Who’s ‘allowed’ to create a thunderous eye look or apply a dab of highlighter to bring out their cheekbones? If people across the gender spectrum are enlisting the help of beauty products to bring out a version of themselves that’s authentic, why does makeup continue to feel so binary?
These questions began to boggle makeup artist Jessica Blackler when her peers were still receiving their college diplomas. After training in makeup prosthetics at Ealing Studio, the same place Downton Abbey was shot, Blackler’s experience working with transgender clients helped to inform her rapid rise as a beauty founder. By the time she could legally drink in America in 2017, Blackler – who originally hails from Cardiff – grew tired of the makeup stereotypes her clients were faced with and decided to lauch Jecca Blac, a brand that proudly proclaims that #MakeupHasNoGender.
Coming up on its fourth anniversary this December, Jecca Blac (a play on Jessica Blackler) may be unfamiliar to some but in the transgender community – particularly with trans women, Jecca Blac has reached cult status for its Correct & Conceal palette. Widely regarded as the first concealer made for beard shadow, the palette had a lightweight formula that anyone would find useful. However, what makes the product a holy grail among trans women who prefer to present with feminine features is that the concealer’s pink tone effectively counteracts darker, cooler undertones left from shaving.
“Makeup should be worn by anyone who wishes to wear it,” Blackler told British Vogue in an interview back in 2019. It’s true that in the years since this bold (yet, rightfully so) statement, makeup shelves have seen an onslaught of brand attempts at diversifying the pool of people for whom makeup is for. But in a market saturated with brands billing inclusivity through campaigns rather than the actual product, Blackler has been able to dig deeper beyond the surface slogan of diversity, setting her brand apart by placing her clients and their cosmetic challenges at the fore.
When the now 25-years old Blackler first stepped into the makeup industry, she was working in film and television and would moonlight in between productions teaching clients how to put makeup on. One of her early lesson requests was from an older woman in the process of male-to-female gender transition. “I remember this very well actually,” she says, describing how the client had asked Blackler to teach her the basics of contouring and applying foundation. “To her, makeup was the second most important factor of her gender transition. First being the emotional support of her family of course.”
Blackler walked away from that teaching experience learning just as much as the client, if not more. “The power of makeup can give you confidence and reflect who you are on the inside,” She explains. “That day just emphasized how important makeup was in a process like this.”
From that first request onwards, Blackler’s studio became known as a safe space where trans women in their gender transition could learn about makeup or get it done by someone empathetic of their journey. Blackler says many weren’t yet open to exploring their gender identity with family or friends so the journey could be lonely. Trans women are also at a disproportionate risk of discrimination in public spaces, so a store like Sephora – although offering a service, not unlike hers – might not necessarily be the safer option either. Having built reliable client testimonials, Blackler was someone trans women knew they could trust to be supportive.
In turn, she recognized the beauty industry’s major oversight in not considering the needs of transgender customers. The more she learned about the struggles her clients faced, in searching for products with ingredients that didn’t interfere with hormone treatments or packaging that was big enough to be held comfortably, Blackler understood that there lacked a truly inclusive brand on the market that actually catered to the needs of the trans community.
Shortly after she launched Jecca Blac, Blackler made regular visits to her local correctional facility where staffers had caught wind of her brand and arranged for Blackler to give transitioning inmates lessons on makeup. There, Blackler saw an even fuller spectrum of trans women clients – many of whom in the case of Parc Prison weren’t privileged enough to ever experiment with makeup, much less higher-end luxury products. She also teamed up with the London Transgender Clinic in 2019 to fundraise for charity. “It was important for me to be supportive of helping people in their journey,” Blackler says.
Makeup should be worn by anyone who wishes to wear it
Jessica Blackler, Founder of Jecca Blac
Like any company that dares to make a bold statement, Blackler says Jecca Blac has received its fair share of backlash. The founder has also been told that a larger brand could do what Jecca Blac does – only bigger and faster. “ But I’m not doing this for marketing reasons,” Blackler says. “[Jecca Blac] is not just a brand that jumped on a trend.”
Though Blackler has heralded what inclusivity on a team level brings to the company, when it comes to input on the kinds of solution-driven products Jecca Blac has created, Blackler still leans on her clients to raise issues and challenges they’d like to see rectified. “Traditionally, the beauty standard would be set by the company creating the product,” Blackler said, “But we listen to our consumers and ask them what product they would like to see on the market.
Inclusivity is what the beauty brands of today should be striving to reach. As Blackler says, makeup is just pigment – who can dictate who gets to experiment with it? But the vague term of ‘inclusivity’ begets the idea that certain groups, like trans women, are only granted accessibility to beauty because the makeup industry has (as of recently) granted it. For a brand like Jecca Blac, the heart and power of makeup is not simply ‘inclusivity’ but community. Blackler sees an obligation for the beauty industry to do its community of makeup lovers justice, first by erasing the idea that makeup should be gendered at all. They should certainly move past featuring one or two androgynous models and look towards the bigger picture. So far, Jecca Blac put words into action, helping to organise London’s Trans Festival in 2020. “We are still a beauty brand,” Blackler laughs, but in her voice is a determination to achieve more. “We’re hoping to become a lot more than that soon.”
Editor
Rachelle Ma
