Justine Skye Is Over Makeup Artists Who Can’t Work with Her Darker Skin

As a singer, a model and the founder of Metix, an app connecting users to makeup master classes, Justine Skye has a close relationship with beauty. “Being a female artist, you’re constantly getting glam done for events,” Skye tells StyleCaster at the launch of Candy Crush Friends Saga in New York. “And growing up, as a girl, you’re always playing with makeup.”

But not all of Skye’s experiences with beauty were positive. As a dark-skinned woman, Skye often didn’t see her shade represented in beauty and fashion. “I definitely, 1000-thousand percent struggled with finding my shade,” Skye says. “The kids today have it so easy when it comes to everything—whether it’s makeup, whether it’s clothing, underwear, bras. Finding your shade, so it doesn’t show through your clothes.”

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Candy Crush Friends Saga.

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Her experience as a woman of color wasn’t much better when she started modeling, where she would often encounter makeup artists who wouldn’t know how to work with her skin tone or hair stylists who wouldn’t know how to do her hair. “Especially when it comes to editorial, a lot of makeup artists don’t know how to work with darker skin tones—the black girls. They just don’t,” Skye says. “Sometimes they turn out really ashy or they don’t know how to work with our hair.”

The beauty industry is not catering to one type of person anymore.

But that was then. With brands like Fenty Beauty creating products for a diverse range of skin colors and the fashion industry casting more and more diverse models, Skye is hopeful in change. “Now, the world, the beauty industry and the fashion industry are becoming extremely more diverse,” she says. “There are more sizes. It’s not catering to one type of person anymore.”

Source: Instagram

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Though “a little frustrating,” Skye doesn’t blame makeup artists and hairstylists who don’t know how to work with her features. Still, she does see a change in the beauty industry becoming more educated and catering to more diverse women. “Times are changing. Hairstyles are changing. More colors are being acceptable,” Skye says. “Women are wearing wigs and they’re more comfortable with that and experimenting with their makeup. There are different types of skin tones that are at the forefront. Everyone is not so lost in this one stereotype of what people should be.”

Everyone is not so lost in this one stereotype of what people should be.

As for what’s next, Skye has her album, Ultraviolet, her single, “Build” (an R&B ballad inspired by experience with domestic violence), her app Metix and her best friend Hailey Baldwin’s wedding, which—spoiler alert—she’s not spilling any secrets about. “I don’t think Hailey would want me spoiling any surprises for anyone. But I’m definitely so happy for her. She’s extremely happy,” Skye says.