On Friday night, L’Oréal Paris hosted the Australian premiere of The Final Copy of Ilon Specht in Sydney. The 17-minute documentary – from two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfood – pays tribute to the late Ilon Specht, who coined the globally renowned L’Oréal Paris tagline, “Because I’m Worth It”, in 1971.
In a promo for the documentary on the official L’Oréal Paris Instagram account, various celebrities who’ve worked with the beauty giant are seen saying those iconic four words. Kendall Jenner, Viola Davis, Eva Longoria and Jane Fonda are amongst the stars who appear in the clip. Another familiar face is Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai, who has been associated with the brand for more than a decade.
In recent times, we’ve seen more South Asian women fronting campaigns for the brand. These include Bollywood’s Alia Bhatt and British actor Simone Ashley (of Bridgerton and Picture This fame).
In addition to watching the short documentary at Sydney’s Town Hall on Friday night, guests were introduced to the brand’s ‘Talk Your Worth’ series – where journalist Jessica Rowe AM and actor Madeleine Madden spoke about their own journeys of discovering and embracing their sense of self-worth.
The series is dedicated to empowering women from all walks of life to recognise and celebrate their worth, and with that in mind, we decided to put a special question forward to some particular guests.
There was a time when many brown women could barely find a foundation shade at stores that suited their complexion, let alone dream of attending a glamorous event hosted by a high-profile beauty brand. So, we spoke to five South Asian content creators we spotted on the night, asking them the question: “What does brown beauty mean to you?”
From “celebrating roots” to “embracing melanin” to “empowerment” and “embracing your past, culture and ancestors”, there were diverse responses to the question – reminding us how multifaceted brown beauty is, and that it goes well beyond the surface.
Check out the video below to see what content creators Kavya Gor, Kalyani Vijayan, Alexis Dennis, Gowtham Jeyanathan (also a makeup artist) and Neekita Naidu had to say.
Top image source: Supplied/L’Oréal Paris
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