Struggling with colourism in the makeup and entertainment industry
- Susindhraseghar A/L Chandrasekar .
- Nov 29, 2022
- 3 min read
by Susindhraseghar 1 October, 2022
Colorism is a type of discrimination that gives individuals of the same ethnic community with lighter complexion the advantage. Despite having a significant impact on the beauty and entertainment industries, it has received relatively little attention up until now.
Imagine walking into a makeup store being a dark-skinned person and trying to get the right foundation shade, concealer shade or even a lipstick shade and you just don’t find many products that cater to your skin tone. Even a simple compact powder would make your skin look “greyish” because it is not the right shade for you.
The first time Sharanya Naidu, 26, a local Malaysian makeup artist who works with celebrities went to the drugstores to purchase makeup products as she was about to start her business, she was upset as she could not find a wide range of foundation shades. “Even today, if I need to find a darker shade of foundation, I would have to purchase them at high end stores such as Sephora or Estee Lauder which costs really high but it’s easier to find lighter shades of foundation as you can get good quality ones almost anywhere,” says Sharanya.
Many makeup brands such as L'oreal, Rimmel and Maybelline in Malaysia today are trying to cater to darker skin tones recently, but it is still a struggle to find one as there are not many sold out there.
Sharanya also does makeup for Indian brides and from her experience, most of her clients are tan to dark skinned. About more than half of her clients have told Sharanya to make them look lighter by using a lighter shade of foundation. Some of them even asked her to apply foundation on their hands to make it look brighter so that it matches with their face.
When Sharanya asks her clients why they would want to look lighter, they often say that it makes them look “prettier” and “elegant”.
“My style of wedding makeup is up to the bride’s preference if they want it heavy or natural. But, when it comes to an option of lighter or darker, it is something I would not prefer to do in my workand I tell my clients, in a joking manner, that they would look pretty even if I use the right foundation shade,” says Sharanya.
She was shocked at the fact that in today’s age there is still an obsession of having a lighter complexion because of the amount of pressure that was put onto people. “I once travelled to India in 2021 because I had my very first client who wanted me to do her makeup for her wedding. But, I had a number of incidents that made me wonder why being dark skinned is an issue”, says Sharanya.
Sharanya remembers that on the roads and highways, she came across various billboards that promote whitening products with a fair skinned model. According to skin care product advertising on television, the fairer a woman's skin is, the higher possibility it is that she will find a job, a partner, or contentment.
The biggest beauty and cosmetics brand in the world, L'Oreal, declared in late June 2020 that it would no longer describe its products using terms like "whitening" and "fair” (CNN, 2020). Even so, there are still many beauty brands out there who still widely promote skin whitening products as there is a high number of purchases of these products.
Majority of movie posters in India seemed to only show fairer skinned actors as it shows that only fairer men and women could get into the country’s film industry. Fair skinned actors would be the hero or would play a higher class character and dark skinned actors normally play the role of an antagonist or a lower class character in the movies.
Even a new Netflix reality series called Indian Matchmaking has also created a lot of discussion after Sima Taparia, Mumbai’s premier matchmaker in the show finds partners for her clients, glorified lighter-skinned people and promoted their complexion as an unquestionably attractive quality.
Ever since Sharanya’s experiences, she often posts photos and videos of her makeup work of her clients and actors that she has worked with on Instagram with hashtags like #darkisbeautiful and #brownbeauty to create an awareness that being tan or dark skinned does not define a person’s beauty and value.
It is so sad that till today, many of us go through the same thing. Always just wishing to be fairer so we look more attractive. Even worse, dark skinned girls can't wear make up cause they're just so expensive. Thank you for such an amazing article.
This is so true, colourism largely exists within the Asian community. Women are advised to even consume certain things while pregnant so that the baby will have "a better complexion", that's how obsessed the community is with being fair skinned. Even in a culture and country where a large part of the population is brown/dusky toned, there is so little representation of this in mainstream media. Everyone is still busy chasing the western beauty standards rather than embracing what we have been naturally given
Such a great piece
why can’t people appreciate their own skin color? i understand using filters to make the skin flawless but why use filters to look as white as Michael Jackson? This is what I don’t like. Brown skinned people are always gems and brown skin is so beautiful. Dont hate it to look like a white man. Embrace your brown skin
some dark skinned brides need to change their mindset from wanting to look ‘lighter’ on their special day & make up products should cater more dark skin friendly products. this article is amazing! 😍