- And I have something called albinism
which basically means that I don't have pigment
in my hair, skin and my eyes but I'm very much black.
(gentle hip hop music)
Hi, I'm Joanne Dion, I'm a model and influencer.
I'm here to talk about my experience buying makeup
and experiencing makeup as a black woman with albinism.
Albinism is a genetic disorder
that effects the pigment in your skin.
It basically means that you have little to no pigment
in your skin, your hair and your eyes.
The way albinism effects my everyday life
is obviously because I am partially sighted,
I do have a very big problem navigating around,
I can't really see properly.
And it means that I am more prone to skin cancer
because my skin is fairer.
Apart from that, I'm good.
I first encountered my difference in appearance
to my family when I was in school.
Basically I was in reception and it was parents day,
and my peers were like, questioning me saying,
is that your mom, are you adopted?
And I genuinely went home asking my mom
if that was the case.
And she told me that, no, it just happens,
I have something called albinism,
which basically means that I don't have pigment
in my hair, skin and my eyes but I'm very much black.
When I used to play with my moms makeup,
obviously there would be huge discrepancies
because she has black skin and I'm really fair.
But obviously as I grew up
and I started getting into my teens,
I would go to like, drugstores that are around my area
and would just put on like, all the makeup.
And at the time, I thought it looked amazing
but honestly, it looked disgusting.
Me and my friends would go around after school
to Oxford Circus and just like, gallivant and look around.
And then we came across MAC.
I was looking around and then a makeup artist
approached me asking what I'm looking for today.
And she literally just sat me down,
she knew I didn't have no money, I was 15, she knew that.
And she just sat me down, taught me how to do my eyebrows
and taught me just literally how to do everything
and I was just so blown away
because she really didn't have to do that.
It became apparent to me
that it's a bit hard to find my foundation shade
because I'm really, really fair
but I have yellow undertones
and normally light foundations tend to have pink undertones
which can make me look really blotchy.
But she taught me tricks and what to do
and I just felt so grateful and with YouTube
coming to full surface, and Instagram popping,
it's definitely helped me be more confident
in how I apply makeup alone
so that kind of helps me when I am makeup shopping,
I know what I want, what tones I prefer.
It's kind of given me the confidence
to actually go to the employees
and actually ask for their help
which sometimes can be quite intimidating.
And also just little like, tricks and tips,
you can like, mix a white pigment
to make the foundation lighter
to actually match your skin perfectly.
Some lessons that the makeup industry would need to learn
is just being accepting and understanding of the fact
that there are so many different shades out there
and that they should try to cater to as much as they can.
They need to stop this whole notion of tokenism.
And by that I mean, with obviously there has been
a recent outcry of darker shades
not having the foundation shades that they need.
But rather than using tokenism
to actually tackle this problem, they should actually care
about the people who are voicing their opinions out
and cater to them genuinely, rather than just trying to
use that to get some more coin.
Let's just spread this notion
that people are already beautiful
but what your selling is giving them the option to enhance
or just do whatever they want with their face.
And not telling them that they're lacking something.