by Gabrielle Marie
I for one am ecstatic about the new competition between cosmetic brands to create shades of foundation that include women of darker skin tones. We call them "Dark Girl Friendly".
One brand that most recently expanded it's line to include these shades was Kylie Cosmetics. Last night on Snapchat, Kylie Jenner gave us a look at her 30 new concealers, which she'll be calling "Skin Concealers" due to their creamy consistency and medium coverage. I was so happy to see so many dark shades for us Beauté Brownies!
Unfortunately, my excitement turned into confusion, as I saw so many negative comments about her announcement in The Shade Room's Instagram post about the news. Many commented things like "Fenty already won bye", "You’re not Rihanna stop it!!", "Sis tryna get on that #blackgirlmagic payroll.. ahaaa ya got to be quicker than that".
WHAT?!
I for one am ecstatic about the new competition between cosmetic brands to create shades of foundation that include women of darker skin tones. We call them "Dark Girl Friendly".
One brand that most recently expanded it's line to include these shades was Kylie Cosmetics. Last night on Snapchat, Kylie Jenner gave us a look at her 30 new concealers, which she'll be calling "Skin Concealers" due to their creamy consistency and medium coverage. I was so happy to see so many dark shades for us Beauté Brownies!
Unfortunately, my excitement turned into confusion, as I saw so many negative comments about her announcement in The Shade Room's Instagram post about the news. Many commented things like "Fenty already won bye", "You’re not Rihanna stop it!!", "Sis tryna get on that #blackgirlmagic payroll.. ahaaa ya got to be quicker than that".
WHAT?!
- We all complained that cosmetic brands have not been inclusive of our skin tones for so many years. Now that companies are actually honoring our wishes, they are bashed for doing so, which I feel is very unfair. I for one am not interested in relying on only one source for all of my cosmetic needs. You should see my makeup bag. I don't think there's ONE brand of makeup that even repeats twice in there. That being said, I really don't understand why these companies are being accused of "copying" other brands like Fenty Beauty. In fact, they are making the smartest business move in this day and age. They're finally recognizing an audience they've been overlooking, and they want to get in on it. Isn't that what business is all about? Evolving? Learning? That brings me to my second point...
- Rihanna's "Fenty Beauty" line was not the first to release an inclusive line. Companies like Becca Cosmetics, Make Up Forever, Vera Moore and others have been offering us foundations for our many shades for quite some time now. The only difference is that Rihanna's celebrity status shed light on a thirsty niche of consumers that, of course we knew, were long overdue in being offered inclusive makeup. However, let's not credit this shift in the beauty business to just one person. WE DID THIS. We spoke up, so Rihanna and others will continue to promote diversity in their cosmetic lines.
I definitely get the notion that we are viewed as an after thought for a lot of these brands these days, that we should have been thought of in the first place, that they should have been inclusive from the very beginning. After all, humans NEVER just came in just one shade. The darker of us have been left out for too long.
But times are changing! Let's embrace it! Let's WELCOME the healthy competition between makeup brands. I'm personally flattered that these brands are fighting to find their way into my home and makeup regimen. Isn't it beautiful that we're finally getting what we want? Let's not forget that the end goal is that ALL companies offer inclusive lines, to promote DIVERSITY. Does it really matter who did it first? They ALL need to do it. And guess what? We're getting exactly that. FINALLY.
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