Sis, stay woke. It’s never been a better time to be black. With the Brown Skin Girl Movement, my Black is Beautiful, Black Girl Magic, and Melanin Poppin, we all have been cozying up in our skin.
Self-love has been the mantra for black millennials over the past three years, with ambassadors like Savannah Cristina making self-love a must, and of course, with the new Body Beautiful. Everyone is accepting the skin they are in and demanding that the beauty and, by extension, the skincare world respond to their needs.
The black community has fully embraced blackness, and I am not talking about hair texture; I am talking about skin tone. Blackness has become lit! It’s become more than an inherited skin tone but a badge of honor. This has brought increasing influence and influential voices for darker skin tones.
Never has the value of the Black consumer been more apparent. The misconception that black women are not engaged, only want “natural skincare,” and don’t have the money to spend on skincare, particularly in the Caribbean, is a gross misrepresentation.
According to the British Beauty Council, Afro-Caribbean women are reported to spend six times more than other ethnicities on beauty and hair services. Black women spend an estimated US$7.5 billion annually on beauty products, shelling out 80% more on cosmetics and twice on skin care as their non-Black counterparts.
But, still, 70% of Black and Asian women feel left out of high street offerings, and 36% felt beauty advice for their skin tones and concerns was lacking (Superdrug Shades of Beauty Report in 2016). That’s been my struggle with the Caribbean Beauty and skin care Industry.
After surviving the myths and misconceptions of the Black community regarding treating my skin, and the reliance on heritage skincare treatments such as purging, herbal concoctions, and the use of shea butter and coconut oil as a teenager.
I turned to cosmetics doctors and skin care clinics in my late 20s into early 30s as I was more willing to take care of and spend more money on my skin.
This led to the abuse of hydroquinone to treat hyperpigmentation, a prominent feature of darker skin tones. My skin was bleached, over-exfoliated, significantly damaged, and sensitive by the time I hit 35.
Which was, in many ways, the epiphany stage of my life. I realized that I was not fully educated on my skin type and needed to find ways to treat my skin because my black may very well crack as I was being slack.
As they say, after the dirty 30s, life begins in your 40s; it’s also the prime time to start earnestly supporting your skin. As this is when there is a significant breakdown of collagen and elastin, cell turnover is slower, and black skin becomes drier and rougher. Lines will arrive
and stay like that unwanted pumpkin vine cousin, and the crow’s feet and laugh lines will need to be smoothed out in photoshop.
Even though we know that black skin has been known to hold off showing lines and wrinkles as early as white skin, the phrase “Black don’t crack” does not mean that black skin can’t and won’t crack.
To treat our skin, we must first understand the physiological makeup of black skin and the cosmetic and skin care lines focused on developing products specifically for darker skin tones.
As we go through the “Black will Crack if you’re Slack” series, we will get the knowledge and understand black skin, unpack black skin myths, understand our skin changes throughout our lifetime and environment, and the best treatments and cosmetics available for our skin, modern therapies, and technologies as you age and finally budling your skincare routine with the product hall of fame from the Caribbean.
The Caribbean has pioneered in black beauty and now the skin care industry, such as Sacha Cosmetics by beauty innovator Kama Maharaj, Fenty Beauty by Rhianna, the 400M Diva Collection by Olympian Natasha Hastings, and Jen Care Skin Farm. These brands have been pushing the beauty and skincare agenda for black women globally. They have constantly been innovating their products to meet the needs of black women throughout their lifetimes.
Hey Bey, with that said, it’s time for us to contribute to the black is a lit era, but first, let’s understand why our skin is so unique and why there is a need to have beauty and skin care products tailored specifically to black skin.
The Uniqueness of Black Skin!
· Increased melanin and its distribution pattern in black skin give it some protection from premature aging from UV rays. That does not mean running a mock without sunblock. Increased melanin levels in black skin make it more vulnerable to discoloration and hyperpigmentation.
· Black skin has a higher sebum content and more compact stratum corneum but a lower ceramide. Black skin is prone to water loss, hence the saying you look ‘ashy”. More waterless means dry, flaky and ashy skin.
· Black skin produces more collagen. This makes it more prone to hypertrophic and keloid scarring, both caused by the overproduction of collagen after injury. This will affect our ability to use specific treatments and treat existing unwanted scars.
You can email your comments to csfab@caribbeantimes.com.
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