Makeup artist Promise Tamang's IRL Bratz Doll transformation, trippy 3D looks, and squiggly eyebrows prove there are few limits to where she can take her makeup skills.
Unfortunately, her latest transformation into Cardi B *might* be where she should draw the line, due to racial insensitivity.
Promise Tamang kicked off her Cardi B transformation using Nose and Scar wax to create a differently shaped nose and then attached it to her nostrils.
"I'm just going to make my nose a bit longer and the nostrils wider, " she said before applying the wax nose tip.
Then she used her famous contouring skills.
Eye makeup and a wig later — IS THAT CARDI B!?
Omg!
You can watch the full transformation down below.
Promise *did* nail the Cardi look.
But adding a fake nose is a little unnecessary — and insensitive.
European beauty standards have historically dubbed bigger, longer noses on people of color as undesirable — and people of color still deal with this.
Just like big lips, larger noses on people of color have been mocked and seen as unattractive — to the point that many public figures have gotten plastic surgery to slim the feature down. Examples include Michael Jackson, Lil' Kim, Nene Leakes, and Patti LaBelle.
I suspect it's also part of the reason why nose contouring is so popular in the beauty community.
It doesn't matter that this is a woman of color copying another woman of color.
It still doesn't feel right that she created a wax nose tip.
If the situation were flipped, it would be seen as offensive for a makeup artist to create slanted eyes to look like a person of Asian descent.
Cardi B is no Bratz doll. She's a human being and an Afro-Latina. Her physical features are off limits for "copying."
It's also important to note Cardi B's own feelings about her nose shape and size.
A cover story in The New Yorker described a scene in Cardi B's dressing room where she sits down as a her makeup artist "sweeps a Beauty Blender dabbed in beige foundation down the sides of Cardi’s nose to make it seem smaller."
“God makes everybody perfect, but sometimes He fucks up,” Cardi said about her nose, according to the magazine.
"She asks one of her publicists for three weeks off in December," the story continued. "So she can take care of it in a more permanent way."
This snippet is an example of how certain beauty standards affect people and should show why putting on a woman of color's nose isn't as simple as "just makeup."
Promise Tamang had good intentions with her Cardi B transformation, but her skills have proven that she could have pulled this look off without a fake nose. And she should have.
There's no need to "cancel" Promise Tamang, as the internet seems do to people so often.
Still, this is definitely a lesson for all makeup artists out there who do the most in the name of creativity and fun. Blackface isn't the only way to get it wrong with people of color and makeup.
Hopefully we see Promise kill her next transformation without any insensitive extras involved.
