Watch your language...
When I was young, my mother placed a ban on magazines in our home. Well, to be clear, she banned beauty magazines, we kept a monthly subscription to National Geographic. I’m inclined to think this was done intentionally to protect my impressionable mind- as a Caribbean immigrant she leaned towards books and the Bible as the cornerstones of my educational & emotional growth. Though I didn’t grow up very aware of outer perfection, I was eventually exposed to enough media to ensure that I, at the very least, questioned my worth every once in a while.
This summer, I had dinner with a dear friend who shared her experience of beauty as biracial, as a new mom, and as a woman. Thinking about the impact society will have on her young daughter brought tears to her eyes, and I could see her own history swirling in that mist. Of course, there is more to our wholistic experience of ourselves than beauty, however, that language has contributed to how we see and speak not only to ourselves, but to each other.
Maybe my mother was on to something. A recent search on a major beauty website returned 1766 products with the term anti-aging, 524 with flawless, 1665 with perfect. Every one of those products fell under the women’s beauty category. Language is powerful, and it’s often used in marketing to make us feel less-than so we can buy said product that makes us feel worthy of ________ (fill in the blank). Here are mine: love, career advancement, attention.
The reConstitution of Beauty is our personal commitment to “watch our language”. No brand is just a brand. Clearly. Brands inform culture and language, as beauty has done for decades. We believe beauty shouldn’t come at the expense of our psyche. Rather than pursuing flawlessness, we aim to build efficacious products, designed thoughtfully, that actually help you feel great in the skin you’re already in.
As to the name change? Well, we’ve had a community of non-binary customers sharing their love of OUI since our launch in 2015. We’ve changed our name to reflect the People because we see you, and we hope to create a brand that heralds your most confident, whole and incredible selves, regardless of the gender pronoun assigned to you.
As always...it’s nice to see you,
Karen
Founder, OUI the People
F.K.A. OUI Shave
