It's not a secret that we love make up. We use lots of it, almost every day. We often get compliments that our make up looks nice and sometime people ask how we do it. Earlier today we were reading a norwegian magazine and noticed that there where no make up tips for girls of a darker shade than your average white girl. This isn't new, so we decides to google it instead.
We tried to google pictures of make up for black women (we googled "sminketips for afrikanske kvinner") and pictures of Lars Tangen appeared. Common!!! Clearly he is white. He's even MALE. Eventually we had to google something in English and this picture popped up:
If you didn't notice, it's Paris Hilton posing as a black girl.
Whenever we see spreads in norwegian magazines who try to include make up for dark skinned (or other ethnicities) women, they always seem to portrail one particular look; with dramatic and bold colors. They also seem to make it into a special feature, as if they are doing us a favour. Why is it like that? It should be natural that we're included.
What about everyday make up or even natural make up? Some girls want to look like they've got nothing on from time to time. Like the look that Gabrielle Union is doing:
We found an article on the norwegian magazine Kamille's website, about make up from black women. We found the article very disrespectful and racist. They where basically saying that black women should downsize all the features that emphasises their ethnicity. Like tips on how to make your nose appear smaller and lips to appear less full. A tips like that, would be to not wear light colored lipgloss/ lipstick, as it will make your lips seem bigger. You can read the article here.
As black women we want to be able to pick up magazines, especially norwegian ones, where we can relate to the girls there. We want to learn how to emphasis our beauty and the features that make us who we are, instead of trying to transform us into something else. Black women come in diffrent shades, so it's weird that they either use models with Beyonce- shade or Alec Wek- shade. What about those in between? We don't all look like Beyonce and Rihanna.
Here are some great examples of everyday or party make up, that we think a lot of girls would love to learn how to do.
Kerry Washington
Keke Palmer
Alexandra Burke
Ciara
Tyra Banks
Norwegian magazines should use darker norwegians more in their magazines; such as Sonja Wanda, Mimi Blix, Maria Mena, Mira Craig and Elisabeth Carew.
WOOW , couldnt agree more! thats why i go on youtube coz i get more infos there then lookin in magz and about that kamille website ...SPEECHLESS! i feel digusted , that make up artist dont know what shes talkin about , she's white i mean CMON! black women shouldnt let anybody tell them what looks good on them and what doesnt , we gotta try out things for ourselves.Like the lady gaga lipstick , sum might think black girls cant rock that colour but check youtube and u will be suprise , i myself is rockin that lady gaga lipstick . im a NC44 - NC45 in the summer in the mineral foundation. Proud to be black !! gotta keep reppin.
SvarSlett- Natasha Nellya
DRØY artikkel i kamille.... wow... altså, det hun sier stemmer jo, men ikke bruk de ordene hvordan få mindre nese... det er jo bare for å highlighte de områdene og det holder å si det, enn å si mindre nese og mindre lepper. Wow.. im ashamed. celebrate your beauty, don't hide it, girls ;)
SvarSlettNatasha: You're so right. As a black women it's a lot easier to get inspiration off youtube or friends. The Lady Gaga rocks! We've seen so many black women wear it well :).
SvarSlettDagens Outfit: Ok, we see your point. However was it really necessary to mention shaping of the nose in the article? We don't think so. Having a wider nose is a typical african feature and including that paragraph kinda sounds as if it's something one shouldn't be to proud of. Imagine if we had issues with our noses and read something like that!
I agree a 10000% with you. I feel that people are literally afraid of african features. It's even hard for norwegians to give a decent compliment to an african woman. I've always thought it might be because of our boldness.
SvarSlettIt's quit ironic how you hope to never experience such a brain- twisting racism. But you end up in the middle of it all.
Soulful Defender: You're onto something there, about the boldness I mean. People often seem to think less or put their guards up to diversity which is a shame.
SvarSlettI feel the same way! We all have so much to offer. I'm just 18 years old. But i feel that i've experienced alot of that. This topic should become an open debate.. Hehehe. I love what you girls do, cuz i can relate alot of times. PleaSE Please keep up blogging and writing these articles. Thank you so much
SvarSlettSoulful Defender: It really should be an open debate. Hopefully this article raises awareness.
SvarSlettThank you soo much, we appreciate the love :D. If you have any topics you want us to write about feel free to leave a comment or send us a mail ;).