#nigerianmakeup

This week in our cultural makeup journey, Maria, Liz and I decided to go for a bold choice and focus on the cultural makeup of Nigerian women! Personally, being someone who greatly enjoys makeup and the details within it, I was very excited about the bold and intricate style of makeup often worn by women within this culture. Although I attempted to recreate the beautiful art women in Nigeria model every day, I certainly did not do it justice. Not only was this a type of experimental makeup for me, but it was also very clearly not made for me. Being a white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed female, the bold beautiful colors contrasted with my skin tone and features in different ways than those of Nigerian women.

So, to begin this very bold and bright look, I began with lining and filling in my eyebrows to create a strong angular look. To enhance this even more I used concealer to shape the brows and make them that much sharper. Secondly, I focused on the eyes, blending multiple colors such as teal, purple, orange, and even a hint of yellow. Continuing on, I added a smaller wing liner to the eyes and topped it off with mascara. To complete the look I added a full coverage foundation, concealer under the eyes, on the forehead, and on the chin, and contour, blush, highlighter, and bright pink lip gloss to finish it off.

After completing the makeup, I can honestly say that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the look. Although I thought the colors and the way that they contrasted with one another were beautiful, I didn’t feel as though it looked quite as flattering on me. So much so that as soon as I had taken pictures for this post, I removed it right away. I think this is something interesting to note—this style of makeup that looks so beautiful on the women of Nigeria simply wasn’t the most flattering with my complexion and features. However, the look is still obviously very bright and beautiful. I find this trend within the makeup quite interesting due to the cultural role that women play within Nigeria.

Upon further research, I learned about the incredible emphasis that Nigerian culture places on upholding traditional gender roles. In an article given by BBC News, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her book, We Should All Be Feminists, were highlighted due to the way in which they inspired the #BeingFemaleInNigeria movement—a movement that encouraged Nigerian women to shed light on their own personal experiences living with these gender roles. What I found very interesting was that many, if not all, of the posts using this hashtag implied in some way, shape, or form that being female in Nigeria means being labeled as a traditional house wife.  

In America, the Feminist movement has reached new heights, and has consistently caused a great deal of controversy by encouraging women to go to extreme lengths in fighting for their rights—that however deserves a blog post of its own! With the Feminist movement moving forward and moving quickly in the United States, women have begun to be viewed in a much different light. We are no longer simply raised to be housewives. However, women in Nigeria are still handed this role, and told that it should be the root of their identity as a whole. Due to this lack of ability to express oneself through work and creativity, I believe Nigerian women use makeup as a way to present something that is, in a sense, their work—something they can take pride in. Similarly to Arab women that we discussed in our last post, Nigerian women refuse to allow themselves to be conformed, constrained, and restricted within a specific box. Therefore, makeup becomes their outlet in expressing who they are.  

Overall I think makeup within Nigerian culture is used as a way of truly reflecting the beauty and integrity of women. Not only are such vibrant colors used simply because they compliment their deeper skin tones, but also as a way to express such vibrancy within their personalities. This is the true meaning behind the gift of makeup—the ability to embrace one's God-gifted beauty and truly express what they believe to be a strong, feminine, and beautiful self.

Our last destination on our makeup journey is Nigeria! We wanted to end our makeup research in a place where the makeup market is really flourishing. We were attracted to Nigerian makeup looks due to their use of gorgeous bold colors. Nigerian women love to make a statement with their look in some way. After doing some research, I learned that specific makeup interests differ among Nigerian regions. Northern Nigeria, which has a large Muslim population, is more invested in eye makeup and nail art. Religious and societal reasons for this were discussed in my last blog post. In other Nigerian regions, one can expect to see other beauty trends, such as bold lip colors and strong colors to sculpt the face. No matter where in Nigeria, one thing is for sure, bright and fun colors are typically used.

As mentioned, the Nigerian makeup market has flourished within the past 5-10 years. This is in part due to the recent stabilization of the Nigerian government, allowing for a more stable economy. Because of this, makeup has become more accessible and world-renowned brands have started to appear on the scene. Apart from Nigerian based brands, MAC, L’Oréal, and others have started gaining steam in the country. As the makeup industry continues to grow there, it will be interesting to see how Nigerian makeup develops over time. I will say that I personally hope it does not change much and become Americanized….it is so stunning as is!

Our makeup artist for all of our blog posts, Madison, crushed this look yet again. She did her best with what she had, using mainstream American products and attempting the look on her own skin. Being white and blonde, it was interesting to see her use of color on a skin tone that differs from the women in Nigeria. She started this look with bold perfect brows. She accentuated the shape by applying concealer around them. This adds more structure to the brows, which Nigerian women love! She then applied foundation normally. Nigerian women often prefer good long wear foundation due to the heat that may ruin the entire look if the foundation can’t handle it. Next Madison applied lots of contour to her face emphasizing the cheekbones. Then she began the eyes. She primed the eye with concealer then began to apply colors. Madison decided to use green, purple, and orange on her eye lids. She did a beautiful job blending such bold colors. To finish the eye she applied liner and false lashes. For her lips, she applied a nice pink color to finish this look! Overall, the three of us truly enjoyed learning more about different cultures and how beauty is defined though the use of makeup. We explored far from home and broke free from our comfort zones. We now enjoy digging deeper and learning about the culture behind the makeup trends. We now better appreciate all the different makeup looks around the world.