The highly anticipated Tarte Shape Tape foundation release on January 12, 2018, has the beauty community shook. Tarte released 30 shades of its Shape Tape foundations, 15 matte shades, and 15 hydrating shades. In the matte shade range, there are 13 light shades and only two dark shades. Bloggers and makeup artist across the country are voicing their disappointment at the brand’s decision to exclude people of color.
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Full cherry red lips, contour sharper than a samurai sword paired with a metallic iridescent smokey eye, Kenneth Senegal, aka Heflawless, has a few words for Tarte Cosmetics. After waiting two months for the release of Tarte Shape Tape foundation Heflawless was unpleasantly surprised to see there wasn’t a shade able to match his complexion. Heflawless took to YouTuber to call out the company for its lack of inclusion. He receives every new product the brand releases to review for his Youtube audience of more than 300,000 subscribers. ” It’s like literally 50 shades of white and two dark shades,” he says. “It’s really disappointing as a black male beauty influencer to see brands put out foundation lines that literally exclude the majority of people of color,” says Heflawless. Initially, HeFflawless did not want to review the foundation but felt a moral obligation to use his platform to shade light on the companies symbolically exclude people of color. Fenty Beauty is a new cosmetic brand that was able to release 40 shades of foundation, that included everyone on the day of their launch. “Tarte needs to do better,” says Heflawless.
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Cylvia Gilbert is a makeup artist known for her signature midnight wasabi lipstick, and gold highlighter that shines brighter than the sun on a hot summer day. Gilbert worked at Sephora for three consecutive years. Gilbert has seen multiple brands release products that turn a blind eye to people of color. “It’s hard for women of color to get excited when nine times out of 10, there won’t be products made for our skin tone,” says Gilbert. Gilbert is a strong advocate for people of color in the cosmetic industry and believes more companies should expand their complexion products. According to statista.com “The revenue of the U.S. cosmetic industry has an estimated amount of 62.46 billion U.S. dollars in 2016,” this number is projected to double by the end of 2018. The Fenty Beauty launch was one of the most monumental moments in the beauty community for women of color. African American women make up 6.4% of the U.S. population and spend 7.5 billion annually on beauty products. Fenty Beauty has inspired other brands to become more inclusive. Brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Huda Beauty, and even e.l.f took to their social media to announce more products targeted towards darker complexion. Huda Beauty released 30 shades of foundation following in the Fenty footsteps. E.l.f cosmetics released a new shade which is called Coco, their darkest shade ever. Too Faced Cosmetics teamed up with YouTuber, Jackie Aina, to expand their foundation range. And Kylie Cosmetics release 30 shades of concealer.
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Seeing other brands get on board with inclusion, leaves the beauty community wondering what in the hell was Tarte Cosmetics thinking? After endless tweets, comments and influencers choosing to boycott the brand, Tarte issue an apology. The company took to their Instagram to share their sorrow for not releasing enough shades. The brand says they will be re-launching the foundation in the winter, which will include more dark shades. Heflawless says “Black people are not an afterthought,” and should not have to wait for the second launch to find their shade.