A Brown Girl's Beautyblog

And now for something completely different…

I just wanted to post briefly about how excited I am to find that Tim Burton is filming

Alice in Wonderland, due for release in 2010.  As if this wasn’t exciting enough news, the Deppster will be playing the Mad Hatter.  If there was ever a story that was MADE for Tim Burton it’s this one, and it’s amazing to me that he hasn’t tackled this before.  I have no doubt that he’ll do it justice; it’s a dark, quirky, amazing adventure that deserves the Burton flourish.  I am PUMPED.

Gals,

Stila has launched their Indian Summer line.  Their logo is a sari clad Indian woman with a modern tube top blouse.  Riiiight.  Well, their hearts were in the right place.  Baby steps, kids, baby steps.

http://www.stilacosmetics.com/Default.asp?

Their schtick is that these products are infused with 24 karat gold.  That’s why this widdle pot of eyeshadow is 20 bucks.

Seriously. There’s gold in it.  Somewhere in there.  And if you use this product, you may look just as modern and hip as that chick with the tube top blouse on their logo.

Ok, so maybe I’m being unfairly cynical, but I’m not 100% on board with this.  Are these being marketed towards Indian women, or are they being marketed towards women who fetishize Indian culture and want to glam up with gold infused make up?  I’m curious to hear your thoughts.  What do we think of these products?

Eco-friendly is all the rage, and has been for some time.  A mean, a REALLY long time, we just may not think of it that way.  I was in India this past January and was struck by how many women walked the streets of Chennai, their faces a sickly yellow hue.  In my American ignorance, I assumed they were jaundiced or something.  Then I woke up one morning to find my Chitti, my mother’s younger sister, had caught the bug, because her face was yellow too!

Dude.  It wasn’t jaundice.  It was turmeric.  Sometime’s I’m such an ABCD.  Asian cultures have been using so called organic ingredients to beautify themselves for centuries, and are still doing so.  Turmeric, henna, saffron, almond, cucumber and citrus are typical Indian organic products that have an excellent effect on skin.  Below is a recipe for a turmeric face mask that I got from ehow.com, and I’d love to hear any suggestions you guys have on other DIY skin care products.

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

• 2 tsp. gram flour
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric
• Milk
• Honey

1. Step 1

Go to an Indian supermarket or a health food store to purchase gram flour. This flour goes by several different names like chickpea flour, garbanzo bean flour or besan, so look around carefully and ask the staff for help finding the right flour. If you can’t get gram flour, you can use regular all-purpose flour instead.

1. Step 2

Combine 2 tsp. gram flour and ¼ tsp. turmeric in a small bowl. Once these dry ingredients are well-mixed, slowly add several drops of milk and honey. Stir the mixture as you add the milk and honey, and judge the appropriate amounts by the mixture’s consistency. You’ve added enough milk and honey when the mixture becomes a paste.

1. Step 3

Wash your face thoroughly with soap and water. Make sure you remove all residue makeup so the turmeric face mask can properly penetrate your skin.

1. Step 4

Apply the turmeric paste to your entire face in an even layer, avoiding your eyes. Let the face mask sit for about 10 minutes.

1. Step 5

Wipe off the bulk of the turmeric face mask with your fingers, then rinse your face with warm water to remove the rest.

Via

South Asian culture is highly sensual.  We love bold colors, pungent aromas and bombastic sounds.  Dinner in my family home is loud and passionate; our food is bright and flavorful.  I’ve been spoiled by tastes of saffron and almond on a daily basis.  I’m accustomed to waking up to the melodies of nadhaswaram and mandolin.

Expectantly, my sense of what is beautiful is drawn from these sensual roots.  This is a theme that will no doubt string its way through my blog for as long as my blog shall live, but I’d like to begin by discussing one of my favorite senses: scent.  A Sunday morning in my home was a scent-sational orgy.  Mustard seeds crackled with chili peppers and lentils in the skillet, the spicy aroma wafting upstairs before I was even awake.  The incense lit in our home-altar mingled with the smell of breakfast dosa and hot steaming coffee.  In high school I’d often stomp downstairs for breakfast feeling grumpy that the weekend was ending, but ten years later I realize how lucky I was to have my senses stimulated so regularly.

Yes, all of this is leading somewhere very commercial.  My good friend Pam introduced to me to this lovely perfume boutique in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Somehow I managed to live in Williamsburg for two years without knowing this place existed, but I’m glad I’ve found it now.

CB I Hate Perfume is a kickass perfumerie that capitalizes on natural aromas to create unique and dedicidely non perfumey scents with woodsy, earthy, smoky and marine tones.  Most importantly, they smell real.  This ain’t your Grandma’s Estee Lauder, folks; I encourage checking this little shop out.

My line:

North Atlantic: this is one of their more popular scents in the water series and is also available in a room scent.  I can only describe this scent as sortof a menagerie of marine and clean.  It’s like the air at 5 am in summer at Bar Harbor, Maine.  It’s titled North Atlantic because it’s intended to be reminiscent of a New England girlhood.  And I must say, it sure is.

Check.  This.  Out.

http://www.rxforbrownskin.com/

I didn’t think it was for real either.  It’s like I dreamed it up, and it happened.  Dr. Susan Taylor’s brand of beauty products geared towards brown skinned women is designed to enhance brown skin’s natural beauty and address dermatological problems typical of brown skinned women, including uneven pigmentation and easily irritated skin.

The Rx for Brown Skin mission is to provide scientifically developed skin care to the spectrum of brown skin found in women of Asian, Latin-American, African and South Asian descent.  Click on the website to learn more about the brand, their products, and purchase locations.

My line:

The Bright & Healthy Collection.

I sampled these products at Sephora (the cleanser, toner and moisturizer) and my skin felt radiant all day.  I haven’t begun using these products regularly yet so I am not going to comment on long term positive results.  If any of you guys have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear it!

I love Sephora.  I also love Ulta.  I’m sure it’s not an earth shattering revelation that a beauty blogger enjoys a beauty store, but I’m going to wax poetic about these dens of cosmetic delights anyway.  When I’m in Sephora or Ulta, I’m like a kid in a candy store.  I’m also like that in a candy store, but that’s besides the point.  And book stores…and music stores…and…anyway, back to the facts, Jack.  Ulta’s reach extends a bit beyond Sephora’s because it’s not too snobby to stock your usual drug store brands like Revlon and Max Factor, and often carries specific products that your drug store doesn’t.

Stores like Sephora and Ulta may be megachain monstrosities to some, but they’re an excellent place for the discerning brown girl to begin her hunt for the perfect make up and beauty products.  Why, you ask?  Well, gentle reader, I’ll tell you.  We darker ladies cannot just grab a shade off the shelf at Duane Reade.  We need to try it on.  We may even need to try on multiple shades and mix them together to come up with something that matches.  So, we need to shop at places where we can do just that.  Staff at both of these beauty giant retailers are trained in makeup application techniques and can really help you get started.  Finding products for atypical skin tones is a trial and error process, and requires testing out multiple brands and shades before settling on one that works for you.  In a store where that’s encouraged, we have the greatest chance of finding what we want.  Of course, you can do that at the make-up counter at Bloomie’s too, but why not pull up a seat at a place where makeup is the mission?

I can’t in good conscience publish this post without at least mentioning that if I could, I would wave the anti establishment flag and patronize some local badass alterna-beauty hub.  However, my goal with this blog is to reach a wide range of women who, like me, are interested in beauty products that meet the unique needs of their skin tones and textures.  For that reason, I suggest chain stores because they’re everywhere.  I would LOVE to get feedback on local makeup retailers as well, and would be thrilled to research them and shout out to them as long, so comments are welcome!

I can’t begin a beauty blog for brown girls without a shout out to an industry trailblazer, Thevi Thambirajah.  I know she’s been hit up in the blogosphere before, but you can never have too much advertising, especially when you have a great product.  She has done an excellent job of capturing subtle differences in skin tones of South Asian women and creating a product that adheres to our skin without looking too make-uppy.

This lovely lady is the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants and grew up in New York State.  Several years ago came to the same conclusions as me: brown girls need make up too! So, instead of drafting a whiny blog (not that there’s anything wrong with that…)she decided to do something about it, and in 2008, launched Thevi Cosmetics.  I had the privilege of meeting her at a wedding expo that my Amma dragged me to last November, and have been a faithful Thevi convert ever since.  Ok, so the wedding expo wasn’t so bad…

http://www.thevicosmetics.com/

What’s my line?

Liquid Powder Mineral Foundation in Sandy Beige

This creamy lightweight foundation also serves as a concealer.  To conceal, apply focused dabs on any blemished or discolored areas that you’re interested in fixing.  I blend with using Sephora Brand Professional Concealer Brush # 46.  This brush is well suited to the creamy texture of the product and the bristles are tight enough to spread evenly over skin like ours.

However, you needn’t use a fancy brush if you don’t have one at your disposal.  Your local drug store (Duane Reade, CVS, whatevs) can hook you up with disposable make up wedges.  Dot the foundation on to the triangle tip of the wedge and get dab-tastic on your area of focus.

As a foundation:  Thevi’s foundation is light enough for daily use.  But remember, foundation is not like margarine.  You’re not supposed to slather it all over every inch of your face like you’re hitting every nook and cranny of that Thomas’s English muffin.  It’s the base, not the frosting.

The best way to apply foundation, in my humble opinion as a regular girl who’s learned from experience, is to dab on the four corners: cheeks, forehead and chin, and then blend outward.  You can use your finger for this, or a cosmetic wedge, or a foundation brush.  I use Sephora Brand Professional Foundation Brush # 47.

Mineral Finishing Pressed Powder in Sand

This is the matching powder shade to the concealer.  Depending on the look you’re going for, you can use the round powder sponge that accompanies the product, or you can use a powder brush for a lighter look.  I use, yep, you guessed it,  Sephora Brand Professional Rounded Powder brush # 49.

Matte Shadow in Moss

I don’t own this product, but Thevi’s make up artists at the wedding expo were cool enough to test it out on me and I must admit, I looked pretty damn good.

I am not going to speak to the application because I didn’t do it myself, but I can vouch for the finished look, which is subtle yet seductive.

In short, Thevi rocks.  The brand is still growing and expanding, and I encourage all savvy brown girls who are on the hunt for the perfect shades to check her out.

Beauty may only be skin deep, but there’s a whole spectrum of skin out there.  Beauty products have traditionally been marketed towards Caucasian women with fair skin tones and pinkish undertones.  In response to the gross lack of variety in beauty products, cosmetic lines were launched to cater to the African American market (Iman, Black Opal, etc).  More recently, American drug stores have started carrying brands for Latina women as well (La Matadora).  So I started thinking : Hey, what about us brown girls?

As a South Asian woman, born and raised in the United States, I must admit I’ve been socialized to believe that fairness reflects beauty.  Yes, I’m guilty of applying Fair and Lovely after a day in the sun.  But the fact is, I’m not fair.  But I’ll be darned if that makes me any less lovely.  My skin is a deep brown.  No, not like Michelle Obama.  She’s a whole different type of brown girl.  We’re living in a post Slumdog Millionaire world where Jhumpa Lahiri always tops the best seller list.  There is something unique and beautiful about the golden brown of Indian skin.  So why on Earth does it feel like nobody is making beauty products for us, for our pigments, for our textures, and our needs?

This blog is my attempt to start a dialogue on these issues.  I don’t purport to be an expert on anything, but I do have fifteen years of experience as a beauty product fiend, and I’d like to share my insights on make up and beauty products that are appropriate for darker skinned ladies.  I’ve played around with everything from Revlon to MAC and stopped wherever I could in between.  I’ve stayed honey in the winter and burnt espresso in the summer.  Since my humble tween days I’ve loved wearing make-up, both for performance and fun.  I love playing with lotions and potions, masks and scrubs.  I’m also the proud owner of dark brown skin that deserves to be pampered, polished and shown off to the world.  I’m twenty seven and I never stopped playing dress-up.  Won’t you join me?