dr Adaline Ng, senior principal clinical psychologist at Better Life Psychological Medicine Clinic, explains this phenomenon: “[ASMR videos like] pimple popping have a similar theme of clearing out unpleasant things such as dirt, and can give viewers a sense of spatial intimacy, as if the viewer is experiencing this task themselves.

“In other words, it is as if they are the ones clearing out unpleasant things first-hand. This ‘experience’ can produce an ASMR feeling of calm, and the theme of clearing out unpleasant things is akin to emptying out bad things in our lives, and re-establishing order in chaos, in a symbolic manner.”

This relaxing feeling produced can compel individuals to seek out similar videos to continue their feelings of relaxation. However, Dr Ng emphasises that it is a subjective experience.

“The individual who experiences feelings of ASMR will only seek out videos that have symbolic meaning to them,” she says.

The most oddly satisfying videos to watch: