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Women everywhere rejoiced last year when Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line hit stores. The excitement wasn’t just because the singer behind hits like “Love On the Brain” was giving fans the opportunity to borrow some of her beauty sense, but because her line of foundations and concealers in particular seemed to include every shade imaginable for those with fair skin, dark skin and every color in between. But even with Fenty Beauty’s blessing to the cosmetic world, some models say there are makeup artists who still can’t quite get it right when it comes to finding shades that match models’ skin tones. Duckie Thot, who has modeled for designer’s such as Moschino and Oscar de la Renta says she often still brings her own personal products to photo shoots.
In a recent cover interview with ES, the London Evening Standard’s magazine, the Australian model of Sudanese descent shares she gives the makeup artist a chance initially on shoots, but if a look isn’t working on film, she takes matters into her own hands:
“I take my own makeup to shoots every time.”
“I’ll give the makeup artist the space and we’ll shoot. If it doesn’t look good, then we’ll change to what I know works. If you’re doing makeup on my skin, no one knows my face more than me.”
Sadly, the model whose birth name is Nyadak Thot landed her big break shooting for the 2018 Perelli calendar after appearing on Australia’s Next Top Model says she’s accustomed to makeup artists not having the products that work best for dark skin, and she says her location has a lot to do with it:
“Growing up, makeup was ordered online, shipped from America or London.”
”I found it difficult — I’m really, really dark: sometimes even the M.A.C. shades weren’t dark enough.”
Thot says her go to products are Lancome and of course Fenty Beauty, the latter which she has modeled for in both photo and video campaigns. She says boss Rihanna has become somewhat of a mentor for her since then:
“She’s become a mentor to me, and is also a great confidante.”
“She tells me not to take things personally because the business is just that: a business.”
Who better to coach Thot on being “Ray Charles” to the bulls**t than the “Queen Of No Damns Given” herself?
Thot is now building her career in Manhattan, a necessary move since she says industry giants are always hesitant to fly to Australia because, “No one wants to go out there because they don’t want to sit on a plane for 24 hours.” She recently signed a contract with New York Model Management and has rented a quiet place in Brooklyn while she continues to make her come up in the industry. Thot admits, however, the Big Apple is a big change for her:
“I’m so not a Manhattan girl, it’s too loud.”
