The world is shifting. Whether or not people want to ride the wave of diversity or inclusivity or not, it is certain that if a brand is not seen as inclusive, they have a smaller chance of being seen favorably in the market. However, to seem inclusive, brands have started a new and quite terrifying trend. Laura Mercier's viral flawless foundation is one of those products. At first glance, you see the lightest pale shade and you see the extremely dark color, and we assume "Ok they're inclusive so I can buy them." If we look closer at the shade range though, how inclusive are they actually. Whereas their whiter shades are rich in undertone and shade differences, the deeper tones jump from brown to black very quickly with few in-between shades. There aren't warm, cool or neutral undertones for each deep shade range. There is one extremely dark shade range and that's about it. So no, Laura Mercier is not truly inclusive but has rather released one extremely dark shade to look diverse and save money by not spending too much on the darker colors. Now, this is not a rant against Laura Mercier. A lot of brands do this so you can't just put one on the spot. The issue is none of these brands take accountability. The truth is that brown and black people have undertones and incredibly different skin tones as well. We (me speaking as a brown man) should not be lumped together into 4 or 5 shades because that can't represent our entire diverse range.
One of my black friends wanted my help to pick out a good bronzer or contour for them and you can imagine how difficult that is. One of my other friends (who is white for full disclosure) said to her "oh you're black though, you don't bronzer." And that statement blew my mind. There is this giant stereotype within the beauty industry that contour and bronzer (the latter more seriously) are not needed for deeper skin tones. After all, we're already darker colored so why would we need bronzer? Well, let's take a look at the simple Google definition of bronzer.
Bronzer is " a cosmetic liquid or powder applied to the skin to give it color or shine, typically to give the appearance of a suntan." Every other definition of bronzer I saw said that bronzer helps add "a healthy and warm glow." Why is glow so stereotyped into white people then? Brown and black people can glow just as much. Let's look at RuPaul's own drag makeup as an example. RuPaul is using a lot of bronzer on their forehead and the perimeters of the face despite being a person of color. If you look at this picture, the bronzer helps darken the edges of the face so the center and other parts are highlighted. It gives a very glowy and centered look to a makeup look that makes someone just look like they are glowing. Now, contour should certainly not be racialized in any way. It just sculpts the face - and there is no argument at all that sculpting is only a white people thing.
Now back to the story. It took my friend and me 6 different brands before we finally found a good bronzer. It's not that we didn't find any bronzers for deeper skin tones but the one or two deep bronzed shades these brands had (including Rare Beauty by the way) did not match my friend's skin tone, complexion or undertones. It didn't look as flattering. We tried out several brands, however, we went back to Fenty Beauty's bronzers and I've got to say, there is a reason they pioneer as changing the industry. The brand actually had options of different bronzer shades for my friend which was shocking. However, it still shows that the beauty industry is racist and while changing, is changing for the wrong reasons.
This absence of true inclusivity within the industry shows the current proclivity to seem diverse on the surface but never in detail. We may have very deep shades in foundation or concealer, however, for bronzers, blushes, powders, etc, this is not the case. Brands, even some of the inclusive ones, such as Elf or Makeup Revolution, lack the full depth of shades. This is because colored people are an expensive afterthought in makeup. The new brand Youthforia's owner quite literally said that they released the initial run of shades (mostly white) and were planning to release more if the foundation sold well. Brown and black people were literally Youthforia's afterthought because they didn't want to spend too much money.
Even looking at two new foundations' shade ranges including the new Prada Beauty and Makeup Revolution foundation, the shade range is appalling. They are so limited in deeper undertones and complexion shades that it is very clearly made for white or pale people. Just like Laura Mercier, they have their one or two dark shades, but none in between. It is astounding and as a brown person who has tried the Makeup Revolution new silk foundation, I do believe we have a long way to go in the industry.
We won't get there until everybody (including the ones who are favored by the industry) speaks about these issues. There are very few non-colored influencers who I have seen speak up about these issues. I need to see them share this trend and inspire others to do so. Once the beauty community collectively rises against these brands, only then, will proper inclusion be a true possibility.
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