Illamasqua's Christmas Campaign: Racist or Artistic?

Being an immensely huge fan of Illamasqua as a brand, I had to put forward their Christmas Campaign imagery which is apparently deemed to be discriminatory or racist by a few out there, especially the image in black. Now I have no idea of what was said regarding it but I just wanted to show my support to the brand who I have known closely since the past 2 years (or more!) I believe and have spoken to so many people who are responsible for creating the brand through blogger events and all that sort of stuff.

The only vibe I ever got from Illamasqua was that of passionate expression of art and just that. Every single person working for the brand seems to be clinging on to the brands ethics so tight and actually believing in what they preach that is beauty without any barriers. I always find the brand very warm, caring and catering for people of all caste and creed. In fact one of the very few brands out there who use a variety of models from different ethnicity's in their campaigns, especially the Generation Q one. So when the brand says they had nothing regarding skin colour in mind when creating these images, I believe them 100%.

However, I do agree to an extent that it might remind people of blackface - a form of make-up used in minstrel shows in the 19th century. Also, I do like the peach cheeks in the black imagery but the peach lips are not very attractive. They could have been painted a sexy hot pink or a fun electric blue to amp up the creative quotient and receive fewer complaints consequently. Besides, the suits could have been replaced by something more edgy rather than something that might remind people of the past but that's just my personal opinion.

Of course Illamasqua is clear on intent in this campaign. The issue is not that at all. I think what people are questioning is Illamasqua's artistic taste which they find is not particularly matching up to their previous campaigns. I believe they could have played safe but because creating a stereotype was never on their mind in the first place, they didn't give it a second thought before bringing it out in full form.

Ending with Illamasqua's statement in response to the negative comments, let me know what you think of the images above? 

"We thank and acknowledge your comments regarding the Christmas imagery. Obviously it was never our intention to cause offence; Illamasqua has always celebrated the right to self-expression and we continually push creative and artistic boundaries,

 priding ourselves on working with models of many ethnic backgrounds to reinforce this point. We emphasise that this campaign is about colour ON the skin, not colour OF the skin, depicting polarity between the two images (both images are the same model) not race. "