Kate Hackett
This week, TikTok users have accused Hailey Bieber of using trends begun by Black and Latina women when a video of hers about “brownie glazed lips” went viral.
“What are brownie glazed lips?” you may wonder — it refers to when you use brown eye or lip liner and then gloss.
The post was a “ready for all the fall” video with lots of autumn makeup shakes. White creators on TikTok have credited Bieber for the trend. However, the look has been popular since the ’90s, especially with Black and brown women.
“White women, quick question: What would you do if you couldn’t co-opt Black women and Latina women?” wondered Tajia Reed, a beauty content creator who hails from Missouri.
Reed also noted that the “rite of passage for Black and brown women” includes watching trends THEY begin endure criticism as “ghetto” or “ratchet”, while when white women do those same trends, the world applauds.
Black and Latina women have been outlining their lips with black and brown lip liner, then using Vaseline or Carmex as a top for shine for decades.
“We’re talking about a cultural phenomenon of using this lip liner and lip gloss and what we dealt with, the backlash we got in the ’80s and ’90s,” she explained. “They’ve done it their whole lives.”
Reed also faced criticism for her TikTok video. She explained that while she has no problem with white people enjoying the look too, she does find it problematic that people were saying Bieber “discovered” it.
The look was everywhere in early to mid 90s R&B music videos, an era that has made an aesthetic comeback of late.
A woman named Kimberley Possible has hopped onto the revived trend; she made a lip gloss so popular that it’s been sold out all over the world.
“The aesthetic of girls of color wearing brown lip gloss and brown lip liner has been around from the dawn of time,” Kimberley Possible said to BuzzFeed. “But obviously, we know that when trends happen sometimes, you know the truth gets lost in the trend.”
That trend has dominated TikTok
“I have a little tip for the girlies. … Your perfect lip shade will be your eyebrow liner, your eyebrow pencil, lining your lip,” said @yokenzieb in one video. “Then whatever you use for blush on the middle of your lip and then a gloss.”
