Jamaican singer lands CoverGirl campaign

New York-based Jamaican recording artiste Nefatari has landed a major modelling campaign with the beauty giant CoverGirl. Nefatari is now one of the faces used to introduce CoverGirl's 40 shades of TruBlend foundation and its Exhibitionist lipsticks.

Rolled out early last month, the new digital campaign features faces from various races high-lighting the brand's intent to provide a shade for all complexions, with Nefatari representing women of colour. "It's really great, especially for brown girls and women of colour who usually have trouble finding our shade. Now CoverGirl has launched 40 shades to make all girls feel included," Nefatari told The Gleaner.

"I'm proud to be able to represent people of Caribbean descent, and let darker skinned women see some of that representation. I hope brown girls will see the campaign and feel good about themselves, because there are not a lot of ads with our complexion. I'm really proud to represent that, and I'm proud that CoverGirl has taken the step to represent," she said.

Nefatari was scouted for by a casting director who was familiar with the working musician from previous modelling gigs. "I used to model years ago; I did hair ads for magazines, I also had a campaign with Dell. Somebody knew me from those days, and she asked me if I would be interested in doing this and I said, 'of course!'"

Going through the 'regular process', Nefatari submitted some photos directly to CoverGirl, and was chosen. "That was maybe five weeks ago," she said, with the campaign hitting the Internet a few weeks after.

Nefatari can be seen in the campaign on CoverGirl's digital media platforms and on media sites such as Instyle.com, Allure.com, and Elitedaily.com.

Even with this major campaign under her belt, Nefatari's true passion is music. "This will expose me to a new audience - the beauty world. I've been exposed to music for the majority of my career, so I think this will bring a new audience to my brand, or maybe it will introduce my music to the brand. You never know what door is gonna open," she noted.

Nefatari started as a background singer for Lindsey Lohan and Emma Bunton (Baby Spice). She was also a runway model for Tommy Hilfiger before making the transition into music. She recently wrapped up an acting gig on the web series called Sons of Kingston as the character, Crystal.

Her new 'girls anthem', Forever, was released a few weeks ago and was produced by Jr Taxi for Reggae Pop Records. The official music video will be released later this summer. Nefatari is also featured on Xyclone's album 2774 Waterford Parkway with the song Favourite Girl, which entered the Billboard chart this summer.