Ziwe Fumudoh about the Makeup Look Behind Her Viral Live Shows — Interview

that I enjoy writing about attractiveness. I enjoy incorporating my strange sense of comedy to the capitalism that’s talking about various lip glosses. Makeup is essential to my weekly show — I’ve got a signature white liner and I utilize Glossier Cloud Paint in Storm for my own cheeks. I’ll use a Bite lipstick in Cognac as a eyebrow, and a gloss. [When I did this shoot] for Allure, I utilized the Fenty gloss in Hot Chocolit.

My appearance on the series doesn’t entirely have a notion behind it, but that I adore Euphoria, and I am profoundly affected by the makeup of Alexa Demie and Barbie Ferreira. I found Alexa’s personality do the white liner, and I was like, “That is a brand new look!” My eyes would sort of psychologist, however, so that I double-line with black at the floor for this Disney princess caliber. If I seem like a doll, that is my objective.

I enjoy the notion of integrating beauty into very substantive discussions about blackface and being a white ally.

I discover that [makeup, and the consumer culture that accompanies it,] is so foolish. I sort of love coming beauty like that. I simply believe that it’s quite ridiculous. The concept I was writing portion of my attractiveness column through a pandemic — I’m like, “Yeah, this mascara makes me feel like I have a camel’s eyelashes.” There’s something about beauty and fashion that doesn’t acknowledge the current climate. I find there’s a commonality between the 1950s American housewife and the 2020s American influencer.

[In my own beauty writing], I try to nod to the fact that beauty is the least of our concerns. Beauty is my escape — it makes me feel better about the world, but it’s so minuscule in greater context. The lip gloss and eyeliner that I wear for my Instagram Lives about hate crimes just add another layer of satire.

But maybe not. I cannot remove beauty from my life. I have to wear makeup because I don’t photograph as well without it. Beauty is part of everything that I do as a woman in entertainment. I use beauty as a character on my show. That’s all I can do. Beauty can be radical, but it can also be really, really shallow. It depends on how you use it.

I like the idea of incorporating beauty into really substantive conversations about blackface and being a white ally. Suddenly, it becomes like a satire of talk shows, where I’m this airheaded host that’s like, “I love makeup! I love fashion!” But I am having these really in-depth conversations that normally don’t happen on talk shows. Most hosts are as though, “What’s your next project? How can we promote it?” as opposed to “How many Black friends do you have? What do you like about Black people qualitatively?” And I’m asking those questions with my intense eyeliner and pigment on my face. I’m trying to contextualize these products that I’ve and bring them into conversations about race and class and gender. I don’t know if I’m doing it successfully. I’m just saying that nothing exists in a vacuum. I don’t exist in a vacuum, also the makeup I wear doesn’t exist in a vacuum, the clothes I wear don’t exist in a vacuum — how can we contextualize this to create a much better image of American civilization?