Back in the mid 90's, when I was about sixteen years old, I purchased my
very first foundation. My mom took me to a department store and we
went to the Christian Dior counter and a sales associate, who probably
had not ever swatched anyone with my skin tone, started her attempt to
find a match for my skin tone. The sales associate made many, many
valiant attempts of "this shade is too light, this is too light too".
Another sales associate joined our shade match party and tried to
rationalize why it was difficult to find a shade match by commenting
that high-end cosmetic companies don't
usually make shades for my skin tone as 'there was not much demand and /
or spending power from
people with my skin tone". The casual racism was striking, not to
mention demoralizing for my sixteen year old self. So when the sales
associate mentioned that she had found a match, I was quick to purchase,
not wanting to stay around any further. The foundation wasn't a
match. Not even close. Made me look like I had a white face on (and
don't let me get started about how it looked when I was photographed
eeekkksss!).
I have spent a lot (like A LOT) of money on high end cosmetics since that very first experience at the Christian Dior make up counter. Only very few products have really worked with my skin tone. The majority did not.
Initially, I would rely heavily on magazine recommendations as to what products to try that could potentially suit my skin tone. I don't think in all those years even one recommendation worked. Eventually, I came to see it for what it was, a copy & paste of a PR blurb.
Then came the let me search the internet to see what a product / shade will look like. This improved my ability to find products. However, it was also mostly hit or miss as there was not enough bloggers who were similar to me in skin tone that blogged about the products / brands I was interested in. Then came the era of social media with it's heavily filtered images and sponsored content and some how, the recommendations just never matched those mesmerizing videos of people transforming themselves with heavily contoured makeup.
I'm sure this is not just my experience. This is pretty common for most girls with brown skin. And there are a lot of us and we do have the spending power. Luckily, thing have changed a little since that day when I purchased my first foundation. For one, I'm more confident in my ability to pick a shade I'm happy with and can say 'No' much more easily to the pushiest make up artist / sales associate. We also no longer have just a handful of high end cosmetics companies, we have a lot more (all probably owned by the two big companies but still!). And more and more of these companies have started to cater for brown skinned gals and not just with the one token shade.
I am not a makeup artist and all I aim to do with this blog is to showcase my journey trying to find the products that I like. I understand the annoyance of the girl who just wants to make sure she isn't purchasing the umpteenth product that looks good in store lighting, has rave reviews but you simply hate the first time you try it on at home. If you are the type that refuses to use store makeup testers on your face (don't use make up testers on your face, no amount of sanitizer can remove the germs on those things) but would still like a peek at what the product may look like on your face, this is the blog for you.
I have spent a lot (like A LOT) of money on high end cosmetics since that very first experience at the Christian Dior make up counter. Only very few products have really worked with my skin tone. The majority did not.
Initially, I would rely heavily on magazine recommendations as to what products to try that could potentially suit my skin tone. I don't think in all those years even one recommendation worked. Eventually, I came to see it for what it was, a copy & paste of a PR blurb.
Then came the let me search the internet to see what a product / shade will look like. This improved my ability to find products. However, it was also mostly hit or miss as there was not enough bloggers who were similar to me in skin tone that blogged about the products / brands I was interested in. Then came the era of social media with it's heavily filtered images and sponsored content and some how, the recommendations just never matched those mesmerizing videos of people transforming themselves with heavily contoured makeup.
I'm sure this is not just my experience. This is pretty common for most girls with brown skin. And there are a lot of us and we do have the spending power. Luckily, thing have changed a little since that day when I purchased my first foundation. For one, I'm more confident in my ability to pick a shade I'm happy with and can say 'No' much more easily to the pushiest make up artist / sales associate. We also no longer have just a handful of high end cosmetics companies, we have a lot more (all probably owned by the two big companies but still!). And more and more of these companies have started to cater for brown skinned gals and not just with the one token shade.
I am not a makeup artist and all I aim to do with this blog is to showcase my journey trying to find the products that I like. I understand the annoyance of the girl who just wants to make sure she isn't purchasing the umpteenth product that looks good in store lighting, has rave reviews but you simply hate the first time you try it on at home. If you are the type that refuses to use store makeup testers on your face (don't use make up testers on your face, no amount of sanitizer can remove the germs on those things) but would still like a peek at what the product may look like on your face, this is the blog for you.
I will give you my honest take about high end cosmetics. Just the facts
to (maybe) help you make a better decision when you wander the beauty
counters.
@browngal_makeup
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