Sometimes it is just a cue for advertising but the trend of including the physical difficulties and diversity of each of us in the creation of new products is taking its first steps and after fashion it is the turn of the beauty sector.
The giants of cosmetics are still not very sensitive, but it is the smaller and more specialized brands that really lead the way.
After the first fashionable sneakers of the giant Nike that fit themselves, facilitating the task for those with some forms of disability and those who struggle to bow, it is the turn of
make-up for disability
.
The first original ideas are born such as 'mold' tricks designed for those who cannot draw eyes with pencils and eyeliner due to motor difficulties or tremors and make-up brushes equipped with easy-grip applicators, useful for those suffering from arthritis or disabilities of different kinds.
The
potential market is precious
: the spending power of people with disabilities and their families has just been valued at $ 6 trillion in the United States alone in the 2021 beauty diversity forecast by WGSN.
After the worldwide success of the make-up palettes with over 40 different shades, designed for all skin colors by the singer Rihanna for her Fenty Beauty line, there are more and more beauty lines that aim for
gender fluidity and body positivity
.
Now we are at the first steps towards disabilities-friendly inclusive make-up.
Pioneers of change are some very popular social media influencers such as American writer, journalist and blogger
Madison Lawson
.
Twenty-six, a Teen Vogue and Glamor signature, has two forms of muscular dystrophy and has been in a wheelchair since she was nine.
Lawson has thousands of followers on instagram (@wheelchairbarbie) where she dispenses makeup tips on beauty diversity.
“The market potential is vast, - reports the expert on WGSN Insider, - but the main brands are still insensitive”.
The avant-garde brands have the task of devising the first ad hoc tricks for motor difficulties and for an audience of elderly consumers who struggle to hold make-up brushes and pencils.
In this regard, the British start-up Kohl Kreatives has created
The Flex Collection,
a series of easy-to-grasp makeup brushes.
Celebrity make-up artist
Veronica Lorenz
, with one-handed mobility difficulties due to a benign tumor in the spinal cord, developed
'The Vamp Stamp'
stamp tricks in 2017
.
Her easy-grip markers with a colored pad at the tip were sold in no time under the motto 'let's break the beauty barriers'.
To date, stencil makeup is spreading as a method to help anyone unable to draw perfect and trendy lines with eyeliner.
Afflicted instead by Parkinson's disease at the height of her make-up career, New Yorker
Terry Briant
last year developed her line of
'Guide Beauty
'
makeup products
(guidebeauty.com) which includes brow gels, mascara, eyeliner and easy applicators both in the opening of the packages and in the use to keep the hand steady.
Martina Tarlazzi, educator and make-up artist from Lodi conducts practical make-up workshops for the disabled entitled 'But how do you make up?'
within the
'Make your smile Up' project
(@makeyoursmileup) "Why, if I have acne, I can cure myself with a thousand creams and cremines, while if a person with disabilities has acne, they must keep it? right to relax, to make myself beautiful, to go to the spa or to the beautician and a person with disabilities right? My work has its roots in these questions ", she explained herself on the sidelines of a workshop organized in pre-covid times at Handicap Documentation Center of Bologna transformed for the occasion into a Spa and make-up room.
