Editor’s Note: The Beautélanin™ Journal
This is not a beauty blog.
It is a remembering.
Of skin as lineage, of care as rebellion, of healing as inheritance.
Here, melanin is not corrected; it is consulted.
We study the language of the epidermis,
the politics written between pores,
the chemistry of survival.
Every essay, every critique, every ritual recorded here
is a pulse; a testimony that Black skin has always known how to restore itself.
White Faces at the Top, Black Faces in the Ads: A Skin Script Critique
This editorial critique exposes how Skin Script uses Black estheticians’ images for diversity optics while keeping ownership and decision-making in white hands. From marketing reels to Instagram smiles, representation is reduced to sales labor, not power. Drawing parallels from the author’s lived experience in the Bahamas and her own journey as a 14-year attorney turned esthetician, this essay unpacks tokenism in the skincare industry and calls for building true Black ownership in beauty.