As many of you know, I'm a night owl--I get my best swatches done while most of the world is fast asleep. It was during one of these late-night swatchfests, while I struggled with capturing the true beauty of some polishes in a collection and marveled at the ease with which other polishes blossomed on my skin tone, that I had an idea. I got to thinking about the unique challenges that bloggers of darker complexions face, especially when we encounter the beautiful and seemingly (only seemingly, I'm sure, in my frustrated mind) effortless swatches of our lighter-skinned sisters. Beauty bloggers of color have their work cut out for them. We struggle daily with lighting--what easily available options work so well for lighter complexions often make our complexions look too yellow, too sallow, too dark or too washed out. The struggle is real! Then there's the issue of perfect cuticles--you don't know ashy until you've seen the devastation acetone wreaks on a darker complexion. We spend hours agonizing over pictures and, yes I'll admit it, are often afflicted by bouts of despair and self-doubt...
But! And here's a big BUT! Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and most definitely colors! Some colors look amazing on our complexions and sometimes, just that magical sometimes, we barely have to try! So, I thought why not gather together swatches of those colors, get some like-minded girlfriends together and create a collaborative initiative to show some women of color some much-needed love and praise! Everyone could use a little validation now and again, right? With that in mind, I take great pride in presenting to you a montage of polish that we personally love on our complexions :
1. Amanda of Amanda Loves Polish with Zoya Aurora
2. Jessica of Blue Velvet Lacquer with Orly Hot Tropics
4. Andra of Nailmattic with Orly Tropical Pop
5. Meredith of Obscenely Blue with China Glaze Paper Chasing
6. Tiffany of Polished to Precision with Essie I'm Addicted
7. Lakeisha of Refined and Polished with Zoya Rocha
8. Vick of Vickermania with L'Oreal Sexy in Sequins
....and mine! OPI Live, Love, Carnaval
Since we enjoyed sharing some of our favorite looks with you all so much, we would like to invite all of you beautiful bloggers of color out there to join in our collaboration! Use the inlinkz below to show us a picture of one of your favorite, bright looks! At the end of the month, I'll put together all the pics that have been shared and make another, (hopefully) even bigger collage to showcase all your work! So, if you're a fellow Beauty Blogger of Color--don't be shy! Come add your pic to the gallery and share the love of YOUR unique complexion!
Yours always,
<3
B
I am not dark skinned by any means, but I love this post and truly believe all colors are so beautiful on darker skin tones! Especially bright colors like these! Suxh beautiful contrast!
ReplyDeleteAh thank you! Our struggles are worth it! =D
DeleteGreat idea! I have very light skin and face trouble with some colors because of that. I think it's great to adress this and also to point out that all of us are beauties in our own unique way.
ReplyDeleteSo true! <3
DeleteThis is so awesome! When I first started out my skin-tone always made me feel so uncomfortable when swatching. I almost gave up. I'm glad I have found ladies that share in my struggle.
ReplyDeleteOh Roselynn! I'm so glad that this post helps you realize how beautiful you are with YOUR unique complexion! <3
DeleteGreat post! I love seeing polishes on all different skin tones, I think it gives me a better idea of the true colour of the polish when I view multiple swatches on various skin tones.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Debbie! I so agree!
DeleteThis is so wonderful!! I'm a reviewer for we heart this (weheartthis.com) and while we don't feature nail polish exclusively, I do a lot of nail reviews for them. Would that be appropriate to add to the gallery?
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I love this, thank you so much. Diversity among beauty bloggers is such a great thing to showcase!
We invite any kind of beauty-related post! Please feel free to add your link! =)
DeleteThis was really awesome. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteLove this. I love seeing how polish looks on many skin tones, especially ones closer to my own.
ReplyDelete