Tyla's Gui-De to the Beauty of South Africa

By the time Tyla swept onto our TikTok feeds in the early 2020s, she was already a fully-fledged artist. Raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, the musician had the chops other aspiring pop girls spend years perfecting: a distinct, vibrational sound; absolutely killer dance moves; an experimental and flirty sense of style; and a chameleonic beauty look. In South Africa, the politics of being mixed race are fraught—but Tyla was quick to pick up on beauty rituals from her mum, her aunties, and her friends. She snuck eyeliner into the school bathroom, learned to cornrow her sisters’ hair, and experimented with her look relentlessly, no matter what anyone else said. “I think a lot of the confidence comes from actually knowing who you are, what you like, what you don’t like, and then going into the world with that,” she tells us. See Tyla's full i-D Beauty Zine cover now: https://spotlight.i-d.co/tyla 00:00 - 00:20 - Intro 00:21 - 00:56 - What kinds of beauty rituals did you watch your mom do growing up? 00:57 - 01:10 - When you think of your mother, what scent comes to mind? 01:11 - 01:35 - How did your mother shape your ideas of beauty and confidence? 01:36 - 02:09 - What memories come to mind when thinking about sharing beauty rituals with Thato? 02:10 - 03:00 - How did you Thato shape your ideas of beauty and confidence? 03:01 - 03:18 - What scents come to mind when thinking of home in South Africa? 03:19 - 04:21 - What memories come to mind when thinking about sharing b