The Fenty Beauty launch was one of the most anticipated makeup launches that I’ve ever seen. Not only because it’s an entire brand by icon, Rihanna, but because the campaign promised diversity and inclusion — something the beauty world lacks.
Before we even had a true reveal of the products, Fenty Beauty showed its future consumers a campaign with models of multiple of races, sizes, personal styles and yes, skin tones. People of color battle with finding their shade at makeup counters daily, which was the passion behind Rihanna’s beauty brand. So two years after starting the Fenty Beauty idea and forty foundation shades later, her brand is here today with a full line of high-end makeup with something for everyone.
Although Rihanna and Fenty Beauty sought out to make an line focused on inclusion, I still see tweets and opinions that are less than pleased with the shade range for black women and men. I also see many posts on social media about how there’s too many pale shades and there should be more deeper shades over pale shades.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the brand of course, but seeing people “disappointed” over this idea made me want to write this post and disagree wholeheartedly. Yes, I am a dedicated Rihanna fan and I support her but outside of that, I am a lover of beauty products as well. I think that my personal struggle to feel included in the beauty world holds enough weight to support my argument here in saying that the Fenty Beauty foundation shades are extremely inclusive for all women and that was the point.
From the pictures of the bottles of foundation on social media alone, it’s hard to tell a true match of the foundation. In general, I never recommend buying foundation online. Your skin tone is a complex concept mixed with undertones that can skew perception. However, in person when looking at the shades, I truly know that most women will find a color match that they love. In fact, you may find two shades that may look great on you, like I did. I purchased shade 430 in the Foundation (worn in both pictures) but I also think that 420 could be a great match in some instances.
There’s been a whirl of confusion as to what shade is your shade for this foundation and I agree with YouTuber/Beauty Blogger, Alissa Ashley, who said on Twitter that “Im concluding that the reason it’s hard for most of us to figure out our shade in the Fenty foundation is bc we’ve never had such a variety lol.” She went on to tweet, “It’s actually a great problem to have to FINALLY not be able to find your shade bc there’s TOO many options to choose from like wow lol.”
I may be wrong, I think that people think that because Rihanna is a black woman she was supposed to create a mostly deep shade range for the foundations to double fill the void in the beauty world. However, inclusion and diversity doesn’t mean that you only create for dark tones. To me, it means including everyone and from seeing the models for the foundation from pale white to deepest dark, and 38 shades in between that speaks volumes. This is especially impressive when I’ve seen seasoned, high-end brands release a new line of foundations with only 10 shades and there only being 2.5-3 tan to dark shades. Meanwhile, Fenty Beauty has about 50% of their foundations on the tan to dark side.
No brand is perfect and on a first launch, it’s tough to pump out such a wide variety of shades but I think Fenty Beauty deserves the respect and credit for making us all feel included and loved. There’s of course room for improvement on any product and brand but to say that you’re disappointed in the shade range is an under sight when this brand has done such a great job with it to begin.
The point of this post was to say there’s a high chance you’ll find a Fenty Foundation match and feel included in the product line. And when I look at the shade range, I see an equal amount of shades on each spectrum. I also see so many girls that have been underrepresented that will now see a brand that is happy to serve them, which makes me happy.
Fenty Beauty’s Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Long Wear Foundation is available in the U.S. at Sephora, Sephora inside JCP, Sephora.com and FentyBeauty.com for $34.