Help launch Brown Skin Dark Lips!

Aim

We are raising £5,000 to launch our first curated collection of inclusive beauty and stationery products for home, office and beyond.

The beginning of it all

Growing up in the 90s, my features were never seen as universally beautiful. The standard of beauty was a heart shaped face, small nose, and straight blonde hair. Bodies had to be super-thin and freckles were seen as a blemish; an imperfection. I was, and still am, the complete opposite!

Makeup counter woes

Lack of inclusivity in the beauty industry goes beyond just the foundation shade range which has been a 'thing' recently. I loved beauty but the beauty world did not love me. 

When I asked at a makeup counter how I could tone down the dark outline on my lips so I could wear the pale pink lip glosses all my friends were wearing, I was dismissively told there was nothing I could do about it. A decade or so later, when shopping for 'nude' lipsticks, which had become very popular, I had to spend three times as much as my friends to go to a department store luxury beauty counter to find one with the right balance of pink and brown.  In the 2010s, when having makeup trials for my wedding, the face charts were on ivory paper which meant the colours on the chart showed up quite differently on me, which made the looks difficult to recreate. 

I wanted to do something about it so I started a blog called 'Tasha's Face' to show how makeup looked on my face so if anyone had my skin tone, dark lips, dark brows, freckles, curly hair etc. they could feel inspired and included. 

The importance of self-care

Fast-forward to early 2019 when I was battling with post-natal depression which was compounded by the fact I thought that as a mother, I had to put everyone else first and not take care of myself. I turned into a different person who no longer had fun and no longer took care of their appearance. After seeking medical attention and participating in some radical self-care, I resolved to make a change.

New beginnings 

After returning to work after maternity leave,  I began my blog again, naming it 'Brown Skin Dark Lips' so that the name would match the content. I also realised that working, looking after two children and running a household took a lot of organisation, was not particularly fun and didn't leave me much time to post to my blog. Something needed to change, so I started to get rid of things that did not make me happy and only brought things into the home that made me feel good. 

All of this led me to expand the Brown Skin Dark Lips blog into a useful lifestyle experience to help busy women such as myself be efficient whilst feeling happy and taking care of themselves. The little things matter, and sometimes that's all we have time for! For example, sending a handwritten thank you card to someone feels good, and it's lovely to receive one too. Placing a beautiful photo or art print somewhere you will see it every day, writing in a journal with an uplifting front cover or using your favourite purple pen are just a few examples of tiny things we can do to make sure that for at least some of the day, we are taking care of ourselves without having to fight with any guilt. 

What we can do for you

Brown Skin Dark Lips combines all of my life experiences to bring you a carefully curated collection of beauty, stationery, home and lifestyle products to improve your wellbeing.  You can find them all in one place to save time having to shop around. 

You will feel included when you see your face shape and skin tone in the beauty journal or face charts. You will feel beautiful when wearing your perfume and statement jewellery. You will feel triumphant when you send out the thank you cards on time after the exhausting kid's party! 

2020: the year that changed everyone's life

The stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic then led me to design a range of portable signs to help designate zones within the home for work and play, and 'Shh! cards' to make it clear to everyone in the household that you need quiet time for meditating or a video meeting. The 'Shh!' cards can also be used at work, especially if your office is open plan.

Brown Skin Dark Lips will use the funds raised to create a range of diverse stationery, to help with curating products from small and medium-sized British businesses and commission creative services from individual creators. Funds will also be used to create some all-essential notebooks containing a combination of dots, list lines and plain pages to both stay organised and set your imagination free, as voted for on Instagram. Some larger and well-known brands will also be stocked to complement the niche offering and complete the shopping experience. 

Your help in starting Brown Skin Dark Lips would be much appreciated and to show this, please choose a reward:

Rewards

£10  - The 'Ooh!' work/home option: Set of 4 Shh cards or zone cards (RRP £14)

£16  - The 'Ooh!' beauty/gift hamper: 2 handmade soaps and 1 nail polish (RRP £18)

£20  - The 'Ooh!' lifestyle option: Set of 3 art prints (RRP £30)

£28 - The 'Yay!' Beauty option - 1 face chart named after you and a set of facecharts that represent your skin tone (1 reward per person, max 5 rewards). 

£35 - The 'Yay!' stationery hamper: Set of 9 thank you cards and 1 notebook/bullet journal (RRP £49.50)

£40 - The 'Yay!' work/home hamper - shh cards, zone cards and art print set (RRP £58)

£65 - Luxe beauty hamper: 2 perfumes, 2 nail polishes, soap set, beauty journal, face chart set (RRP £91)

£82 - Luxe lifestyle hamper: soap set, 3 notebooks, art print set, 5 thank you cards, necklace (RRP £117.5)

£120 -  Luxe 'Wear It' hamper: 4x perfumes, 6x nail polishes, necklace  (RRP £166)

£147 Beauty concierge service - beauty consultation with Natasha to help you express yourself/change your look/discover new brands, products beautifully packaged and sent to your door, beauty gift, follow up call (cost of products to be met by client, service and gift has a value of at least £219). 

Thank you so much!

Natasha Glover 

This project successfully funded on 4th August 2020