I’ve been wearing make-up since I was twelve and wasted an alarming sum of money on make-up that didn’t match me at all. With more celebrities founding their own make-up brands, I’ve become aware of a cultural shift towards inclusivity in the beauty industry – particularly in relation to more diverse shade ranges for people of colour. However, does this progression to more inclusive beauty products compensate for these brands’ high prices – or do these prices undo the drive for inclusivity by making these products inaccessible to those who cannot afford them? In this article, I will comparing the inclusivity and accessibility of make-up from celebrity cosmetic brands and “high street” brands.
THE BEAUTY SPENDING DIVIDE
The Black Pound Report found that in the UK, ‘consumers from multi-ethnic backgrounds spend 25% more on health and beauty products than any other consumer’, with this increasing to ‘30%’ for ‘black women’. One reason for such a big spending difference is that people of colour often must go to extra lengths and seek out ‘specialist shops’ like Afro-Caribbean beauty stores to find the right products for them. I, however, would argue that other reasons for this heightened spending by people of colour are spending more money to mix make-up shades, or to replace products that ended up looking unflattering on darker skin or that were the wrong shade match. The Black Pound Report also found that ‘nearly four in 10 black female shoppers find it hard to access the right cosmetics and skin care’. Let’s take a look at how UK cosmetic brands are attempting inclusivity, and why black shoppers are struggling to find products that work for them.
INCLUSIVITY IN UK HIGH STREET BRANDS
Some of the UK’s most well-known and affordable brands include Maybelline and Revlon. When comparing the shade ranges of the most reviewed liquid foundations on their websites, I was disappointed at the lack of inclusivity for darker skin tones. Revlon’s ‘ColorStay Longwear Foundation’ for Combination/Oily skin only has 4 dark and deep shades in total (17%). Worse is Maybelline’s ‘Super Stay Active Wear Foundation’, since I’d only consider 2 of their 20 shades to be deep or dark – and that’s me being generous. This means 70% of the shade range is just for medium and light skin! And none of the shades even follow numerical order – it’s just a big mess!
I have a lot of experience with Maybelline, since their ‘Fit Me’ concealer used to be part of my daily routine. Every medium shade was far too warm for my neutral undertone, and they got worse as they oxidised – a familiar experience for many people of colour, I’m sure. Instead, I used a ridiculously light shade that emphasised my acne even more. Looking back at photos, I feel so angry for the girl who felt like her skin was the problem, rather than the brand’s lack of inclusivity. It seems that with companies like these, the lighter your skin is, the more shades you have access to. While these UK high street brands are resisting progression, celebrity make-up brands are taking charge and bringing new standards of inclusivity with them.
INCLUSIVITY IN CELEBRITY MAKE-UP BRANDS
R.E.M. Beauty by Ariana Grande and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez are two of the many newly established celebrity cosmetic brands. They are two of the cheapest celebrity brands, with their foundation prices ranging from £28 to £31. First, we’ll start with Rare Beauty’s ‘Liquid Touch Weightless Foundation’. There are 48 shades that all have details about their undertones (thank you, Selena!). The shades are divided into 6 categories with 8 shades each, ranging from light, light-medium, medium, medium-tan, medium-deep and deep. We are even shown swatches of every single shade on four different colours of skin. The R.E.M. Beauty ‘Sweetener Foundation’ takes it up a notch with a whopping 60 shades! I’ve personally never seen shades listed from dark first and ending with light, so this was such an exciting surprise for me.
WHY ARE CELEBRITY BRANDS SO MUCH BETTER AT INCLUSIVITY?
Unlike older brands, like Maybelline and Revlon, celebrity brands seem to have realised that there is more money to be made if the (painfully obvious) demand for inclusivity in make-up is met, specifically in the form of darker shades. I believe another reason these brands have been so careful with inclusivity is because the brand reflects the celebrity, and any bad reception of their products could harm their entire reputation and career.
Last May, TikTok beauty creator @golloria posted a video of her trying on the newly-released Rhode Beauty blushes. She said they looked like ‘ash’ on her dark skin and some shades even just disappeared after blending. Just 3 months later, @golloria posted another video thanking Hailey Bieber – the brand’s founder – for ‘reaching out’ to her personally to release new and improved shades that do work for her skin tone. While I’d prefer that these celebrities had a genuine desire to achieve inclusivity rather than doing it (most likely) only to avoid cancel culture, they’re at least listening to customers and changing the cosmetic industry – which is more than I can say for high street brands – so I’m all here for it.
I would love nothing more than to try these celebrity brands myself, but to risk spending £30 ordering a foundation that may or may not even be my correct shade? No thanks!
Until then, I’m stuck with using bronzer to compensate for my non-existent colour match. Maybe if I’ve been nice, Santa will put my perfect shade in my stocking.