“African women and their elegance is at the centre of this beauty look,” make-up artist Ammy Drammeh says. “That elegance is innate, you know? They’re not trying, they just are.” For British Vogue’s February 2022 cover shoot, Drammeh set about enhancing the unique elegance of each African model spotlighted in the story – simple, yet show-stopping.
The aim was to celebrate the group of women and to “highlight their natural beauty, while creating something chic and elegant – I wanted to stay away from all the clichés, like creating a tribal look on an African story… I didn’t want to go there.” The result was the kind of luminosity dreams are made of, with a very subtle slick of metallic shine over lips.
With an array of different skin tones to make up during the shoot, Drammeh took cues from a legendary photograph of Grace Jones by photographer Jean-Paul Goude, shot in 1981. The powerful image features a regal Jones with geometric hair, chiseled features, a “mega, ultra shiny lip” and glowing ebony skin – a cigarette gripped in the corner of her mouth.
“It was a very strong reference,” Drammeh says of the photograph, adding that she was also inspired by the work of two West African photographers, James Barnor and Malick Sidibé, “because that’s where I’m from”. (Drammeh is Gambian-Spanish.)
In the February shoot, it’s the models’ skin that really does the talking – have you ever seen a glow quite like it? To make it look dewy and radiant with health, Drammeh spent a long time prepping the skin, beginning by cleansing, then going hard on the hydrating skincare products.
“Each girl’s skin had different needs, so there wasn’t one product I used on everyone. But I used 111Skin’s Face Masks, Epara’s Hydrating Mist and then Dr Barbara Sturm’s Hyaluronic Acid and Darker Skin Tones Cream,” she says. “And then lip balm, on everyone.” After that, she used different foundations for different girls, but allowed their natural skin to shine through.
Contributing beauty editor, Funmi Fetto, who wrote the accompanying cover story, attests it was wonderful to see a beauty look that “wasn’t about covering or diminishing the models in any way – it was all about expressing the beauty of their Blackness – and boy did it do that!” She loved the way the models’ skin glistened. “Yes, make-up played a part but beyond that, the glow was enhanced by the pride in their skin – literally and metaphorically speaking – and what this moment meant.”
Working with a team who were all either “from Africa or the African diaspora”, Drammeh says, was “amazing”. “It felt really good. I celebrate African beauty a lot in my work, but to do it in a shoot of this magnitude and look around and see photographer, stylist, nails… [all] from the African diaspora, felt really good,” she says. “There’s power in that – it’s a moment to remember.”
The February 2022 issue of British Vogue is on newsstands on 18 January
