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Self-Love
Something worth mentioning has been happening to me lately. As many of you know, I've been holding a series of pop-ups and and attending various events in the hopes of bringing these nudes to as many of you as possible. On more than one occasion, I've found myself taken aback by a few of the responses I've gotten to the product. Let's take for example, an interaction I had at one of my most recent events.
At a conference a group of women walked up to my booth. They were all different complexions: one Goa, one Rio, an Enugu shade and a Douala. The three ladies with the darker complexions were very excited and told me they had given up on ever being able to find true nude shoes in their skin tone. The lady with the Goa complexion remained silent and somewhat off to the side. I walked up to her and asked her if she had any questions to which she replied, " No -no-no I'm ok! This product is not for me I don't have a skin tone I'd want to match and show off." I was shocked. She went on to tell me how she is used to getting made fun of for her lighter skin tone which is why she feels it is nothing to show off. I explained to her that I created an option for all skin tones because I believe we all should feel good in the skin we're in. Now I know she heard me, She I just can't confirm if she believed what I said. Needless to say, she didn't join the Kahmunity that day.
I'm not sure if it was a coincidence, but I've also recently had a lot of Enugu and Kumasi shade women picking up Juba and declaring, "this is me, right?" Honey........... No. No it's not.
I've been learning a lot throughout this journey about the way many of us perceive ourselves. Lighter complexions feel they have nothing to show off and darker complexions more times than not think their complexion is darker than it is. Why is that? And what does it mean about how we REALLY feel about our skin tones?
My choice to launch 10 shades was intentional. My choice to cater to skin tones as light as Edinburgh and as dark as Juba was intentional. I love all 10 of the shades, (Kumasi a little bit more but only because it's the shade dedicated to my Ghanaian family and heritage I promise!) and I hope those of you who have purchased your nude have felt a sense of pride in doing so. I don't believe in the notion of being too light or too dark. There's no such thing! And I think a lot of us need to work on believing that our hues are fine just the way they are.
I love "flexing my complexion" and I love being able to do so in a product that I've been able to create with just that in mind. There have been countless times when I've been wearing my nudes and caught people staring at my feet and I love answering queries about why on earth I would want a product the same color as my dark skin.
I think it all essentially comes to down to self-love and appreciating all parts of ourselves whether we're palest pale or darkest dark, our winter shade or our summer one - they're both great! Let's all do ourselves a favor and remember that loving your beauty doesn't take away from someone else's.
With summer "officially" over this weekend, I hope you've all enjoyed it wherever you've been and I look forward to continuing to be able to regale you all with my stories as fall rolls in.
Here as always to answer any questions or concerns,
Jamela A Acheampong
Founder and Brand Director
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