I was raised by a very delicate and Victorian grandmother who instilled the sense of beauty and taking care of my body in me with conviction. She later died when I had just turned 13 and I had to move in with my uncle’s wife who I stayed with till I was 15. My uncle’s wife was somehow influenced by the American culture. From the gold, leather and labels to the way she wore make up. It was too much. You know how Americans have a propensity to overdo everything? It’s just not enough for 2 Chains to wear one gold chain or for Lil Kim to have enough face lifts.
My uncle’s wife was and is still like that, I’m not saying she does face lifts too, no, she hasn’t reached that era yet, but she does over wear makeup. She had lots of beauty products that I never understood more especially foundation. My grandmother never wore makeup but her skin was as flawless as that of a baby. She only washed in the mornings and before going to bed and applied camphor. No toner, exfoliater, none of that stuff.
I guess the water did everything. My uncle’s wife did influence my love for brands but not for makeup, well so I thought at first.
When I was still living with my graceful grandmother my mother would visit us and I enjoyed watching her take a bath. I still remember all the beauty products she used because I had made a promised to myself that I will use them too as soon as I turned 16. She used Ponds for her face and Dove to wash it. At that time Ponds didn’t have a Face Wash hence the use of Dove.
I loved how she applied the Ponds in her face, the way she moved her hands and patted her face was too beautiful of a thing it made me admire her. My mother is a very beautiful, strong woman just like my grandmother. She used Perfect Choice for her hair. The women in my family somehow have long beautiful hair which I don’t have. Lord knows why. So my mom at that time had long, black, shinny hair that smelt like olives meet lavender. I never could comprehend the smell but it was breathtaking.
I told the 8 year old me that I will have skin as beautiful as my mothers. And I did for a while till this year. Let me let you in. When I turned 16 I was given the right to use any beauty product I wanted and of course I had to fulfil my child hood dream so I chose Ponds, Normal to Oily Skin because my skin is somewhat very oily.
For the past 5 years, I am turning 22 December; I have been a loyal customer to Ponds just like I have been to Nivea. It treated my skin so well I only had skin breakouts when it was that time of the month. Other than that my skin was perfect just like my grandmothers and my mothers. All was well and perfect.
I love magazines and they are good company but somehow they have a bad way of influencing our thoughts regarding beauty and somehow we women tend to take whatever advice we get from them and forget that we have different skin. What may work for my white sister can’t work for me. What may work for my black sister can’t work for me. And as for me beauty products that were never tasted on black people are just waste of money.
I love Elizabeth Arden and I believe that it has beautiful products, which is what women need. The makeup is perfect. Consequently, sometime this year I attended the Elle Editor’s Breakfast in Hyde Park and I was more excited about getting the Elizabeth Arden goodie bag than I was about the actual breakfast. It was worth a good R1000 so you understand the excitement.
During that breakfast we had beauty if not skin consultants from the beauty company who used some very scientific machine to scan, if that what it does, our faces. You put your face in that square box and it shows your face,,,, differently. Different as in like alien different. There’s a green light and that light detects any skin problem you might have. With me it detected the oiliness of my skin and dark spots around my nose which are caused by the oiliness. I can explain that better to you because I already knew it.
After that the consultant gave me 3 products. A Skin Balancing Exfoliating Cleanser (the name is long because it’s purportedly suppose to balance, exfoliate and cleanse your skin), Optimizing Skin Serum (I don’t know what a serum is even though ELLE’s Beauty Editor Lynette Botha has written about it a gazillion times I still don’t know what it really does) and then they gave me the Skin Illuminating Smooth and Brighten Emulsion (which I must say hasn’t made sense to me even today)
See, before receiving these products, I had gone on twitter 2 months prior to announce that I have outgrown Ponds and I was ready to say my goodbyes and grow up. I was introduced to Avon’s Solution beauty range by the security officer at the institution I intern for. She sells Avon so I thought she knew best. And she knew best. I bought the face wash, toner, day cream and night cream and it was good for my skin. My skin was much toned even though it didn’t contain the oil but it looked bright and healthy as I want my skin to be.
But then came the internationally recognised Elizabeth Arden and who says no to that? I didn’t throw my Solution range away I just kept it. For a week I was excited to be using an expensive beauty brand. But every day when I had to use it I had to consult the manual because I didn’t understand what was what and what was used before what. It wasted my time.
3 weeks down the line I realised that my skin was becoming toned but oilier. I currently stay in Pretoria and this side is very hot, I’m talking about 30 -34 degrees, so imagine the face sweating. But still I loved how soft it made my skin but I just became darker and oily daily and for two months I hoped my skin would get used to it and perhaps change but it didn’t.
Two weeks ago I started hearing people tell me that I was becoming darker. “You should stop using whatever makeup you are using” “when I first met you, you were a yellow bone what happened?”
People started raising questions but it was Elizabeth Arden you guys and it was worth a R1000 so I was not ready to part ways with it. But my skin comes first, and being the perfectionist I am, I had to do what’s best for it.
So I packed it all up and went to Pick n Pay to buy Ponds. Within 3 days my skin was back to its natural light and the oil remains where it belongs, inside. I still use Elizabeth Arden’s cleanser together with Solutions cleanser and toner and then topple it up with Ponds and be good to go.
I am glad I experienced this at just 21 because now I know for sure that not all products are good for everybody. Just because it’s expensive and popular amongst beauty editors, that doesn’t guarantee that it will work for me. I learned the hard way. My mother still uses Ponds, my uncle’s wife will never stop over using makeup, so it seems, and for now I am happy with Ponds too. It might not be the most expensive product in the beauty shelves but it knows a thing or two about black skin and that’s what I exactly need. A product that accommodates my black skin.
Yes mother, you can say I told you so now.
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