From dominating TikTok with their unique and lively content, these three TikTok stars are now ready to paint the town kayumanggi.
Former Miss Universe Philippines contestant Ayn Bernos teamed up with fellow content creators Rica Salomon and Kai Javier to launch their new beauty brand called Kayu Beauty.
With “products that inspired by you,” Kayu Beauty described itself as a label that creates products to address beauty-related concerns—from different skin tones and the country’s tropical climate, to “daily habits, goals, and aspirations.”
The beauty brand consists of different people with different backgrounds, namely Salomon, who is the group’s professional makeup artist; makeup connoisseur Javier, who is known for giving honest makeup reviews; and the everyday makeup consumer Bernos who is known for smashing beauty standards and celebrating morena pride.
In a TikTok video, Bernos explained that Kayu comes from the word kayumanggi, and the idea of starting this beauty brand stemmed from Salomon wanting to put up a makeup brand and Bernos to continue her advocacy—which is to raise awareness on colorism.
@aynbernos Reply to @jkgy13 so excited for @kayubeauty 🤎🥰 #InspiredByYou ♬ original sound – Ayn Bernos
“I’ve been frustrated for a long time na parang afterthought kasi ‘yung morenas sa mga campaigns. It’s like we’re the background person,” Bernos shared. “So, when we created the makeup brand, we wanted to make sure that we [the morenas] have the space that we’ve always wanted.”
She also clarified that Kayu Beauty isn’t only exclusive for morenas, but it also advocates for everyone. “Now, that doesn’t mean that it’s exclusive to morenas or anything like that… We advocate for everyone, especially you guys, kayu. Kayu na rin.”
Kayu Beauty, which was officially launched on February 19, has taken to Instagram to introduce their first collection, which is the classic bullet lipstick called Kayu Kiss.
In a separate post, Bernos also expressed that she’s proud to release the first collection after working on it for a year. She wrote: “So proud to be releasing these soft matte moisturizing lipsticks with our amazing team after a year of working on it!”
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