Nigerian makeup artist, Tenny Coco took to Instagram today to share an inspiring story of her experience with skin bleaching, years of addiction to the trend and the soul searching that led her to embracing her natural skin colour.
It’s no longer news that skin bleaching or whitening (however you want to describe it) is an obsession (especially in these parts) that can be partly blamed on the age-long belief that the lighter your skin is, the better life and society treats you.
It was only days ago skin care company, Nivea sparked social media outrage following a recent ad for one of its products that promises a ‘visibly fairer skin’ for customers. The conversation has spiraled from companies promoting racism and colorism to skin colour misconceptions that have been engendered in the society over the years.
Tenny Coco attributed her skin whitening decision to the widely spread but flawed perception that ” the lighter you are, the more beautiful you look”.
The makeup artist has got her melanin glow back and has promised to share tips on how she was able to successfully transition to dark skin. Now that’s something we’re itching to share but until then, read her story here:
“My Road to Melanin
At the age of 19, I started lightening my skin….. By the time I was 20, I had become a heavy Skin bleacher… at the time it felt almost normal, I felt like I looked more attractive….. it became an addiction, I just couldn’t stop. I craved so much to be lighter.. I felt being black wasn’t beautiful enough. What a stupid way to have thought… I guess the society we live in played a little role in my decision to bleach my skin… coupled with being very Naive at that age. It’s widely perceived that the lighter you are, the more beautiful you look. To be honest I always knew it was a bad thing… I mean, I had seen loads of people with ridiculously damaged skin courtesy the effects of bleaching but I was just so deep into it… like I said it’s actually an addiction.
As my 25th birthday started approaching I started to do a lot of Soul searching, a lot of self evaluation… concerning every area of my life and I finally started to see the light… to see how crazy I had been all these years… how crazy it was for me to have believed that my black skin wasn’t beautiful, to have allowed myself to feel inadequate or to try and tell God ‘ how you created me isn’t good enough’ what a silly, crazy way to have lived. Today I’m more than grateful that I finally saw the light. Black is beautiful! So beautiful! Never have I ever felt as beautiful and as at peace with my skin tone as I do now… Please Love your skin/Yourself the way God has made you…. you are beautiful, you are enough.
Time will always tell… imagine how I would look 10-15 years from now if I had continued to bleach my skin. Please don’t do it… I did it and I Had/ have so much Regret… it’s not worth it. You are beautiful just as you are.
I get a lot of messages asking me, how I was able to transition my skin back… I will be sharing all the tips soon enough.
Thank you to everyone who helped me get through this…… the Amount of support I have received is enormous… Thank you.”