If Beauty Brands Ever Needed Proof That Dark Shades Sell, This Is It
Something that beauty brands have never quite been able to wrap their heads around when it comes to their collections is that - when you stock 6, 12, or even 24, different foundation shades, you're not going to be able to match every person's skin tone. Women of colour have found themselves in years past having to compromise their naturally gorgeous skin tones, by covering it with a foundation ten shades lighter. All because cosmetics lines just don't see the need for darker shades. Their excuse? Dark shades don't sell.
With the release of Rihanna's Fenty Beauty, which has been warmly praised since its launch last week for its amazingly diverse forty shades of the brand's Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation, along with the rest of its incredible collection. With that, one Sephora customer in the States pointed out that, actually, dark shades do sell, and shelves of sold out foundation prove it.
It's not that we ever needed reminding that diversity is key, but it's great that one photo shows whitewashed cosmetics companies that there is a client base beyond a 'Dark 03' or whatever useless name they use for their darkest shade (which invariably is never actually that dark).
Big beauty players are stopping to pay attention to Fenty Beauty, including Kylie Cosmetics - which has been getting heavily trolled on social media since Fenty's launch - and whether they're turning their head for the incredible profit that Rihanna's taking straight to the bank, or the genuine message of diversity that the brand focuses on, we're hopeful that companies will follow suit and cater to a more diverse market of beauty lovers.
