Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Sunday Mind: Racism in Beauty

I feel like The Sunday Mind is going to be a Save the World Wednesday type series where I think out loud. I know that it's probably better for the blog that I keep it beauty and lifestyle but at the same time, this blog should represent me and I have thoughts independent of beauty that I want to speak out about. But to tie it all in, here are my thoughts on racism in the beauty industry.

I don't know if many people have realized this (not sure how many people of colour read this blog or are having this problem) but there are not many darker shades of foundation. Going into Sephora, I can see a plethora of  lighter foundations and concealers but each brand seems to have 3 darker shades. I don't understand why - if anything there's a wider spectrum of shades and colours in darker skintones but why don't more companies cater to it? Why can I only find maybe 3 brands that carry my colour but every single brand (it seems) has the exact same shade of a pink under-toned, cool, light foundations.

And it's not just foundation and concealers, I can't seem to find any shade of bronzer dark enough to contour with. Do darker skinned individuals not need to contour? The cruel reality of racism even when it comes to beauty. If anyone has any recommendations for darker or mixed skintones, please comment below! I could just be looking for them in the wrong places (though I do believe the standard of beauty is geared towards European/whites).

This is also the case for nude lipsticks (or nude anything). They may be nude for lighter skintones but definitely not for darker ones. I posted my favourite nude lipsticks a few days back - hopefully they help someone who's having trouble finding a good, darker nude (I know it took me a while to find those three).

This may seem trivial to most (especially if you don't share the same problem) but I do think it's subliminal, subconscious and subtle racism (a little alliteration for ya). The standards of beauty are very much skewed towards lighter skin tones and I think it's a shame considering all the beautiful shades of white/tan/brown/black there are out there.

Do you ever find it hard to get makeup for darker skin? Or am I looking in all the wrong places? Leave any recommendations or comments below or tweet me @SundayWardrobe!


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