INDIA'S BROWN BEAUTY MAKE-UP INFLUENCERS GO GLOBAL

Under the glow of a ring light in the spare bedroom of a Mumbai high-rise apartment, Indian make-up maven Debasree Banerjee has found fans across the world with a simple philosophy: brown is beautiful.

Banerjee's audience includes women from as far afield as the Middle East and United States who also have a deeper complexion but have historically been overlooked by the cosmetics industry. "I actually have a lot of followers who are outside India, and I feel like it's probably because our skin tones match," Banerjee told AFP. "They can see how the product looks like on my skin tone, how the lipstick applies on my skin tone, and just have that sense of belongingness."

Banerjee, 34, began experimenting with make-up videos in her spare time a decade ago, after graduating from university and moving to Mumbai to work in sales. She is now a full-time beauty and lifestyle influencer, teaching more than half a million followers how to beautify themselves on Instagram and YouTube. Early inspirations included British beauty content creators Tanya Burr and Fleur De Force -- both white and with millions of followers between them.

But Banerjee said she had found no role models who resembled her.