Photos: India’s ‘brown beauty’ makeup influencers go global
Under the glow of a ring light in the guest bedroom of a Mumbai high-rise apartment, Indian makeup expert Debasree Banerjee has found fans around the world with a simple philosophy: brown is beautiful.
Banerjee’s audience consists of women from the Middle East and the United States who also have a deeper complexion, but have historically been overlooked by the cosmetics industry.
“I actually have a lot of followers outside of India, and I feel like it’s probably because our skin tones match.”
“They can see how the product looks on my skin tone, how the lipstick applies on my skin tone, and just have that sense of connection.”
Banerjee, 34, started experimenting with make-up videos in her spare time a decade ago after graduating from university and moving to Mumbai to work in sales.
She is now a full-time beauty and lifestyle influencer, teaching over half a million followers how to beautify themselves on Instagram and YouTube.
Early inspirations included British beauty content creators Tanya Burr and Fleur De Force – both white and with millions of followers between them.
But Banerjee said she had not found any role models that resembled her.
She credits Rihanna for the seismic shift towards more inclusiveness in the cosmetics industry.
In 2017, the pop superstar launched her Fenty Beauty makeup line, which offered 40 shades of foundation and made her a billionaire.
“Fenty Beauty has really, really changed the game,” said Banerjee. “I think people knew then that this is important.”
While other international brands have tried to keep up, many still have “miles and miles to go” before they can be considered truly inclusive, she added.
“I still see products being launched in three shades, in four shades, which I call ‘universal’. And it’s just ridiculous,” says Banerjee.
“In India, everywhere you go… you see our features changing, our language changing, our skin color changing. So it’s very, very important to have more inclusive makeup.
Cheap internet data, rising income levels and the world’s largest population of young people have led to an explosion in the Indian beauty and personal care market.
The industry is now worth $15 billion annually, and Euromonitor expects this figure to double by 2030.
Homegrown e-commerce platform Nykaa – which has helped make global cosmetics brands readily available to Indians for the first time – was one of India’s most anticipated IPOs in 2021.
“People thought that brown skin is not beautiful,” says Faby, another beauty influencer who lives in Mumbai. “But now we’ve started to learn to love ourselves.”
Faby has nearly 900,000 Instagram followers and has established herself as one of India’s top cosmetics stylists, recently teaming up with top Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone to promote a skincare line.
Almost her entire apartment has been converted into a studio with professional lighting, camera equipment, and retractable backdrops to style her regular online tutorials.
The work can be tough, with some day-long shoots lasting well past midnight, but the money Faby makes from brand collaborations is enough to comfortably support both herself and her mother.
“It was hard, but now I can have my own Dior bag, I can have what I want.”
“It’s all because of the followers watching.”
Recognizing the explosive growth of online content creation late last year, the Indian government announced a 10 percent tax on business gifts worth more than 20,000 rupees ($244).
That move brought a portion of the country’s $120 million influencer market under the tax net — primarily those advertising products that are beyond the purchasing power of the vast majority of Indians.
A single lipstick from a leading international brand can cost around 2,000 rupees ($24) locally, more than half of Indian households pay for their weekly groceries, according to British market research firm Kantar.
But the gap between material desires and resources has proved fertile ground for other Indian influencers who are showing their audiences how to stay trendy without breaking the bank.
“There are a lot of people who can’t afford expensive products, so my DIY store shows them how to look more beautiful,” says Kavita Jadon.
From her home, a few hours’ drive from the capital New Delhi, the 34-year-old housewife and mother of two shoots videos showing how to make ersatz concealers from moisturizer and ground coffee at a fraction of the cost of name-brand products.
Despite filming from a cheap phone, editing with free software and not having the extensive studio setups of Banerjee and Faby, Jadon has amassed more than 169,000 followers on Facebook.
Many of her homemade product ideas are the result of painstaking trial and error, with her audience eagerly sharing their own ideas or petitioning her.
“It’s not essential to use big brand products — it’s possible to use local products and also make beauty products at home,” she said.
“That’s why my page has grown so much.”