Skin Deep

I woke up this morning and have seen the pictures for Miss Selfridge’s Christmas Campaign featuring Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model winner Jade Thompson. Personally for me Jade really stood out in the competition because of her uniqueness including her beautiful face of freckles that decorated her skin with uniqueness. So why Miss Selfridge have you almost removed her freckles from your visuals either through make-up or photoshopping or quite possibly both?!

Will we ever learn to love the skin we have been given I wonder? Here in the Middle East I see adverts for creams to lighten the skin with advertising that would never be permitted on the television anywhere else in the world. I was on a quest all through my teens and twenties to be as dark as I possibly could through the use of sunbeds and fake tan. It scares me to think of the long-term damage I have done.

Somebody is to blame and sadly I think it’s our parents:-( For me I seen all my aunties and my mother hire sunbeds to the house and cook themselves in the sun, naturally I grew up thinking having a tan makes me look better but now I am not so sure if it’s really worth it. For darker skins wanting to be lighter I also know from friends that they have received pressure from their parents to be lighter. Don’t get me wrong times have changed and now my mother is always warning me of the dangers of the sun which I am thankful for. It is up to our generation now to teach our kids to embrace themselves and to love the skin they are in.

With all the altering of skin colours and with brands like Miss Selfridge erasing Jade’s natural beauty will we ever learn to accept the skin we have been given?

And Miss Selfridge…….. a few years back Lancome had a freckle pencil on the market that had a waiting list and a complete sell out and here you had a beautiful model that was naturally blessed with this as a feature. After years of Jade learning to love her differences you go and practically almost remove them….. is that the message you want to send to your customers?

Jade please make sure you keep your freckles on show next time!!