Leomie Anderson has made a TikTok calling out the fashion industry for the lack of Black makeup artists on set. In the short clip, the British model highlighted the realities of being a Black model during fashion week by curating a series of videos from a recent experience with a white makeup artist who left her feeling “ugly af.”
In the video, which went viral on social media over the weekend and has received over 45k likes on TikTok, Leomie explains that she asked for someone who could do Black makeup when she arrived backstage for hair and beauty ahead of a runway show. Sadly - but far from shocking - there wasn't a Black makeup artist at hand, and the one she did end up with (a white man) was clearly unable to cater to her skin tone as he left her asking, 'Why do I look like I work in the mines?'
“Wow, I look clapped" she writes in the TikTok subtitles, after looking at herself in the mirror. “I told him this wasn't my colour,” she adds. “he is trash.”
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She then removes the make up and is forced to redo her own face ten minutes before hitting the runway. But the disastrous glam doesn't end there. The 28-year-old model and fashion entrepreneur says she was told to wash her hair before arriving but when she got there, no one dried it until the very last minute.
Throughout the video, we're shown that there is not a single Black person in the hair or makeup team on set, which Leomie and many other models of colour have expressed is a common occurrence in the past, even after all the so-called “work” that was being done to restructure the industry in attempts to tackle systemic racism and champion inclusivity.
The video ends with Leomie asking the industry to “please hire more Black hair and makeup artists so we don't have to go through this," and frankly, it's sad that she still has to plead for something that should be the standard.
“It's unbelievable that professional makeup artists don't carry makeup for all skin tones,” one fan wrote under the TikTok video. “You should be paid more for the ivconviencene.”
Leomie responded, saying it was less about the products and more about ability. “Oh no he had it, this is just what he chose to do with it,” she said.
“You can't call yourself a makeup artists if you can't do makeup on all skin colours,” wrote another fan. Meanwhile a third highlighted that it all stems from a lack of education. “As someone who went to college for hair and makeup it, it was genuinely appalling the lack of education there is for different hair and skin types."
We applaud Leomie Anderson for speaking out but it really leaves the question, how many more times until things actually change?
