Beauty Guru Told She’s Not Pretty Enough To Sell Makeup

The beauty business is getting its act together – finally.

In the past 18 months we’ve seen transgender actress Hari Nef and body positive model Sabina Karlsson stepping out for L’Oreal Paris. Male makeup artist Manny Gutierez was named as ambassador for Maybelline New York and James Charles snapped up a gig with COVERGIRL.

 

Finally, we’re seeing Muslim models, black models, curvy models, short models, older models and everything and everyone in between. That said, the ‘beauty for all’ movement still has a long way to go.

Jamie Kern Lima, CEO of It Cosmetics, highlighted this when she called for an end to ‘unattainable’ images in advertising.

 

While accepting the Achiever Award from the Cosmetic Executive Women Organisation recently, Kern Lima revealed that when she was first trying to get her now $1.2 billion business off the ground she had difficulty getting financial backing because she refused to use ultra thin, flawless models.

One male investor even told her, “I’m just not sure women will want to buy makeup from someone who looks like you—you know, with your body and weight.”

“The experts told me one thing, but my gut told me another,” she went on to say.

“What my gut told me is, women are tired of buying from ads and commercials who don’t look like them.”

 

 

Kern Lima stuck to her guns – going on to build her billion dollar beauty empire. Can we pause for a moment here … BILLION dollar empire. Take that haters. Her success is something that Kern Lima is deeply proud of.
So is the fact that she refused to back away from her own beliefs.

“In the beauty industry we’ve bought into the notion that you have to show these unattainable images of aspiration in order to sell products,” she said recently.

“The success of It Cosmetics, is proof that this isn’t true,” she said.

It’s worth thinking about. Beauty comes in all shades, colours, shapes and sizes. The campaigns that support the industry should reflect that.