Part 5 – An Update & Some Thoughts

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Edit: originally written 13/06/20 and updated 28/06/20

It has been three weeks since I shared my experiences with racism in the beauty industry (article here), but it honestly feels like much more than that. So much has happened within this short period of time including the murder of Rashard Brooks, at least five probable lynchings and the murder of activist Oluwatoyin Salau. We have now found out about Elijah McClain, three Black trans women (Brayla Stone, Riah Milton and Dominique Fells) were murdered (and now more) and white supremacists tried to set Althea Bernstein on fire.  Continue reading

Part 4 – Making Space For Change

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAteeBail Project, Black Visions CollectiveBlack Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

As I said in the first post of this series, George Floyd’s murder did not happen in a vacuum. It happened after years and years of Black people being treated as worthless and “othered” by every industry out there, especially this one. This one that says “sorry no shades for you”, or “nope no invitation for you” or “oops no budget to pay you”. Black people and some allies in the industry have been calling this out for so long (cc Jackie Aina and lots of Estee Laundry posts and highlights) and in the UK virtually nothing has changed. Continue reading

Part 3: The Oskia Incident

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAteeBail Project, Black Visions CollectiveBlack Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit – I originally wrote this in October 2018. Any edits for further information will be in blue. Updated 06/06/20 with Oskia’s PR manager’s response.

I originally wrote this article (here) back in February, but ended up shelving it for a number of reasons. One of them is my health (both physical and mental, which you can read more about here – my articles are no longer on the VH site), which has taken up most of my energy this year and left me very little time for Instagram or blogging. I always intended to share it at some point, but had no specific timeframe in mind until this past weekend (now 5 weeks ago edit now almost two years ago). What happened left me feeling so upset, frustrated and angry that I just had to share it now because I cannot stay quiet on this issue any longer. Continue reading

Part 2: Original 2018 Article

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAteeBail Project, Black Visions CollectiveBlack Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit: This was written in February 2018. It is the original, unedited version so some references will be out of date, but I thought it was important to share it exactly as I wrote it back then.

This is a topic I have wanted to write about for quite some time now because it has been on my mind for a good couple of years. Thanks to social media we now see more of brands than ever before and that has proven to be both positive and negative. Since becoming a blogger I have become increasingly aware of the pervasive lack of inclusion in the skincare world and I feel it’s time to share my thoughts and experiences. This is not an easy subject to discuss, but I think it is an important one considering the current racial climate we are living in. Continue reading

Part 1: My Experience With Racism In The Industry

Before reading please consider supporting these vital causes: Justice for Belly Mujinga, Justice for Breonna Taylor, Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Tony McDade, Justice for David McAteeBail Project, Black Visions CollectiveBlack Lives Matter US, Black Lives Matter UK and The Cut – Where to Donate, Sign, Follow.

Edit: Written on 03/05/20

This is extremely hard for me to write about at a time like this but I cannot stay silent anymore.  It seems like the whole world is protesting yet another series of murders by the police on innocent Black men and women (all while a pandemic that disproportionately kills Black people rages) and a lot of people are finally waking up to the racism in the world, but when it comes to the beauty community and industry, we cannot pretend like this a new issue.  Continue reading