Why is Lilac So Polarizing Yet So Chic?
lilac is the new baby pink
When I said Purple was the color of the year, I didn’t think the use of this color would take a dark turn. The beauty industry has taken this new color, specifically, lavender to use more in blushes. Possibly trying to push boundaries and relate to more of a worldwide audience.
As a brown girl, I subconsciously know that a lavender blush won’t work on my complexion. Let alone a black woman's complexion.
Lavender, to me, is the equivalent of a baby pink color (which also doesn’t work well on my complexion). Lavender has that same appeal, it’s an innocent and soft color. The lavender color also plays into the “no makeup look”, where the blush is barely there. So I can understand why people are now starting to love this color more, because lavender is chic. Lavender isn’t baby pink, but it’s their sister. With a twist. Lavender has some 90s elements where the color has a frosted look, which was a staple for eyeshadow looks back then. Versus a baby pink color, that has been used time and time again to display more of a girly aesthetic.
For eyeshadow, I do think lavender is a phenomenal choice to add to existing collections. It makes anyone’s eyes mysterious and unique, but using the color as a blush???
Giorgio Armani, the Italian beauty company, caused a lot of debate this past month after releasing their newest liquid blushes. Armani is a worldwide company and therefore got the idea of incorporating lavender blush because of their Asian clientele. Lavender blush is very popular within Asian beauty. Probably for a variety of reasons, but the most important one is that lavender blush compliments their skin tone and makes their women look naturally pretty. Although lavender blush may look good on fair skin, lavender does not look good on anyone with medium to deep skin tones. So when Armani decided to release their new blushes to the American public, (aka in a very diverse area) a lot of people were upset. Granted, yes, some colors are not met for everyone but Armani specifically marketed the blushes to be “universal”.
On their website and on Sephora’s website, they even had POC (poeple of color) models in photos displaying what they claimed to be the blush on their face. Anyone with good eyes and basic knowledge of color can see that the lavender color in Armani’s blush bottle is not the same blush they used on the models. Lavender has too much of a white base to show up on skin tones that are more olive, golden, or any shade of brown honestly. What caused the drama surrounding this Armani lavender blush release was South Sudanese Tiktoker, Golloria’s video showing how none of Armani’s blushes worked for her dark skintone. All the colors showed up very pale and did not blend well with her underlying skin tone even just by looking at the swatches on her cheek. To top off how bad the Armani liquid blush release was in terms of the range of colors they chose to give to their international costumers, Armani’s team sent these colors to Golloria possibly thinking they might actually work for her complexion. Which was done in bad taste in my opinion. Whether the Armani team sent the blushes with bad intention or not, sending those blushes does send a message to Golloria. An igorant one, that says Armani does not care whether or not the colors work for you. Regardless, Armani knows that Golloria will test them out and give their company free publicity online.
When Golloria posted the Tiktok video, the comments responded by being very rude and derogatory. The comments were attacking Golloria, gaslighting her to believe the lavender blush did look good on her complexion. Or saying “not all blush colors are met for everyone” and Golloria is crazy for trying to make all beauty products work for black people. This outrage caused Golloria to take time off the internet because the hate comments were abundant.
This terrible situation happened last month and to this day, I haven’t seen Armani make an apology of any sort. What I did notice is their liquid blush in that specific lavender shade is sold out on Sephora…. Which goes to show, Armani intentionally made the lavender blush shade for a reason. Armani simply didn’t care and still doesn’t care.
(if you do want a lilac blush, Haus Labs does have a pretty lilac blush that does not have a white base. In case you do want that barely blushing effect >3)
With already a month passing from this drama, people have seemed to move on and focus on the upcoming holiday season. So to my surprise as I was looking for holiday gift ideas, I saw Patrick Ta’s new holiday lip gloss set. The set comes in two options but the one option that caught my attention was the lavender option. When I saw these new holiday lip glosses, I can’t lie, I was drawn to the colors. Especially the berry and dark pink option. The lavender gloss seems tempting but even in the pictures, the color looks clear. Maybe there’s a little bit of pink but not enough to see a difference.
Now, this lavender/lilac color has been used so frequently that it's undeniable that this color is currently one of the hottest colors on the beauty market. With 2024 about to end, I’m curious to see what the next up and coming color is about to be. I’m assuming the next color will also have a cool tone, reminiscent of the 90s or early 2000s style. Blue is becoming more popular, it’s also interchangeable. Where blue can be used for pastel looks or bright looks. Plus Sabrina Carpenter has also made the color more prominent and stylish with her new album Short n’ Sweet.
What color do you think is going to be popular next year??