Social media influencer Diana Kihoti, popularly known as Liebe Kiki, who reversed her skin colour months after bleaching.
Social media influencer Diana Kihoti, popularly known as Liebe Kiki, says her brief journey into skin-lightening was driven by curiosity, childhood influence, and a desire “to experience the other world of being light-skinned.”
But the fantasy barely lasted a year. At 25, she speaks openly about the pressures she faced and why she chose to return to her natural dark complexion.
***
I was born in South Africa and came back to Kenya when I was three years old. My family settled in Eldoret. Years later, when I was 20, I moved to Nairobi. I studied up to Form Four. I have never bothered to go to college.
I had a very cool mum who gave me my first job in her spa in Eldoret after I completed Form Four. She passed away a few years later.
I was raising my younger brother and running the spa after mum passed on, and it soon felt very limiting. It was time to move to a bigger life.
When I came to Nairobi, I did not know anyone. I made a friend at my first gig, which was modelling for a lingerie brand. That is how people first became aware of me. She introduced me to the digital spotlight.
It didn’t take long to build my audience. But I am still shy, and there is still a part of me that I don’t like online.
I have worked with two brands already, but I dropped one for personal reasons. I also have a fashion store, Vetement by Kihoti, which I opened in 2020.
I have been lucky enough not to have ever been unemployed. I save any coin I get. I started the store from savings from modelling gigs. I was also dating a rich man at the time who used to fund my lifestyle, and from that, I saved some money and added to the business.
My mother had me when she was 16. I was quite a dark-skinned child. My mum was bleaching her skin, and she started encouraging me to do it. She achieved the skin tone she wanted, and so it was a bit awkward for her to introduce me to her friends because I was so dark. At some point, she asked me to stop calling her mum and instead call her by her name.
Skin lightening creams on a display in a retailer shop along River Road, Nairobi on October 10, 2019.
One morning in January last year, I called one of my friends, and I told them I wanted to lighten my skin. They were all shocked because they believed I was confident in my skin. I bought the creams in Nairobi, and within a month, I had achieved the colour I wanted.
Just like I thought, the reactions were immediate. I was treated better because of my light skin. I remember meeting someone who told me that I would now have cute babies.
I spent around Sh600,000 to transform my skin tone. My entire body was light-skinned, including my knuckles. I used high-quality products, and maintaining my skin tone was a lot of work. Seven months down the line, the whole thing felt off, so I told my boyfriend I wanted to stop skin lightening. He supported me.
We flew to Asia to reverse the effects of skin whitening; my boyfriend paid for everything.
Returning to my natural complexion involved intensive skin treatment. I was put on seven drips to boost my immunity from the inside. We did skin repair, rejuvenation, collagens and more ions.
I feel I have achieved everything, living with both light and dark skin. I feel like I have done it all at 25 years.
I have veneers to fix my teeth. I want to look fake and plastic and so I will change the colour of my eyes permanent. I also want to have my boobs done, to be bigger and work on my waist. I want to look like a living doll.
I will never despise anyone for fixing their insecurity, but ask yourself whether it is worth it? If you have to do it, do it for yourself and not for anyone.
Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.
