We live in a world that’s reaching peak awareness of systems of privilege—in all facets of society.
Politics, justice, media. Everyone is taking the time to review themselves and addressing their responsibility to do better, no matter where they’re at in life.
And the beauty industry is no different.
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour), myself included, have for most of our adolescence or our ‘coming of age’ years, found it difficult to find makeup shades that suited our skin tones. We had no choice but to pick a foundation on the ‘darker’ end of the light beige spectrum, so we often went without.
Until, now.
Large-scale beauty brands are actively working to be more inclusive. This shift is so welcome and hopefully, it’s just the start.
As we’re having broader conversations around inclusivity, we thought we would highlight 5 beauty brands with the most inclusive colour palettes to save you time finding the right hue for you and shoutout these brands for celebrating diversity even before this year.
FENTY BEAUTY
With a legion of already dedicated followers, Fenty Beauty (the brand owned by Rihanna) revolutionized the beauty game as one of the first to announce it was releasing 40 different foundation shades.
As the pioneer of the extensive shades line, Time magazine even awarded the now beauty mogul for the best invention of the year.
“We are all so different, with our own unique skin tones, so we started with the 40 foundation shades out the gate.” said the singer.
Fenty Beauty definitely set the tone for inclusivity in the beauty space with many beauty brands following suit as a result.
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COVERGIRL
Another global beauty brand that embraced inclusivity pre-BLM, is Covergirl.
After doing interviews and social media research, Covergirl decided to listen to the needs of its consumers particularly WOC, so they too, diversified their makeup line with a 40 shade foundation range.
Covergirl also aimed to be progressive with its image inclusion, having actress Zendaya as one of their celebrity spokeswomen and featuring model Amy Deanna who has the skin condition vitiligo.
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MAC Cosmetics
No stranger to makeup inclusivity, one of MAC.’s hero products, the Studio Fix Foundation comes in 50 different shades and its Fluid Foundation line also comes in 40.
Senior VP of global product Nick Gavrelis told Byrdie Beauty :
“The notion that we’re hitting all skin tones, and keeping in mind all skin types, has been important since the beginning. There are people of all skin tones living in almost every pocket of the world. MAC is constantly refining and adding to its shade range as a result of conversations with our consumers and artist community.
You can’t say there is a perennial shade range forever. All ethnic backgrounds are blending and creating roots. It’s evolution – not just of the brand, of humankind.”
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Makeup Forever
Though a little late to the game, in 2015 Makeup Forever followed in the footsteps of Fenty Beauty in celebrating inclusive beauty so it created 40 foundation shades to cater to women of all skin tones. The brand also champions genderless makeup in an effort to support members of the LGBTQ community.
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Cover FX
What’s better than 40 shades of foundation? 30 shades of concealer! Cover FX’s Power Play concealer comes in 30 different shades to complement the Power Play’s 40 different colour shade range.
Finding the right colour concealer can be hard at the best of times, and now, POC have access to a wider variety so they can choose the best one with the correct undertones to best suit their skin.
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Sadaf Razi is a stylist and writer based in Sydney. You can follower her and her work on Instagram: @sadafr
Shop these and a few more of our favourite foundation and concealer brands below
