The natural unnatural skin color trend explores the idea of someone’s skin color being a non-human hue, like blue, green, or purple. Often portraying fantastical beings such as aliens, vampires, or fairies, creators all over socials took to painting their faces and bodies for this whimsical trend. The idea of an unnatural skin color stuck with me, and prompted me to explore my relationship with skin color as a makeup artist through the lens of my ethnicity.
Colorism in South Asia communities is a result of many complex factors ranging from colonization to the caste system to globalization, and even though some of these are in the past, society remains deeply traumatized. Conversations about skin bleaching, creams that claim to whiten your skin, and being ostracized for being darker are all exceedingly normal occurrences within the South Asian community. To this day, there is a disheartening amount of people whose idea of beauty has not progressed past this dated standard of lighter skin being more beautiful.
Face Value challenges this deeply ingrained ideal that continues to shape beauty standards within the South Asian community. By removing the familiar spectrum of human skin and replacing it with a single color, the ultimate fantasy comes true: A world without room for discrimination, judgement, or bias, where there is no light or dark.
Is an ideal world one where the true color of human skin is beyond the natural? Does removing skin color from the equation allow us to experience beauty beyond face value?
Creative Direction, Makeup, and Words by Preeta Dhamdhere
Photography by Marlee Riddle
Styling, Hair, and Talent by Karthika Kaliappan