Natasha Caudill Is Educating TikTok on Colorblindness One Makeup Swatch at a Time

THE BEAUTY OF ACCESSIBILITYNatasha Caudill Is Educating TikTok on Colorblindness One Makeup Swatch at a TimeThe TikTok influencer shares with Allure why so much makeup isn't accessible to people with visual impairments. April 15, 2022natasha caudill colorblind makeup tutorial tiktokCourtesy of Natasha Caudill

Natasha Caudill sees the world in black, white, and about fifty shades of gray. 

At least that's the joke she's heard practically every week since the infamous book was published. A celebrated content creator with over 1.2 million followers on TikTok, Caudill was born with a genetic condition called achromatopsia. Due to this hereditary visual disorder, Caudill is completely colorblind, has daytime blindness requiring her to wear sunglasses indoors and out during the day, and has overall low visual acuity. Because she was adopted from Ukraine, Caudill doesn't know if any of her biological family has the condition.

Since joining TikTok in 2019, Caudill has quickly made a name for herself by sharing snippets of her daily life as a colorblind person. Her "colorblind storytimes" are a fan-loved franchise through which she shares funny moments that have happened because of her condition. For example, in high school she was voted "best eyes" despite wearing sunglasses every day; in another, she reveals she has an impressive collection of neon-yellow clothing in her closet because it looks exactly like white to her.

In just over two and a half years, Caudill has told hundreds of these stories and continues to spread awareness about achromatopsia through a series of black and white beauty tutorials, clothing hauls, and daily vlogs.

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"I absolutely love makeup and clothing and started putting a black and white filter on videos so that people could see how I do my makeup and shop for clothing and such," she tells Allure. "People love to see the color reveal of my makeup videos after watching them in black and white. My first-ever viral Tiktok was actually me talking about makeup, so I've kept that going because I enjoy doing it and getting to educate about my colorblindness."

In a video from February, Caudill plays a game with her followers called "Is My New Makeup Colorblind Accessible or Not?" The first item, the Persephone eye shadow palette from Dito Cosmetics, has shades labeled as numbers. Not accessible. The next two items — Kim Chi Chic's Thailor Blush in Pinky Rose and Benefit Cosmetics Roller Lash Mascara in Black — are both accessible. The last item in her makeup haul is Uoma's Diana Lipstick. Caudill guesses the color might be a red or a black based on the shade of gray she sees but notes the name itself didn't give her any information to guess. Not accessible.

This is a recurring theme throughout Caudill's videos. While she's able to use apps such as ColorAssist and ColorBlindPal to scan the color of items she points her phone at, it can be far more difficult to surmise the color of smaller items — namely, makeup, especially with non-descriptive names such as "Diana" or numbers. Although she can follow tutorials other people have created with the non-accessible palettes she owns, she shouldn't have to do that at all.

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"Brands love to use fun, quirky names for their makeup products, but I would love regular color-identifying names. It always helps me out so much when a brand does include them," she explains of how beauty brands can become more accessible. "When I know that the mascara I'm using is black and not purple, I feel a lot more confident."

You think she's joking, but Caudill once wore purple mascara for months before someone told her it wasn't black. And she's constantly worried she'll have a major makeup faux pas.

"Blushes, highlighters, and even eye shadows are typically not very colorblind-friendly because brands oftentimes won't label them with actual color names," she explains. "I'm always just a little bit scared I'm going to put on a crazy neon highlighter or eye shadow by accident." Blush is notoriously challenging for Caudill because she can't always tell how much she's putting on. "My trick is to dip my brush really lightly into my blush and blend as much as I can so that I hopefully don't leave the house looking like a clown."

While many brands are not accessible to people with colorblindness, Caudill says products such as mascara and brow pencils are almost always labeled with regular color names. She lauds Colourpop Cosmetics, in particular, for including descriptions of the colors in its palettes on its website — something more brands should do to be more accessible.

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As open as Caudill is with her followers, the cost of sharing little pieces of her life online is that trolls and haters sometimes come out of the woodwork to comment on her videos. Caudill said she'd be rich if she had a dollar for every time someone asked her what her favorite color was or if she could tell them what color shirt they were wearing. She even went as far once as to use Google Translate to dispel the myth that men are the only people who experience colorblindness.

Still, she won't let negative people ruin her experience on the app. She'll continue to advocate for accessibility in beauty, fashion, and even board games while letting her truest self shine. And, in case you were wondering, her favorite color is purple.

More on beauty and accessibility:

  • Molly Burke on What Needs to Happen Next for a More Accessible Beauty Industry
  • TikTok Star Gabe Adams-Wheatley Knows Makeup Has No Limits
  • Grace Strobel Knows How Good Her Skin Looks

Now, see Molly Burke's 10-minute beauty routine:

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Marilyn La Jeunesse is a freelance writer and audience development strategist with words in Allure, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Nylon, InStyle, BuzzFeed, and more. When she's not obsessing over the latest beauty drop, she can be found wandering the West Village with a red lipstick-stained coffee cup in hand.ContributorKeywordsmakeupwellnessaccessibilitythe beauty of accessibilityinterviews

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Originally posted on: https://www.allure.com/story/natasha-caudill-colorblind-makeup-tiktok-interview