Foundations for EVERY face… let’s get inclusive in our foundational products…
I am a 40-something-year old deep complexioned African American woman. As a child of the 70s I come from a land before time when cosmetic options for women in my skin-tone range were pretty much nonexistent. Fairer skin-toned women of color could try to Jimmy-rig the existing mainstream makeup of the day. It wasn’t a perfect match but it was workable. Deeper complexioned women of color pretty much had no options in the mainstream makeup landscape. As they say necessity is the mother of invention so it was during the 60s and 70s that cosmetic lines for deep complexion women were born. Like many Black women in my age group, my first exposure to makeup lines were Flori Roberts and Fashion Fair.
Much has changed since this time, and nowadays many major cosmetic lines have a range of colors to try to meet the needs of all complexions. But still many do not. Or they do have some, but the color range is not complete. Thus niche brands are still needed and going strong, filing the needs of their consumer base where mainstream lines may miss. For example – what a mainstream line considers “dark” may not be the same as what people of color – particularly Black people – consider dark. I know many mainstream lines deepest color still isn’t deep enough for me and I’m not as deep as Black complexions can be (think of the gorgeous Sudanese model Alek Wek). Also deeper skintones require much more pigmentation for color cosmetics to show, ergo a lot of mainstream eyeshadows & blushes totally do not work on darker complexions. I recently wrote how frustrated I was looking for a foundation in my tone in mainstream brands. Well, while the mainstay brands may still be tripping, I am excited to say that a lot of great advances are being made within the niche brands. From the packaging to the formulations to the color selections, nowadays the niche brands for people of color are every bit as modern and fashion forward as their mainstream counterparts.
Anita Grant
AJ Crimson
YABY
I know I was primarily speaking of foundation needs for Black people, but let’s take a moment to talk about our Asian brethren. This is another group that can be very difficult to match. For a long time a lot of caucasian toned foundations were too pink, and then even since yellow and beige toned foundations took over in the 90s (thank heavens), the color range often isn’t there. Asian skin can run from very fair to quite deep. It is for this reason that (one of my artist friends) Liz Yu founded Yaby. And I have used her brand since its inception. She is well known for her eyeshadows – and yes they are superb – but seriously get into her foundation products as well.
Have you tried any of the niche brands in your kit yet? If so, tell us who in the comments!
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