The long-awaited rise of inclusive foundation
Call it the Fenty Beauty effect — when, in late 2017, Rihanna disrupts the beauty industry by casually launching an inclusive 40-shade range of foundation and the rest of the industry tries to casually catch up.
CoverGirl is the latest to follow Fenty’s lead — and the first mass brand to launch such a comprehensive, shade-inclusive foundation line — with its 40-shade TruBlend Matte Made Foundation range that just hit stores. At a Toronto launch preview, CoverGirl makeup pro Veronica Chu said that part of the brand’s motivation was to offer a really complete range of medium shades to tackle things like different undertones and ashiness because just as one dark shade does not an inclusive shade range make, there also isn’t just one medium shade that suits all skin tones. “I was always finding that I had to compromise,” Chu said, of the medium tones on offer previously.
A recent report about the future of the beauty industry published by Nielsen shows that over the last five years, the “number of unique facial cosmetic colours available on shelves has grown 22 per cent, outpacing the general pace of new product development in facial cosmetics by seven times.” The findings also indicate that brands that haven’t adapted to the needs of their diverse consumer base have lost market share with “nude” colours underperforming across most cosmetics categories as a whole over the last two years.
The push for shade-inclusive cosmetics is showing no sign of slowing down with another new brand set for launch in the very near future. Flesh, which was developed by Revlon and former Allure magazine editor, Linda Wells, launched exclusively at Ulta earlier this week and includes, you guessed it, 40 shades. Here’s hoping that in another two years (if not sooner), inclusivity and diversity within beauty product offerings will be business as usual.