Celebrity Aesthetician Brittany Whitfield on Where Black Beauty Still Falls Short
Main image – Esthergalvan/Stocksy
There’s a certain kind of aesthetician celebrities quietly pass between one another – the one who understands skin beyond trends, beyond TikTok hacks, beyond whatever ‘holy grail’ serum is having a moment.
For Brittany Whitfield, that understanding began not in a glossy treatment room, but in a Harlem housing project – and in frustration.
Before she was working with models like Irina Shayk and A-listers like Ed Sheeran, before her residency at Paul Labrecque Salon and Skincare Spa on Fifth Avenue, she was a 19-year-old trying to fix her own skin without access to dermatologists or luxury products. When she finally saw a doctor in her early twenties, she was essentially handed a pharmacy coupon and sent on her way.
So she did what resourceful women have always done – she educated herself.
“I decided to take the bull by the horns and immerse myself in understanding ingredients,” she says. What followed wasn’t a quick fix, but a career-long immersion into skin science.
Image – @Brittywhitfield/Instagram
And now having worked with some of the world’s biggest names and brands, she has thoughts.
I sat down with her to find out how she became one of the most trusted celebrity aestheticians, what the beauty industry still gets wrong about Black skin – and why representation alone isn’t the same as inclusion.
Power shifts
Whitfield tells me her early career in fashion shifted her perspective in ways she didn’t expect.
“Working in fashion was the foundation of my appreciation for amazing, healthy skin,” she explains. “Oftentimes the makeup looks want minimal skin work, which means prep and actual skin texture take the centre stage. I’ve always been an advocate for skin health in the glam room (and treatment room), which takes precedence in my portfolio.”
And working with major models – including a roster of NEXT Model Management talent – she says she quickly realised that most powerful person in the room wasn’t necessarily a random executive, it was the woman in the chair.
“I loved empowering talent to be in control of how they wanted to look,” she tells me. “For their appearances, they got to be seen as themselves and not as a number on the runway, and that gave me the greatest joy.
Image – @Brittywhitfield/Instagram
“I figured if I had the personality and skills to help women feel fabulous, especially black models – in an industry that is already not kind to them- to feel special, then I could do it with anyone in entertainment.”
Today, that same philosophy shapes her work in clinic, she tells me. “A typical day as a facialist is not only giving my clients the best bespoke treatments for delicious skin, but also from pulling from my experiences as a makeup artist to create an intimate, trusting, and inviting environment.”
Because, she explains, the treatment room is a sanctuary. “People have to be raw in the treatment room, allowing you a peek into their personal world. Not only do we literally wear our insecurities on our face, at this time there is no makeup or small talk to hide behind it.
“You may find out before a client’s family if they’re trying to conceive or if they are in early stages of pregnancy, if they had medical procedures they choose not to disclose publicly, or if they’ve been excessively stressed, etc. which is both delicate and heavy.”
How oversaturation is causing overwhelm
“I genuinely believe that most people by this point have meaningful products in their medicine cabinet but are too overwhelmed with contradicting information to use them properly.”
That’s why she offers curation services for her clients, she explains “I provide Skincare Wardrobing services for clients as well, where they send me an inventory of what they own in their medicine cabinet and I draw out routines of what products are best”.
It’s all about finding personalised routines that work for your own skin- not the other way round- she tells me. “Product ingredient layering in the correct order of your skincare routine is the make or break step to achieving fabulous skin.”
Image – @Brittywhitfield/Instagram
“I rotate about 2-3 different routines for morning and night. There are certain actives I interchange. Outside of judging products for Marie Claire, I open only what’s necessary in my routine when I’m gifted products from brands.”
“At the moment, I: double cleanse daily, I alternate between skin misting toners and exfoliating pads, use a Vitamin A / retinol product for evenings which I may alternate with a Vitamin C active, and then I finish with a moisturising cocktail of an oil of choice / basic moisturiser and SPF during the day!”.
And why representation isn’t the same as inclusion
But even though the 2026 beauty space is a crowded one, ironically that still doesn’t mean that every skin is being catered for.
Beauty may have improved its optics, shade ranges have expanded, and campaigns may have become more diverse. But Whitfield is clear; progress does not equal complete reform.
“Inclusive makeup brands think their quotas are filled simply because they’ve figured out deeper foundation colours,” she says. “But ancillary products are absolutely lacking.”
Eyebrow pencils still pull ashy on dark skin, she explains, while deep lip liner ranges are limited, and bronzer shades often fail to consider undertone depth properly. These gaps might seem small individually, but collectively they send a message; deeper complexions are still being treated as an extension, not the starting point.
As Whitfield puts it, “I always say if Heidi Klum can turn herself into a worm for Halloween, they can absolutely develop a deep enough bronzer for dark skin.”
And the aesthetician explains that the issue starts at a more grassroots level – with our treatment of skin itself. “There are still very few clinical images showing how common skin conditions present on deeper complexions.
“Rosacea, acne, hyperpigmentation and inflammatory responses do not look identical across the Fitzpatrick scale – yet training materials often skew overwhelmingly toward fair skin.”
And the consequences of this fundamental lack of awareness often has real-world consequences. “This is a huge issue as it forces newer professionals to experiment blindly on deeper skinned clients – with a likely tragic outcome- constantly reinforcing the loop that Black skin is ‘problematic’,” she explains.
The tech issue
Beauty tech too, is an issue, says Whitfield. While she acknowledges that there have been improvements (“there are finally more options for lasers for deeper complexions”), she explains there’s still far to go.
“It’s actually a sad realisation that melanated skin has far less options to correct hyperpigmentation or wider access to laser hair removal when as Black / brown people, we have more active pigment cells and therefore would invest more than the average fair skinned person on our skincare treatments.”
Image – Brittany Whitfield
This point alone, she argues, means that there should logically be more in-office options for deeper skin tones, not fewer. “Even from a capitalistic perspective, we are more fruitful, loyal clients in the skin and the cosmetics industry as a whole.”
Yet that still isn’t the case. A fact which Whitfield says is down to a fundamental bias.
“When brands and skin experts are not inclusive in the services and modalities they provide and products they create to all complexions, it must be deduced to racism and not a lack of scientific breakthrough.”
The takeaway
Beauty has moved forward – but as Whitfield makes clear, movement and momentum are not the same.
Campaigns may look different and shade ranges may be wider, but if training materials still default to fair skin and deeper shades are still being treated as afterthoughts, then inclusion remains incomplete.
As Whitfield puts it;“In what world, if you could make more money off a service, would you not provide it?”
It’s a question the industry may not be able to answer comfortably – but one it can no longer ignore.
Get Glowing!
