Last week, YSL Beauty launched a new project for the brand’s NU assortment: a skincare-makeup hybrid collection to enhance your skin without ever hiding its signature. The brand selected a diverse pool of talent to promote the 20 shades of its NU Bare Look Tint, a skin tint with buildable coverage for a fresh, dewy complexion.
Within YSL Beauty’s Nu Collective, a group of young influencers working with the brand’s Nu Collection, is mega influencer Rickey Thompson and international model Ceval Omar, who is the first trans female to appear in a YSL Beauty campaign.
As the fashion and beauty industries work to become more inclusive and evolve to reflect the world we are living in, we will discover that there are many first moments that are long overdue. When asked how it feels to be included in the campaign, Ceval said, “It feels so amazing and crazy and a bit late.”
Nonetheless, it is still a celebratory moment for Omar’s accomplishment and a great step toward a more inclusive future. “Hopefully this opens the door for even more inclusivity in the beauty industry, especially from the great fashion houses,” Omar tells ESSENCE. The Somali-Norwegian model’s presence is breaking boundaries and creating more space for transgender and plus-size figures in the model industry. “I’ve never seen myself modeling or anything like that, so the past two years have been really amazing and filled with beautiful memories both working as a model and in life,” Omar shares.