This American Beauty Blogger Applies Mehendi To Her Lips And Calls It A ‘Lip Tint’. Twitter Schools Her For Her Half-baked Knowledge
Anyone who knows me even a little can tell you I am not the most avid social media user. In fact, for the longest time, I didn’t understand why people thought it was necessary to share every aspect of their lives online. However, with my newfound passion for memes, tutorials and hacks, I am beginning to see the charm. However, I learned the hard way that not all hacks make sense. Like this video, I found floating around on social media where this white girl is applying henna (Mehendi) on her lips and calling it a lip stain hack. Even if I look past the fact that this borders on cultural appropriation, it’s just meh.
Briana Christianson, a model and beauty blogger from Chicago posted this beauty hack video on TikTok. In the video, she attempted to get “perfectly tanned lips”. So she starts out by applying a thick coat of henna on her lips, leaving it on for an hour and then wiping it out with alcohol wipes. She was left with a red tint on her lips. Has Briana never head of a little something called lipstick? It’s much easier, less offensive and way safer compared to applying mehendi on your lips. How far will beauty and fashion bloggers go to create their a new fad?
They colonized henna too😒
And btw it's not natural henna, it's full of chemical so RIP to those lips https://t.co/cTlhfljNq3— Wafa (@WeekendforWafa) October 25, 2020
The video went viral on Twitter and a lot of South Asian people came forward to school Brianna about what she did wrong. There was a whole lot wrong with that video. Tweeple called her out for cultural appropriation and pointed out that store-bought henna cones are not 100% organic. It is a known fact that henna cones contain plenty of toxins that are harmful. Applying henna to your hands and feet is perfectly okay. But doing that to your lips is extremely dangerous not to mention super smelly. Brianna and her half-baked knowledge really needed to be shut down. Just because looks pretty on your hands doesn’t mean it will work on any part of the body.
One user wrote, ”Btw there’s difference between Cultural appreciation and appropriation. We wear Henna/Mehndi on our Hand and leg on different occasions with Artistic design. If others wear it properly it’s totally fine. But Henna is DEFINITELY not for using on lips. At least wear it properly.” Another one wrote, “I could feel my lips burning and hear my mom screaming.”
Check out some of the reactions:
I could feel my lips burning and hear my mom screaming. 😭
— fanna 🌼 (@fannaforbooks) October 26, 2020
that’s gonna look horrible in two days yknow when it looks cracky with some parts fading away and other parts red
— megh⁷ 🐳 apobangpo (@koreseokjinie) October 25, 2020
oh my goodness someone take mehndi away from white ppl pls https://t.co/GmbicqLkrw
— meow (@quackarson) October 25, 2020
What in the cultural appropriation https://t.co/PLglVY8uM8
— Sabrina // Kendall Roy’s Therapist (@sablud50) October 26, 2020
Just thinking of that distinct mehendi smell on the lips 24/7 is making me cry https://t.co/NbpkTaa7gF
— Sharayu Ail (@SharayuAil) October 25, 2020
Using henna to create fake freckles is one thing, this is a whole other. Mehendi cones are more often than not laced with industrial chemicals that bring out the distinct red colour. The same one that was on her lips after she wiped it off. It could cause itching, redness, swelling and even turn her lips black. This is why having a half-baked knowledge plus a working internet connection is never a good idea.
Also Read: This Beauty Blogger Served Up Creative Makeup Looks Inspired By Cult Indian Snacks. And, The Looks Are So Chatpata
https://twitter.com/inniedesi/status/1320418641549156355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1320418641549156355%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_0&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Ftrending%2Fviral-videos-trending%2Fmodel-uses-mehendi-as-lip-stain-video-baffles-desi-folks-online-6883883%2F
What was Brianna thinking? Yes, mehendi is very popular amongst foreigners and beauty bloggers are always trying to figure out weirder ways to use it, but applying it to your lips without doing sufficient research is just seems plain stupid. After all this was brought to her attention, Brianna posted another video to say that the colour had vanished two days later and she urged everyone to not use the brand of henna that she had. In this video, she also said that she looked up products since “everyone was using cool henna stuff” and bought the fist cone she found. Of course, why not follow the herd blindly? She admitted it was not the right thing to do and also that she would be also trying something new. Really? So, she didn’t learn anything from this beauty fail?
How about we just agree that henna is not a lip stain. It’s not a creative hack but a very nonsensical one. Let’s just stick to lipsticks and lipglosses, shall we?
https://thehauterfly.com/culture-2/these-beauty-bloggers-got-real-about-their-skin-struggles-on-ig-we-are-here-for-all-the-skin-positivity/
