ICYMI, Youthforia, a makeup line created by Fiona Co Chan in 2021, has been in hot water recently for the controversy surrounding its darkest foundation shade, aka a jet-black foundation with zero undertones, according to the internet.
Ever since beauty influencer @golloria posted a TikTok of her trying out the Youthforia foundation in shade #600 and called out the company for dropping a shade that can easily be compared to black face paint, many other creators and makeup lovers have been sharing their opinions of the makeup brand’s lack of effort when it comes to darker foundation.
It’s been weeks since this controversy caused an uproar online, but Youthforia finally addressed the backlash in an Instagram post shared on June 3 and TBH, their statement was a complete flop.
In a carousel post, which was their first IG upload in over a month, Youthforia shared their “commitment to providing inclusive products.” The second slide goes on to read, “We care about our customers and as we continue to drive change, we are creating a new position internally dedicated to examining both our current products and those in development so we can best meet your needs. You can read more about our values on our website and learn more about the role on our careers page.”
Nowhere in the post did Youthforia apologize for missing the mark when trying to create an “inclusive” shade range or for taking over a month to release a statement. TBH, this response felt like the company’s trying to gloss over this controversy without taking the proper steps to expand their shade ranges and win back their customers. And I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Since releasing their statement, people have been calling out Youthforia for not taking accountability for selling literal black face paint as foundation and never even apologizing for dropping a shade like this.
Guys Youthforia has finally responded and this has got to be one of the worst PR statements ever
— Alicia🌦️|Your Esthetician (@alicialartey) June 4, 2024
youthforia just showed the easiest way to ruin a company “go to our career page to see our values” not “i’m sorry we sold black paint and ignored our customers for weeks” @youthforiaco that’s so embarrassing
— a disappointed ny giants fan/satisfied knicks fan (@navybluecouch) June 5, 2024
Other creators can’t believe that the company didn’t use this opportunity to make things right or give a better response to this ongoing backlash instead of sharing their plans to hire a Director Of Product Development to spearhead DEI principles.
As the TikTok creator @itsneetie perfectly put it, “creating an inclusive share range isn’t actually DEI, that’s just the nature of being a Product Developer at a makeup company.”
This was Youthforia’s chance to make things right and in my opinion, they totally failed. Hopefully, the person who’s hired as the Director Of Product Development will be the one to drive change at this makeup company because it’s clearly needed.