Lovette Jallow

Beauty entrepreneur, blogger and activist who founded the popular Facebook group Black Vogue SE, a hub for Swedish women interested in makeup for darker skin tones.

She eventually released the book Black Vogue – The Shades of Beauty (2016), which was billed as Europe’s first makeup book aimed specifically at black women.

Lovette Jallow is an entrepreneur hailing from Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire, who recently became the largest dark-skinned beauty YouTuber in Sweden. She goes back to Gambia twice a year and always vlogs.

Her YouTube channel has made her an expert on makeup for black women in Sweden. Her account is private which is a risky move, but in her particular case, it has added exclusivity to her content.

In 2015 entrepreneur and wigmaker Lovette Jallow started a Facebook group for makeup interested individuals of darker skin-tones and has been up and running since then, and already have nearly 35 000 members.

While 80% of the members are located in Scandinavia, the remaining 20% are from different countries, such as USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Senegal, Gambia and Surinam etc.

The number of members indicates the importance of the group and the need that existed within the Black community. The group’s aim is very simple but effective, only encouraging members to upload their pictures and share makeup tips and products used. By doing so, members get the opportunity to get tips and answers from both members and makeup artists that know and understand how to work with darker skin tones.

The blacks in Sweden who identify as Afro-swedes represent 300 000 of the Swedish population yet this is not reflected within the representation on shelves and in media.  The Swedish Beauty Industry has generally been offering 50 shades of beige when it comes to foundations and concealers in shops and beauty stores.

Black Vogue aims to focus attention on the lack of products for people with darker skin-tones and hopefully affect the Industry and prompt change in the ranges available for ALL skin tones that are present in the Swedish society, and having only been active since 2015 the results of Lovette’s work is already apparent as stores, online shops and makeup artists are more aware of the problem and are working with the forum to make a change.

The “Lovette Jallow – makeup for black women” is not only active as a forum but travel around Sweden and Scandinavia educating makeup artists at makeup schools and within the theatre, tv and film industry such as Göteborgs Operan, SVT and Stockholms Academy of Dramatic Arts institute, to mention a few.

The aim here is to increase knowledge within the beauty industry so makeup artist are fully prepared when working with clients of all skin tones. If you wish to know more about our work then send an email using the information under the contact section.

Content courtesy of Lovette Jallow & Nairobi Fashion Hub