Everyone should be able to find their perfect foundation shade, but time and time again, brands fail to even come close to meeting this need. This issue almost entirely impacts Black women, specifically those with darker skin. Not only is it necessary for beauty brands to create makeup for all skin tones, but it is high time that popular beauty influencers start calling out these brands.
People with dark complexions should be able to walk into a store and find affordable complexion products.
-Golloria
For some Black women, the release of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna was the first time they were able to find their foundation shade. Rihanna’s line is arguably the most inclusive and reliable beauty brand on the market. In an interview, TikToker and beauty influencer @linnygd, referred to as Linasha, explained that no brand sold her foundation shade until Fenty Beauty, which features over fifty shades of foundation, launched in 2017.
She says it was “traumatizing” going into a beauty store and seeing “twenty shades of beige” and no darker shades. Linasha claims that even if there was one dark shade, “it was either way too red or way too pink.”
Many other Black women relate to this experience and struggle to find their shade even today. TikToker and beauty influencer @golloria, referred to as Golloria, has been very vocal about this issue. She frequently creates content centered around the lack of inclusivity of makeup brands.
Recently, Golloria released a video calling out Essence, a beauty brand that is widely known as affordable, accessible, and high-quality. The brand sent her a PR package with three bottles of their new foundation, all of which were too light for her skin.
In the video, Golloria swatches the foundation saying, “I opened the package. I was kind of confused. I was like, oh, maybe they just sent me the wrong shades.” Then, she describes researching the foundation, only to find that the shades she was sent were the darkest in the line.
Tone inclusivity is actually, literally, the bare minimum.
-Golloria
Her TikTok page is full of videos addressing this topic and calling out different brands, but there is only so much she can do.
It is time that the beauty community supports Black women and boycotts the brands that continue to fail those with darker complexions. It is time that white beauty influencers, like Alix Earle or Meredith Duxbury, who have never struggled to find their shade of foundation start standing up for those who have never been able to do the same.
This Black History Month is a perfect time for white influencers to say no to brand trips with non-inclusive companies, leave PR lists from non-inclusive companies, and elevate and show support for their fellow influencers. Beauty brands must expand their foundation ranges. It’s time this struggle for the bare minimum ends.