Yahoo News 'Elegance coach' slammed for calling dark lip liner a 'makeup mistake': 'As a non-dark-skinned person, you are the wrong person to give this tip'
A woman who identifies as an “elegance coach” is facing backlash after a recent video she posted described dark lip liner as a “makeup mistake elegant ladies never make.”
The coach, who goes by Level Blue, has built her brand and amassed over 445,000 followers by dishing her opinions on what “elegant ladies” do and wear. Among topics she has covered: “How to look elegant & chic while traveling” and “tacky vs timeless” trends.
In her July 21 TikTok, Blue specifically names “wearing brown lipstick with gloss on top of it” and “lining your lips in a dark lip liner” as two mistakes. The three photo examples she uses show Black women.
“It looks ridiculous, especially up close in person,” Blue said. “I don’t understand the obsession of having massive lips, it has to be proportionate with your natural features.”
Dermal fillers have become the second most common nonsurgical aesthetic procedure, according to the National Library of Medicine, with an estimated 58% increase in injections from 2015 to 2020 alone. But the issue with Blue’s video, as several commenters have pointed out, is with her decision to specifically highlight Black women as examples of “inelegance.”
In an essay for Refinery29, reporter Escher Walcott wrote, “It’s fair to say that lip fillers have infiltrated mainstream society, with big lips evolving into an admirable feature. But Black women, who tend to have them naturally, are not considered inspiration.”
“Now, this is very easily what your video could’ve looked like,” one beauty TikToker, Soogia, pointed out in her own video. Soogia replaced the images of Black women with photos of models like Hailey Bieber participating in the same trend. “You said the quiet part out loud, huh?”
“When you only feature Black and brown women in a video like that — you could’ve easily featured women of all colors — I have to ask myself, ‘Are these actual standards of beauty? Or is this something else?'” Soogia continued. “Whose standards of beauty are we upholding?”
Jackie Aina, a Black beauty influencer and brand owner of FORVR, posted a response video two days after Blue.
“As a non-dark-skinned person, you are the wrong person to give this particular tip,” Aina said. “That particular tip was not received well by people who look like me in your comment section on your video.”
Aina went on to explain how dark lip liner helps “most lip colors” look more flattering on darker complexions. Makeup artist Brandy Allen told Byrdie that there is a “misunderstanding” in the industry about colors and dark skin that sometimes requires Black women to use a lip liner before trying on lipstick.
Sam Fine, a New York City-based makeup artist, told Allure that the big dark lip liner trend popular in the 1990s was inspired by Black women having followed the trend for years, “out of necessity.” He said he remembered watching women apply it in high school during the ’80s, which influenced his decision to use a similar look on models like Naomi Campbell.
“Black and brown women had to be the creators of their own beauty, with so few references and tools,” Fine continued. “It was a cultural makeup staple.”
Allure also argued that Latinas were early adopters of using that “trademark lip liner,” especially in major urban areas like Los Angeles.
Dark lip liner, Aina argued in her video, is “specific to a particular culture” that Blue is not part of and is intertwined with the history of beauty for some women of color.
“You need to be super careful about using blanket statements in the future,” she said, addressing Blue.
Blue has not responded to commenters or to Soogia and Aina since they published their videos.
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