Some might argue that Frida Kahlo’s beautiful braids — accented with vibrant blooms, of course — were her signature beauty look, but you really can’t argue against the bold unibrow she proudly sported in her seminal self-portraits and IRL. And now an upcoming exhibit at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is slated to give a peek at the beauty buys she had on her vanity.
According to The Guardian, the museum will put over 200 of her personal items on display, including clothes, jewelry, her prosthetic leg, and a sampling of her cosmetics which up until now had been sealed in the Mexican artist’s home following her death in 1954, thanks to her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo was clearly a fan of Revlon, as the brand’s blush, bullet lipsticks in “Everything’s Rosy” (Kahlo’s favorite shade), nail files, and even the ebony eyebrow pencil she used to fill in her monobrow will be showcased in their original packaging. And in case you were curious, Refinery29 discovered that the brand’s Soft Black ColorStay Pencil serves as a great substitute for the original product that has long been discontinued.
Photograph: Javier Hinojosa/© Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Archives, Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Museums via The Guardian
The exhibit offers fans a chance to get an inside look at her personal life as well as learn some of her beauty secrets, but the cosmetic collection also highlights how she bucked traditional beauty standards to create a look that was all her own. Claire Wilcox, the V&A museum‘s senior curator of fashion, noted that the products and her clothing all served to empower the icon after a difficult early life in which a near-fatal trolley accident left Kahlo with mobility issues and chronic pain throughout her life. “This is the real material evidence of the way Kahlo constructed her identity.”
But even with this exciting news prompting Frida fans and beauty buffs alike to book a ticket across the pond to check out the exhibit, it looks like Kahlo’s trademark unibrow has also become the center of a controversy. Mattel recently announced that they would be releasing a doll as part of the brand’s upcoming “Inspiring Women” collection that was met with major criticism from Kahlo’s relatives who claim that her image was used without the family’s permission, with many others arguing that Kahlo would never have approved of the toy because of her anti-capitalist ideals.
Fans of the folklore artist quickly took to Twitter after noticing some glaring issues, as pictures feature the doll with lighter eyes, a slimmer silhouette, and a less colorful wardrobe as well as her missing wheelchair and scars from the accident she suffered when she was young as well as her signature unibrow. Even Salma Hayek, who portrayed the Mexican painter in the 2002 biopic, shared a shot of the doll on Instagram, captioning it with: “#FridaKahlo never tried to be or look like anyone else. She celebrated her uniqueness. How could they turn her into a Barbie.”
So for Mattel to create a collection meant for young girls who are just discovering their own definitions of beauty, erasing Kahlo’s defining features seems to defeat the whole purpose, especially when those traits are the reasons that fans first fell for her and her work in the first place. After all, she once wrote, “Of my face, I like my eyebrows and eyes.” Hopefully, the toy brand listens to Kahlo’s family and her fans to help portray her the same way she herself.