Celebrity makeup artist Sir John Barnett, who is most widely known for his work on Beyonce, has weighed in on the criticism aimed at Hailey Bieber over her “brownie glazed lips”.
The Rhode Skin founder sparked controversy last month after she debuted the lip combination she has been wearing lately; a chocolate brown lip liner to outline her lips, topped with a clear lip gloss from her skincare line.
“The lip combo vibe I’m feeling for fall,” Bieber captioned a video shared with her TikTok followers.
The video quickly went viral, with social media users accusing the model of culturally appropriating a makeup look first worn by Black and brown women in the 1990s.
Commenting on the controversy, Sir John explained that the backlash was “not about Hailey”, but the wider historical context surrounding the lipliner and gloss combination.
“All you had was a lip liner and a clear gloss back in the day,” he told fashion watchdog Instagram account @Diet_Prada. “We had to be creative and try things in an unorthodox way because of the lack of products for Black and brown people.”
With the resurgence of nineties fashion, hairstyles and makeup trends, “everyone feels like they found gold for the first time”, Sir John added. “That’s why we need to look and say ‘hey, we’ve been here’.”
“When you have a megaphone that goes out to millions of young, impressionable people, it’s your job to know,” Sir John said of Bieber’s video. “As long as we’re having the conversation about equity in beauty, we’re in a good place.”
Explaining the double standard between how the lip trend has been coveted by Bieber’s fans, Sir John explained: “When it was on my sisters or my mom, and in Black and Latino communities, it was seen as ghetto. Now that it’s on white bodies, it’s seen as ‘fashionable’.”
Sir John’s comments reflected an earlier video by influencer and TikTok creator Bria Jones, who said that Hailey stood to profit from sales of the product she used in her demonstration while “women of colour get called ghetto for it”.
“Women of colour aren’t mad that people do these trends,” Jones said. “It’s when you slap a f***ing Betty Crocker name on it and make millions from it, when women of colour get called ghetto for it. That’s the part that hurts.”
Bieber has yet to respond to the backlash. The Independent has contacted her representatives for comment.
