Makeup artist and Women’s and Gender Studies senior Sarah Ogunmuyiwa showed up with a bag that would make Mary Poppins jealous. Pulling out everything from glitter to mini flashlights, the artist begins diligently working on her model.

Ogunmuyiwa did not always believe she could do anything “cool” with makeup. Yet, support started pouring in as she continued practicing and sharing her looks on social media.

Taking a leap of fate, the artist reached out to Raveena Aroura’s management for the opportunity to do the singer’s makeup, expecting radio silence. Instead, she received a reply and the experience landed Ogunmuyiwa’s creation in W Magazine. We sat down to discuss just how ugly beauty can be.

 

What inspires your looks?

I am still trying to figure out how I can take the things that I understand about the world and express them through makeup. With one of the more recent looks called “My Skin, My Logo," I made it look like the skin was designer. Inspired by [mainly] Solange’s song, I also thought about the way Black people are commodified through fashion, and the branding of blackness is used.

Do you feel inclusivity in the beauty industry is authentic?

People are trying to make it more diverse and include more people, but it’s still very performative and exclusive. Things look so pretty on the outside [in the beauty industry], but there’s so much going on. What we’ve defined as beauty is just another way to reinforce violence or another mode of power. That’s the issue at hand—not just diversity or inclusion.

How does beauty function as violence?

Beauty kind of determines who has value. For beauty to be a thing, there has to be something that is not beautiful. [An article I read explained], one of the ways Hitler did what he did was by declaring people with blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin were beautiful. He was able to reinforce those standards as a way to enact violence.

How does this apply to more current beauty trends?

Beauty is a reflection of society. Right now, diversity and inclusion are popping. A beauty trend that is going around right now is bigger lips. This whole idea of getting lip injections and fitting into a new standard of beauty isn’t changing standards because it’s trying to include more women of color aesthetics. It’s changing because that is what’s making money.

How do you feel about the way the industry adopts these cultural aesthetics?

Even though it’s adopting elements from other cultures, it’s still going to exclude the people that those elements came from. You’ll see things being praised on the Kardashians, but not being praised on black women.

With that, what’s your take on Bella Hadid being named the most beautiful woman?

That’s very arbitrary and subjective. It’s just [science] used to give legitimacy to something that you can’t even determine. [Beauty] doesn’t really mean anything.

With this perspective on beauty, how are you not cynical and continue your passion for doing makeup?

I am not necessarily trying to create beauty with [makeup]. [I’m] exploring the full range of what you can do with the tools and resources you are given outside of what people say makeup should be. One thing I want to explore through makeup is objection and horror.

People often think horror is ugly, how does it relate to beauty?

People do associate horror with ugliness, but they also associate it with pleasure. You want to dip your toes in it, and that is how black women are treated in the beauty industry. People want to take what they can get from it, but they don’t want to dive in fully.

What do you hope people take away from your looks?

I don’t think I care what people get from it. I don’t have much control over that. If you can relate to it, I’m really happy. If you don’t, it is what it is.

This piece has been edited for clarity.