The beauty world was buzzing this weekend as Rihanna released her widely anticipated Fenty Beauty Line.
Fenty Beauty uses the tag line “Beauty For All” and this is exactly the aim the pop star sensation tried to get across to the public. Fenty Beauty wants to include women of all shades, cultures, personalities and races — a makeup line where no one is left out. The Pro Filt’r foundation comes in 40 available shades, ranging from light to deep.
Rihanna has managed to add diverse options that long-standing beauty brands neglected to include. This wider range of colour options for various skin tones is fuelling the sales of Fenty Beauty and adds some much needed change to the beauty counter. Fenty Beauty is available online or at various Sephora locations worldwide.
A part of almost every woman’s morning routine is makeup. Whether they go for a neutral look with some concealer and blush, or opt for a more glamorous contour and fake lashes combination, it’s no secret that women spend a lot of time enhancing their physical features for both visual appeal and mental satisfaction — no woman can deny the power they feel when sporting a bold lip.
However, there seems to be a shift in beauty practices recently, as female powerhouses such as Alicia Keys and Hilary Clinton were seen at some very public events without a spot of makeup on their faces. The message behind this small change is simple; women don’t need makeup to be fierce. Its not only empowering, but rather inspirational. The no-makeup trend has created a wave on social media with both women and men either criticizing or embracing their choice to wear makeup, in addition to posting bare faced selfies for hundreds of people to view.
Brr.
Although it would be empowering to hop on to this bandwagon as a testament to 2017, going makeup free is just not something I’m ready to commit to. I personally love the transformation that comes with a good makeup look. It gives you the ability to travel eras; from a classic 1920’s winged liner and red lips look to a modern day grunge, featuring black lips and a smokey eye.
Personalities alter with makeup. Ladies can attest to the flirty side that is revealed with the right red lipstick, or the inner goddess that comes out to play with a dark, burgundy pout.
Unfortunately, I’m still at a point in my life where going bare-faced makes me feel less confident and a little underdressed. Battling self esteem issues has influenced me to hide my imperfections behind a plethora of concealer and a dash of self loathing. But the more runs I make to the convenient store across the street in sweatpants and the unwanted guest on my forehead, the more I realize the beauty that comes with going au naturel.
The vulnerability that comes with a bare face is refreshing. It allows people a more personal view into your life. Only a handful of people are able to see a glimpse of what you look like first thing in the morning, and last thing at night. And although expanding your audience to your Chanel bags and freckles can be daunting, it is something that should be on your bucket list.
Going makeup free not only forces you to build self love and confidence, its opens the door to breathable, clearer skin- in addition to more time spent doing things other than cleaning your makeup brushes, taking off your makeup, and of course the stressful morning ritual of actually putting it on.
If Alicia Keys can hit the red carpet with her perfect flaws, an army of empowered women is bound to follow. It’s time women gave patriarchy the middle finger and stopped covering up behind over priced foundation. “Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing,” as Keys so beautifully vowed.
I’m behind you, Keys- a few times a week, especially on Sundays.
Will you join the makeup free trend? Let us know in the comments below!
In the midst of international terrorist attacks and great global unrest, seeing people continue to work across international borders and battle against forces greater than human conflict is truly inspiring, especially when it comes to the HIV/aids epidemic.
The Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign connects Canadian and African grandmothers and gives them a platform in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide support for their grandchildren, whose parents have been decimated by the HIV/aids epidemic. There are over 14 million orphans in Africa after their parents contracted and died of HIV/aids and many grandmothers are raising their grandchildren alone.
The organization was founded in 2006 in Toronto. “The Stephen Lewis Foundation invited 100 grandmothers from sub-Saharan Africa to come to Toronto for a gathering and 100 Canadian grandmothers came as well. The Canadian grandmothers listened to the African grandmothers and what they have had to do to deal with the Aids pandemic,” Grannies for Good founder, a chapter of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, Joanne Gormely says. “It really created a connection between 250 groups of grandmothers in Canada in solidarity with grandmothers in Africa.”
The campaign is not a charity run by people who aren’t African, but instead is a movement created and controlled by African grandmothers and local field workers who have first-hand knowledge about what these communities need.
Gormley is one of the Canadian grandmothers who began a chapter in Montreal to support the campaign. She, along with other grandmothers, run events ranging from art sales to long-distance cycling fundraising for the grandmothers in Africa. Gormley has her own painful memories associated with HIV/aids. “I lost my own brother to Aids. I was still in grief of losing my own younger brother when I joined the group,” she says. “It touched me because I understood something they were living through.”
Joanne Gormley (centre) with two of the other Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign members who attended the South Africa Grandmothers Gathering in Durban: Elizabeth McNair (L) and Carol Little (R). By Alexis Macdonald.
Gormley, along with nine other grandmothers, also traveled to Africa to join a meeting of over 300 grandmothers in Durban, South Africa ahead of the 2016 World Aids Conference that ran from July 18-22. The group participated in protest of the lack of funding available to support the raising of these children, and joined over 2000 other grandmothers to Durban’s convention centre where the conference was being held.
The group of 10 traveled to South Africa and Zambia to see firsthand where their funds are going. The Grandmother to Grandmother campaign has raised $25 million over the last 10 years, with the proceeds going to various projects run by African field workers and grandmothers that live in the community.
The campaign has also provided jobs to women in the various communities that run the Grandmother to Grandmother projects. While on her trip to Africa, Gormley traveled with an African woman named Ida who originally grew up in abject poverty, and her husband had also passed away from HIV/aids. She now works for the foundation and her daughter is studying to become a lawyer.
These inspiring activists lobby governments across sub-Saharan Africa to take further measures to stop the spread of HIV/aids. The region has seen a 43 per cent decline in new HIV infections among children since 2009 due to UNAIDS global plan to eliminate HIV infections in the region. Public decimation of the antiretroviral treatment and educating has helped to lower the rate of HIV/aids. That being said, 24.7 million people are still living with HIV in sub-Sahran Africa due to lack of access to the medicine, with only 39 per cent of adults on the antiretroviral treatment.
Not only is this campaign helping reduce HIV in Africa, but this women-led group is also helping promote solidarity among women across the world. “The campaign promotes a sense of camaraderie and belonging by making a difference and being a voice for Africans in a global world. It helps in overcoming a sense of hopelessness,” Gormley says. “There is anger in those African women and they have a right to be angry. They deserve to be heard.”
The grandmother to grandmother campaign is a great initiative supporting women that are working together to solve issues from different cultures. We should all take these lessons from our elders and join the movement to help promote an agenda to eradicate aids from sub-Saharan Africa once and for all.
