By Ima Linzag
Most women know that the struggle is real when it comes to finding makeup products that look good on you. What looks beautiful on store displays and advertisements does not always turn out the way you imagine it to be on your own face and skin tone. The challenge has always been even more difficult for women with darker skin tones, as most mainstream beauty companies bring little to their product offerings directed to consumers of this shade range, or at least much less in comparison to those with a paler complexion.
However, with the launch of Rihanna’s makeup line, Fenty Beauty, it attempted to break down the walls of accessibility for quality makeup targeted toward people of color. The company debuted with a staggering 40 shade range of foundations, and the internet went wild. Foundation is touted as a difficult cosmetic product to get right for companies, so the fact that Fenty decided to go that route and give themselves an even bigger challenge of catering to 40 different shades was unheard of for a company just starting in the market. But Rihanna, of course had to leave her mark on the beauty industry in a way that only Bad Gal RiRi could.
Fenty’s corporate advertising, using models of diverse backgrounds, as well as PR from beauty bloggers, combined with the star power of Rihanna made Fenty a force to be reckoned with. It was apparent that longer-established beauty companies were fighting to reach out to customers they would likely lose to Fenty Beauty. Shortly after Fenty’s launch, you could see competitors posting on their social media pages about their wide foundation shade range and using pictures that featured models of a darker skin tone. However, their efforts seemed to do little to take away from the success Fenty made at its premiere, as many Sephora retailers were sold out of several Fenty shades not long after offering their products. Fenty has made it clear that diversity sells, and with its overwhelmingly positive welcome from bloggers and consumers alike, we will likely see many more brands following in their footsteps and have more diversity in mind with their product selection in the future.
- Ima Linzag for Urban Hydration
Photo Credit: oga_red