Kim Kardashian raised eyebrows last week when she posted an Instagram Story showing off part of her daily makeup routine—specifically, the part where she covers her arms in body makeup so her skin looks darker.
Kardashian’s intent was to promote her own line of cosmetics, specifically, her KKW Beauty body makeup in the light/medium shade.
“[This] is perfect for hands bc my hands are always pale & our formula is waterproof so you can wash your hands!” she wrote over the shocking photo showing the difference between her true skin tone and the one we’ve come to recognize.
Now, obviously tanning is a thing people do, either naturally in the sun or through more targeted methods, like using tanning beds or self-tanners. So going a few shades darker by instead using makeup may not seem that different on the surface.
But Kardashian has a long history of being accused of blackfishing, aka pretending to be or trying to appear Black on social media, and in that context, people are more than a little fed up with her post.
“@KimKardashian just admit to wanting to be black & we’ll leave you alone,” Twitter user @zaeboogz wrote.
It was only a couple months ago that Kardashian made waves for doing a photoshoot in which many felt she was very blatantly styled to resemble legendary Black stars, to the extent that her skin even appeared darker than usual.
She faced similar pushback in 2017 when she was accused of wearing blackface to make the photos promoting her contour kit look “moody.”
And other members of her family have similarly been accused of cultural appropriation many times over the years.
But even aside from the concerns of appropriating Black culture and aesthetics, people are truly shaken up by the idea that beauty standards have gone so far as to include a daily routine of full-body makeup.
“Kim K has girls out here applying foundation to their hands! Awful!” Twitter user @AudreyPorne wrote. “Your hands look fine, bitch. I’ll play Pat-a-cake with you!”
If Kardashian wants to spend all that time putting on hand makeup every day, that’s her choice. And there’s almost no doubt that the mere fact that she does it will convince scores of impressionable young women and girls to buy her products as well. But if you’re tempted to jump on the trend, just think about it this way: Why waste all this time and money on makeup for your hands when you could spend it on literally anything else?
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