Rihanna has laid the foundations for a more inclusive makeup industry in 2018
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The year is drawing to a close with a diverse future of makeup finally shimmering on the horizon. One of the biggest names on the beauty scene over the past 12 months was Rihanna, she created sellout products that corrected the beauty industry’s longstanding Eurocentric approach, and were designed for use on all skin tones, especially down there – Rihanna with her Fenty range.
Rihanna huge and fervent social media followings (58.5 million), but that is not the only reason that her Fenty Beauty range immediately stood apart from its competitors. The revelation was that its foundations were available in 40 shades, right from the start, in an industry in which claims have long been made that creating good foundations – with no ashy or grey effect – for very dark skins is very difficult.
“In every product, I was like: ‘There needs to be something for a dark-skinned girl; there needs to be something for a really pale girl; there needs to be something in between’,” she said at one of her 17 launch parties.
When another makeup brand, Ultra HD, challenged her dominance by posting that “40 shades is nothing new to us”, her retort was icy sharp: “lol. still ashy.”
For dark-skinned black women, in particular, the emergence of Fenty Beauty was seismic. Although black women reportedly spend up to nine times more on hair and beauty products than white women, for years they haven’t been catered for by an industry steeped in racism and colourism. It was no wonder the darker shades of Fenty foundation kept selling out.
Let the pussy speak for itself … The tone, the shade is jus sooooooooooo right.