the foundation landscape
July 18, 2018 6:27 AM Subscribe
"Rihanna made headlines last fall when she launched Fenty Beauty, an intentionally inclusive makeup line created “so that women everywhere would be included.” Fenty’s liquid foundation product, Pro Filt’r, was so groundbreaking that it made it onto Time’s 25 Best Inventions of 2017 list. Its claim to fame: the foundation launched with 40 shades “made for women of all skin colors & undertones."
But as it turns out, a few other brands had 40 or more shades too, including Make Up For Ever, who was not about to let that fact go unnoticed. Shortly after Fenty’s launch, they challenged the newcomer in an Instagram post noting that 40 shades of foundation was “nothing new” since they’ve had 40 shades since 2015.
Rihanna was unimpressed. She quickly shot back with two comments: “lol. still ashy” and “shook.” In other words, Rihanna was implying that Make Up For Ever’s foundation lacked range and would still leave people of color looking “ashy” or slightly gray.
So how valid is her comeback? Actually, there’s a way to find out—with data." How Inclusive Are Beauty Brands Around the World?
1A on NPR touched on this earlier this week: Contoured, Highlighted And Bronzed: The Business Of Makeup
posted by exogenous at 6:30 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by exogenous at 6:30 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Very cool! Thanks for the post.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 6:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
My makeup line would be called 50 Shades of Yay!
Couldn't they make a makeup dispensing machine where you could get infinite shades? They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube? Im surprised such a thing doesn't exist.
posted by ian1977 at 6:45 AM on July 18, 2018 [34 favorites]
Couldn't they make a makeup dispensing machine where you could get infinite shades? They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube? Im surprised such a thing doesn't exist.
posted by ian1977 at 6:45 AM on July 18, 2018 [34 favorites]
That was fascinating. I don’t use foundation, so I wouldn’t have known instinctively what shades are available. I particularly liked the comparison of ranges between Japan and India. Good on the US brands for covering such a wide range.
posted by gemmy at 6:46 AM on July 18, 2018
posted by gemmy at 6:46 AM on July 18, 2018
They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube?
Yeah we've been doing this for a long time for important things like paint, but not for women.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:51 AM on July 18, 2018 [50 favorites]
Yeah we've been doing this for a long time for important things like paint, but not for women.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:51 AM on July 18, 2018 [50 favorites]
This is a great analysis. One point that the article didn't quite nail, although sort of hinted at, is that it's not enough for a foundation range to "offer" a wide range of shades. It's just as important for the wide range of shades to be available to purchase. Many stockists may stock a limited range of shades because of their assumptions of their shopper demographics, or even if they do have customers who have deeper shades, they don't think it's "worth" the operational costs to keep their shades in stock.
Some brands contractually require the stockist to offer their full range. The name of one particular brand that does this at Sephora escapes me at the moment, but I wish this was more common practice. (I'm not thinking of Fenty, stocking the full range would be a given as it is such a core part of their USP)
It's even more important for full ranges of foundation to be available in physical stores because we still haven't really cracked a reliable way to shop for shade matching online. It's bullshit for companies to tell customers they can get their shade online when their fairer shade peers do not have to.
They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube?
Custom foundation is a thing. Based on industry murmurings and some colleagues involved in this area, I think this is actually going to be more widely available in the near future. But again, it requires physical availability, which may exclude people who don't have easy access to particular locations or service providers.
posted by like_neon at 6:56 AM on July 18, 2018 [22 favorites]
Some brands contractually require the stockist to offer their full range. The name of one particular brand that does this at Sephora escapes me at the moment, but I wish this was more common practice. (I'm not thinking of Fenty, stocking the full range would be a given as it is such a core part of their USP)
It's even more important for full ranges of foundation to be available in physical stores because we still haven't really cracked a reliable way to shop for shade matching online. It's bullshit for companies to tell customers they can get their shade online when their fairer shade peers do not have to.
They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube?
Custom foundation is a thing. Based on industry murmurings and some colleagues involved in this area, I think this is actually going to be more widely available in the near future. But again, it requires physical availability, which may exclude people who don't have easy access to particular locations or service providers.
posted by like_neon at 6:56 AM on July 18, 2018 [22 favorites]
This is great! I just wish they had looked at the actual products under consideration, rather than:
"We recorded the hexadecimal color code used to represent every available shade for a product on each brand’s website."
I know a fairly common frustration is finding a meaningful difference between the colour a product claims to be on the packaging, and what colour the actual product turns out to be. I've certainly encountered that a bunch, and I do not have a lot of experience with make-up.
posted by Dysk at 7:00 AM on July 18, 2018 [10 favorites]
"We recorded the hexadecimal color code used to represent every available shade for a product on each brand’s website."
I know a fairly common frustration is finding a meaningful difference between the colour a product claims to be on the packaging, and what colour the actual product turns out to be. I've certainly encountered that a bunch, and I do not have a lot of experience with make-up.
posted by Dysk at 7:00 AM on July 18, 2018 [10 favorites]
Awesome article.
I have a friend who has albinism and she loves Fenty. (She also likes blue and purple mascara, which can be hard to find.)
posted by matildaben at 7:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have a friend who has albinism and she loves Fenty. (She also likes blue and purple mascara, which can be hard to find.)
posted by matildaben at 7:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
(also that website, The Pudding, is pretty interesting!)
posted by like_neon at 7:04 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by like_neon at 7:04 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
I know a fairly common frustration is finding a meaningful difference between the colour a product claims to be on the packaging, and what colour the actual product turns out to be. I've certainly encountered that a bunch, and I do not have a lot of experience with make-up.
SO TRUE
Fenty foundation is actually known for this. In fact, it is so known for this, it is stated in their own product descriptions:
Pro Filt’r’s rich pigments need a moment to dry down to their truest color, so when you're testing shades, remember to let the formula dry completely to find your perfect match.
Deciding between two shades? Try the lighter shade.
They actually oxidise to be maybe half a shade darker than when freshly applied.
posted by like_neon at 7:07 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
SO TRUE
Fenty foundation is actually known for this. In fact, it is so known for this, it is stated in their own product descriptions:
Pro Filt’r’s rich pigments need a moment to dry down to their truest color, so when you're testing shades, remember to let the formula dry completely to find your perfect match.
Deciding between two shades? Try the lighter shade.
They actually oxidise to be maybe half a shade darker than when freshly applied.
posted by like_neon at 7:07 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
Couldn't they make a makeup dispensing machine where you could get infinite shades? They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube? Im surprised such a thing doesn't exist.
Some Sephora stores have a thing where they scan your skin and then the computer gives you a list of the closest color matches they stock. This worked really well for me - I'm a super pale white person on whom almost all drugstore makeup looks like orange dirt, even the very lightest shades, and among the (limited) list of matches, I bought a liquid foundation which blends perfectly into my face. (Of course, it also cost like thirty goddamn dollars.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:07 AM on July 18, 2018 [15 favorites]
Some Sephora stores have a thing where they scan your skin and then the computer gives you a list of the closest color matches they stock. This worked really well for me - I'm a super pale white person on whom almost all drugstore makeup looks like orange dirt, even the very lightest shades, and among the (limited) list of matches, I bought a liquid foundation which blends perfectly into my face. (Of course, it also cost like thirty goddamn dollars.)
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:07 AM on July 18, 2018 [15 favorites]
Thank you so much for the post, and the GitHub link! This approach to data journalism -- like Observable notebooks (example, example) -- is always interesting to see. I think it works really well here. (Am missing Brightest Bulb in the Box right now for its scientific takedowns of "beauty bullshit" claims. I remember she wrote a piece about the pitfalls of trying to 3-D print makeup to match a particular shade.)
My mom (Indian woman) wears foundation substantially lighter than her skin tone -- it's enlightening (haaa) to learn that this is actually common in India.
I buy approximately zero makeup, and know little about quality control in the cosmetics industry. How much can a purchaser trust that two bottles of the same foundation, from the manufacturer and labelled as the same color, will actually be the same color? And are some manufacturers way worse than others at how well the color on a webpage matches the color in the bottle?
posted by brainwane at 7:14 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
My mom (Indian woman) wears foundation substantially lighter than her skin tone -- it's enlightening (haaa) to learn that this is actually common in India.
I buy approximately zero makeup, and know little about quality control in the cosmetics industry. How much can a purchaser trust that two bottles of the same foundation, from the manufacturer and labelled as the same color, will actually be the same color? And are some manufacturers way worse than others at how well the color on a webpage matches the color in the bottle?
posted by brainwane at 7:14 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Just speaking from personal experience:
How much can a purchaser trust that two bottles of the same foundation, from the manufacturer and labelled as the same color, will actually be the same color?
I feel very confident in the integrity of shade consistency. I guess it's sort of like what I refer to in knitting as "dye lots". In knitting you want balls of yarn that were from the same dye lot. For foundation, I personally don't worry. When I repurchase, I assume with a high level of confidence that if I buy the same shade again, it will be the same as last time. If it does not seem the same, I actually assume it's because my skin tone has changed (which is very likely depending on season).
Of course, if they announce any sort of formula change, all bets are off. Also, I do not have the same level of trust in the same shade name between formulas. For example, if a shade is labelled 002 in one formula, I still have a little bit of doubt that it is the exact same as 002 in a different formula, even in the same brand. Some brands are more reliable in this respect (Giorgio Armani I think is pretty good at this) while others are really bad at it (Tarte, I'm looking at you).
And are some manufacturers way worse than others at how well the color on a webpage matches the color in the bottle?
It's not just manufacturers, it's the stockist and your own monitor settings that will throw in all sorts of variables to make online purchasing of foundation a bit of a roulette wheel. Some stockists use models, some use smear swatches, some use colour swatches, and they will vary slightly in quality and depth. And then finally your own monitor's settings may play tricks on you.
Unfortunately, sample purchasing is still more rare than not. I've gambled with buying sample pots on eBay because of this. Bobbi Brown has an interesting model for sample purchasing, which I really like.
posted by like_neon at 7:31 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
How much can a purchaser trust that two bottles of the same foundation, from the manufacturer and labelled as the same color, will actually be the same color?
I feel very confident in the integrity of shade consistency. I guess it's sort of like what I refer to in knitting as "dye lots". In knitting you want balls of yarn that were from the same dye lot. For foundation, I personally don't worry. When I repurchase, I assume with a high level of confidence that if I buy the same shade again, it will be the same as last time. If it does not seem the same, I actually assume it's because my skin tone has changed (which is very likely depending on season).
Of course, if they announce any sort of formula change, all bets are off. Also, I do not have the same level of trust in the same shade name between formulas. For example, if a shade is labelled 002 in one formula, I still have a little bit of doubt that it is the exact same as 002 in a different formula, even in the same brand. Some brands are more reliable in this respect (Giorgio Armani I think is pretty good at this) while others are really bad at it (Tarte, I'm looking at you).
And are some manufacturers way worse than others at how well the color on a webpage matches the color in the bottle?
It's not just manufacturers, it's the stockist and your own monitor settings that will throw in all sorts of variables to make online purchasing of foundation a bit of a roulette wheel. Some stockists use models, some use smear swatches, some use colour swatches, and they will vary slightly in quality and depth. And then finally your own monitor's settings may play tricks on you.
Unfortunately, sample purchasing is still more rare than not. I've gambled with buying sample pots on eBay because of this. Bobbi Brown has an interesting model for sample purchasing, which I really like.
posted by like_neon at 7:31 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
For the record, custom foundation was already a thing back in the early 90s, made by the brand Prescriptives, and available at lots of department stores and malls back then. Worked well on my medium very-yellow-toned skin.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 7:32 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 7:32 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
Bobbi Brown has an interesting model for sample purchasing, which I really like.
This looks awesome, and like such a no-brainer good idea as soon as you see it.
posted by Dysk at 7:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
This looks awesome, and like such a no-brainer good idea as soon as you see it.
posted by Dysk at 7:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
And are some manufacturers way worse than others at how well the color on a webpage matches the color in the bottle?
There are certainly brands where the indicated colour on the packaging doesn't always seem to have a lot to do with the colour of the product, at least for some of the colours in the range. Can't say whether this is more or less standard, or a function of the brand. But yeah, my experience suggests you absolutely cannot rely on the marketing stuff (colour swatches, lids, labels, etc) nevermind how the colours can be warped by translation to RGB and badly calibrated monitors.
posted by Dysk at 7:49 AM on July 18, 2018
There are certainly brands where the indicated colour on the packaging doesn't always seem to have a lot to do with the colour of the product, at least for some of the colours in the range. Can't say whether this is more or less standard, or a function of the brand. But yeah, my experience suggests you absolutely cannot rely on the marketing stuff (colour swatches, lids, labels, etc) nevermind how the colours can be warped by translation to RGB and badly calibrated monitors.
posted by Dysk at 7:49 AM on July 18, 2018
I do really love that Fenty has better shades for the lightest-of-the-pale-skinned, too. It's super-smart marketing, of course -- Rihanna stepped up right out of the gate with inclusivity as common sense. Some of the older established brands may have pretty good range of darker foundation shades right now, but we all remember when they didn't, and/or when they shunted dark shades off into separate specialty lines. Also, I don't entirely trust those brands to maintain the full breadth of their shade range over time.
As a quite pale white person, it's also reassuring to see that I'm not imagining that these big companies can't even get whitepeople skin right. I'm not going to cry that I'm just as left out from mainstream makeup as brown and black people are, obviously, but I sure have some extra empathy. When I lived in a beach town, I had an especially tough time finding foundation in drugstores -- the lightest shades of most brands are too dark anyway, and the few that were light enough were perpetually sold out.
posted by desuetude at 7:51 AM on July 18, 2018 [18 favorites]
As a quite pale white person, it's also reassuring to see that I'm not imagining that these big companies can't even get whitepeople skin right. I'm not going to cry that I'm just as left out from mainstream makeup as brown and black people are, obviously, but I sure have some extra empathy. When I lived in a beach town, I had an especially tough time finding foundation in drugstores -- the lightest shades of most brands are too dark anyway, and the few that were light enough were perpetually sold out.
posted by desuetude at 7:51 AM on July 18, 2018 [18 favorites]
I'm a true neutral (and after what I got back from 23andMe and Ancestry recently, I understand why, whoa!), my face is quite a bit darker than my neck, foundation-wise, and my face is pretty unevenly toned as well.
I used to buy Prescriptives back in the day, and I hate going to Sephora for this stuff. The last time I was there a few months ago, I ended up spending $25 on some cover up that looked different under natural lighting and sunlight than it did under the store's lighting. I got a refund.
The shade is one thing, the undertone is what I really look at. Back to the custom stuff.
posted by droplet at 8:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
I used to buy Prescriptives back in the day, and I hate going to Sephora for this stuff. The last time I was there a few months ago, I ended up spending $25 on some cover up that looked different under natural lighting and sunlight than it did under the store's lighting. I got a refund.
The shade is one thing, the undertone is what I really look at. Back to the custom stuff.
posted by droplet at 8:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Very interesting! As a darker skinned Indian woman (with hyperpigmentation no less) the moment 15 years ago when I ordered Dermablend concealer to be shipped to me from Amazon to India was honestly life-changing. (I actually still use it, haven't found anything that works better, even though I now live in the US.)
posted by peacheater at 8:04 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by peacheater at 8:04 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
Watch a 1958 Pathe short of custom foundation being made in front of a customer. (I know that all those jars are aimed at pale people, just making the point that custom foundation used to be widespread).
Also:
One point that the article didn't quite nail, although sort of hinted at, is that it's not enough for a foundation range to "offer" a wide range of shades. It's just as important for the wide range of shades to be available to purchase.
A thousand times this. A couple of years ago I was in London, and had forgotten to bring some makeup. I was early for meeting a friend, and my thought was "I'll pop into that Boots - I'm the palest person I've seen in the last half hour, so they won't have concealer in my shade, but I can get some mascara." I walk into Boots, and am confronted by their makeup aisle - or more accurately their Makeup For White People aisle. I literally did a double take; looked at makeup, looked at the people in the shop, the shop staff, the people outside. I was the only pasty person in visible range. My skin colour is best described as "uncooked pork fat", and they had a concealer in my tone. The ranges stocked by Boots often don't have good coverage of darker shades of skin, but this shop didn't even stock the slightly darker shades that you could get online.
posted by Vortisaur at 8:09 AM on July 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
Also:
One point that the article didn't quite nail, although sort of hinted at, is that it's not enough for a foundation range to "offer" a wide range of shades. It's just as important for the wide range of shades to be available to purchase.
A thousand times this. A couple of years ago I was in London, and had forgotten to bring some makeup. I was early for meeting a friend, and my thought was "I'll pop into that Boots - I'm the palest person I've seen in the last half hour, so they won't have concealer in my shade, but I can get some mascara." I walk into Boots, and am confronted by their makeup aisle - or more accurately their Makeup For White People aisle. I literally did a double take; looked at makeup, looked at the people in the shop, the shop staff, the people outside. I was the only pasty person in visible range. My skin colour is best described as "uncooked pork fat", and they had a concealer in my tone. The ranges stocked by Boots often don't have good coverage of darker shades of skin, but this shop didn't even stock the slightly darker shades that you could get online.
posted by Vortisaur at 8:09 AM on July 18, 2018 [7 favorites]
We may have cruddy skin, with patchy graying hair and all the soft smoothness of a fresh lava flow, but I have to say stories like this make me appreciate the ease of being a guy. My natural colors range from hung over to sunburned, so the notion of finding a makeup to match any of it is beyond imagining. Regardless, as a data person I thought this was a fun look into a world I never even think of.
posted by Cris E at 8:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Cris E at 8:44 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
As a person with weirdly pink pale skin, I’m hoping to be an accidental beneficiary of the movement toward foundation diversity. Being very pink isn’t a burden in any other way, but I’m hopeful that choosing foundation will be less of a disaster in the future. (“Too yellow”...”too yellow”...”way too yellow”).
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:49 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:49 AM on July 18, 2018 [8 favorites]
I appreciate the correction on the existence of custom foundation, but I still think availability is important, as noted by like_neon.
Virtually ANY place that sells even middle/low end paint will customize paint to match a sample color - Home Depot, Lowe's Menard's, Sherwin Williams, etc.
While it seems custom foundation is indeed around, it seems to me that it's not at all ubiquitous the way it is for paint, e.g. I'm pretty sure I can't walk into any Walgreens or CVS and get it (though maybe soon, per like_neon's suggestion). Additionally there is usually no fee for custom paint matching, though I'm not clear on how the price of custom foundation compares to pre-made shades of comparable quality.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:56 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Virtually ANY place that sells even middle/low end paint will customize paint to match a sample color - Home Depot, Lowe's Menard's, Sherwin Williams, etc.
While it seems custom foundation is indeed around, it seems to me that it's not at all ubiquitous the way it is for paint, e.g. I'm pretty sure I can't walk into any Walgreens or CVS and get it (though maybe soon, per like_neon's suggestion). Additionally there is usually no fee for custom paint matching, though I'm not clear on how the price of custom foundation compares to pre-made shades of comparable quality.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:56 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've had good results using Temptalia's foundation matrix to figure out which shade of a foundation to get based on inputting the shades of foundations I've already tried and found to match - I find it so reliable that based on its results I've confidently ordered from Sephora, sans swatching or samples, and it's always worked perfectly for me. My skin tone is quite well-catered to, commercially, however, so I'm not sure if their data is as reliable for people who have a more limited range of foundation colors available to them. I hope as more brands follow in Fenty's suit, that will change. And kudos for their inclusivity aside, Fenty foundation is really excellent; excellent staying power, excellent coverage, excellent finish. Right up there with Armani Luminous Silk for me.
posted by Aubergine at 9:25 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Aubergine at 9:25 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
She quickly shot back with two comments: “lol. still ashy” and “shook.”
throwing shade
posted by thelonius at 9:39 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
throwing shade
posted by thelonius at 9:39 AM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
They could just scan your skin tone and then a machine mixes it up and puts it in a tube?
Pretty sure any machine that tried to figure out my skin tone would scan my freckles, pause, shiver, and then implode.
posted by Secret Sparrow at 10:26 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure any machine that tried to figure out my skin tone would scan my freckles, pause, shiver, and then implode.
posted by Secret Sparrow at 10:26 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
This is a great article - fascinating, clearly based on a ton of research, and eminently readable. Thanks for the post!
posted by hepta at 10:28 AM on July 18, 2018
posted by hepta at 10:28 AM on July 18, 2018
Ah yes, the great Rihanna vs MUFE "feud".
The very-soon-be-to-be future Mrs Sideshow deals with the professional artist side at Make Up For Ever, and I remember the grimacing when the folks over in Manhattan/Paris decided to call out Fenty in an Instagram post. General Motors doesn't tweet at Elon Musk (not the best analogy since Rhianna isn't a fucking asshole), so a part of one of the biggest luxury houses in the world (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) shouldn't be sniping at a niche upstart over social media.
My fiancée isn't as quite dark as Rhianna, but more foundation for people of color is something that she is on board with as it solves an issue she has had to deal with in her professional and personal life.
Also, the entire industry is moving towards solving this. A few years ago it was "Instagram makeup" (which really means make up that's formulated to look good with pictures taken on iPhones rather than in person or on film) and brands like Anastasia. These days its darker skin tones and Fenty. A few years from now there will be some other upstart brand will come up with the new big thing and the industry will move that way.
posted by sideshow at 10:52 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
The very-soon-be-to-be future Mrs Sideshow deals with the professional artist side at Make Up For Ever, and I remember the grimacing when the folks over in Manhattan/Paris decided to call out Fenty in an Instagram post. General Motors doesn't tweet at Elon Musk (not the best analogy since Rhianna isn't a fucking asshole), so a part of one of the biggest luxury houses in the world (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) shouldn't be sniping at a niche upstart over social media.
My fiancée isn't as quite dark as Rhianna, but more foundation for people of color is something that she is on board with as it solves an issue she has had to deal with in her professional and personal life.
Also, the entire industry is moving towards solving this. A few years ago it was "Instagram makeup" (which really means make up that's formulated to look good with pictures taken on iPhones rather than in person or on film) and brands like Anastasia. These days its darker skin tones and Fenty. A few years from now there will be some other upstart brand will come up with the new big thing and the industry will move that way.
posted by sideshow at 10:52 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
Throwing Shade(s)
posted by blue_beetle at 10:57 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 10:57 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
The internet was truly invented to allow people to share photos of makeup swatches with each other so that we could see how those products work in different lighting and on different skin and so that we could see how limited and crappy those product color options are. /r/PaleMUA swatch posts show how much inconsistency of foundation color options there are even for white and light-skinned people, who are already given preferential treatment by the cosmetics industry. So imagine how more limited the options are for people of color. Most popular wisdom to make drugstore-available but not-quite-right makeup shades "work for you" boils down to "make it whiter/lighter."
posted by nicebookrack at 11:02 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by nicebookrack at 11:02 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
Talking to her about the article, I guess the whole situation is extra terrible (from the brand's perspective) because Rhianna wore MUFE foundation and her artist had only great things to say to everyone about it, right up until the time MUFE went from Rhianna's favorite brand to a competitor.
The shade is one thing, the undertone is what I really look at. Back to the custom stuff.
Yeah, I just got a wall of text from her how makeup works for people of color, and apparently undertones are where it's at. There is also the trend of warm undertones in Europe, while in the US super yellow undertones are more desirable. So even the exact same makeup on the same person can either look "terrible" or "great" depending on if the person walks the streets of Paris or of NYC.
Also, there are amnio coatings, oxidization levels, and the spread of oxidization levels of one brand verses another, and all all kinds of other stuff that makes me glad I chose a much simpler career such as engineering web applications for 100's of millions of users.
Anyway, the gist is that both Rhianna and MUFE social media accounts were disingenuous in arguing over "shades" when it comes to which brand works for what type of people, and the posted article is just straight up naive in thinking that color shades (especially when just pull the hex codes of a website) have absolutely anything to do with deciding if a foundation will work with a specific skin type/color)
posted by sideshow at 11:37 AM on July 18, 2018 [10 favorites]
The shade is one thing, the undertone is what I really look at. Back to the custom stuff.
Yeah, I just got a wall of text from her how makeup works for people of color, and apparently undertones are where it's at. There is also the trend of warm undertones in Europe, while in the US super yellow undertones are more desirable. So even the exact same makeup on the same person can either look "terrible" or "great" depending on if the person walks the streets of Paris or of NYC.
Also, there are amnio coatings, oxidization levels, and the spread of oxidization levels of one brand verses another, and all all kinds of other stuff that makes me glad I chose a much simpler career such as engineering web applications for 100's of millions of users.
Anyway, the gist is that both Rhianna and MUFE social media accounts were disingenuous in arguing over "shades" when it comes to which brand works for what type of people, and the posted article is just straight up naive in thinking that color shades (especially when just pull the hex codes of a website) have absolutely anything to do with deciding if a foundation will work with a specific skin type/color)
posted by sideshow at 11:37 AM on July 18, 2018 [10 favorites]
General Motors doesn't tweet at Elon Musk (not the best analogy since Rhianna isn't a fucking asshole), so a part of one of the biggest luxury houses in the world (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) shouldn't be sniping at a niche upstart over social media.
Both brands are from LVMH. Left hand tweeting at the right.
posted by betweenthebars at 12:41 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Both brands are from LVMH. Left hand tweeting at the right.
posted by betweenthebars at 12:41 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Custom foundation mixed in store IS a thing. But a very limited and expensive thing.
And foundation by app is also a thing - Safiya and Nyma Tried MatchCo(which is apparently now Bare Minerals)
I watch a lot of Nyma’s “The Darkest Shade” series and one huge thing that this article is missing is UNDERTONE which is especially important to avoid ashy-ness with deeper skin.
And while I get the general methodology in terms of light to dark, watching Nyma’s series has shown that the darkest shades end up WAY lighter in person than they are represented on screen.
And my pale neutral ass can barely find foundation and especially concealer in my shade. Most often the lightest color is too dark and yellow.
And then of course if you even manage to find the right shade if you’re out of that most commonly sold middle territory then you better hope it’s the right finish for your skin type.
Most foundation companies just flat out don’t go deep enough and often not pale enough and have very little undertone range on the edges. I’m really glad in general to see more discussion on shade range, especially for deeper skin tones and I do think Fenty had a hand in that shift.
posted by Crystalinne at 12:50 PM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
And foundation by app is also a thing - Safiya and Nyma Tried MatchCo(which is apparently now Bare Minerals)
I watch a lot of Nyma’s “The Darkest Shade” series and one huge thing that this article is missing is UNDERTONE which is especially important to avoid ashy-ness with deeper skin.
And while I get the general methodology in terms of light to dark, watching Nyma’s series has shown that the darkest shades end up WAY lighter in person than they are represented on screen.
And my pale neutral ass can barely find foundation and especially concealer in my shade. Most often the lightest color is too dark and yellow.
And then of course if you even manage to find the right shade if you’re out of that most commonly sold middle territory then you better hope it’s the right finish for your skin type.
Most foundation companies just flat out don’t go deep enough and often not pale enough and have very little undertone range on the edges. I’m really glad in general to see more discussion on shade range, especially for deeper skin tones and I do think Fenty had a hand in that shift.
posted by Crystalinne at 12:50 PM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
I've never thought about this before. This was great. VERY well done article, in terms of research, readability, and data presentation. A+.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:24 PM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:24 PM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't know anything about makeup but is it odd that this article chose to compare hex color values? Hex codes are an additive color model, which tell monitors how much red, green and blue light to emit. Dyes, paints and inks absorb and reflect the light that hits them. The swatch shown on a website would be an approximation based on a particular lighting setup. Comparing across manufacturers would require they use the same system. Do they?
posted by justkevin at 2:28 PM on July 18, 2018
posted by justkevin at 2:28 PM on July 18, 2018
Fentys real trick is getting the undertones more skin like. I'm pale and pink (but I tan like crazy in the summer for added difficulty) and there are brands I cannot wear because they simply don't do cool undertones. Bobbi Brown makeup is infamous for this. Most Asian brands I cane wear either. MAC is mostly warm and yellow undertones which has frustrated a lot of darker skinned women with cool skin. Make up artists do custom mixes for their clients which is how they get around it but you often see cool toned celebrities with horrible make up early in their career. Anne Hathaway is one example, in early red carpet photos her make up was often pretty bad.
Having said that fenty doesn't work for me that well. So there is at least one medium light, cool with pink undertones shade they are missing!
posted by fshgrl at 3:18 PM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
Having said that fenty doesn't work for me that well. So there is at least one medium light, cool with pink undertones shade they are missing!
posted by fshgrl at 3:18 PM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]
Never tried Fenty foundation, but the Match Stix in amber is the only contour shade I've found so far that works on me (most products are too pink or too orange - if you have the same trouble finding products, you may be a cool olive like me).
posted by airmail at 8:40 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by airmail at 8:40 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fshgirl, I actually have great luck with Bobbi Brown foundation in Cool Sand... for what it’s worth. But it is so individual obviously.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:20 PM on July 18, 2018
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:20 PM on July 18, 2018
I also wish they had broken up the shades into warm and cool undertones. Japan might be on the lighter end of the distribution, but most of their colors have beige/yellow undertones, and I can't wear any of them. The only color I've found to be a match for my skin isn't foundation at all, but a literal pink base. I can't even imagine trying to find foundation here with darker skin, though I'm sure there's stores scattered about that import foreign brands (for a price).
tl;dr Japanese makeup brands see no need to expand their range of colors and while I don't entirely blame them, it's still frustrating
posted by lesser weasel at 1:53 AM on July 19, 2018
tl;dr Japanese makeup brands see no need to expand their range of colors and while I don't entirely blame them, it's still frustrating
posted by lesser weasel at 1:53 AM on July 19, 2018
BeautyBlender catching criticism for their new foundation line.
A different TrendMood post here after BB claimed that use of filters obscured the range in the first picture (which obviously looks baaaaad). But even in this 'improved' picture the middle two rows look way too similar to help their cause.
BeautyBlender's own instagram account opting to use models instead of the bottles to display the shade range. Which, I do think looks a bit more diverse than the packshots so I don't wonder that they used this version instead. But they're still getting plenty of heat in the comments.
I think an underutilisation of marketing is a partial mis-step here because the shade range is not amaaazing but it's not terrible. Fenty seeded a ton of pre-launch marketing hyping up the shade range using a very diverse cast of models and influencers in a variety of formats and media spots. I just see a product drop here for BeautyBlender. Brands can't get away with just dropping a collage these days. The diversity angle has to be integrated into the whole campaign from the beginning. Looking at their instagram in the days leading up to the launch, they focused too much on messaging "You use BeautyBlenders for foundation so obviously we made a foundation". Free marketing advice: If it's obvious, that's not the best marketing angle to go for... It makes them a bit tone deaf to the conversation around foundation that has dominated the last, oh two years.
People are comparing it to the Tarte fiasco, which is slightly unfair. Tarte had way less range and they had a lame excuse that deeper shades were coming later (lolwhut). Temptalia (who deserves an FPP in her own right) had a thoughtful write up for that episode.
posted by like_neon at 4:12 AM on July 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
A different TrendMood post here after BB claimed that use of filters obscured the range in the first picture (which obviously looks baaaaad). But even in this 'improved' picture the middle two rows look way too similar to help their cause.
BeautyBlender's own instagram account opting to use models instead of the bottles to display the shade range. Which, I do think looks a bit more diverse than the packshots so I don't wonder that they used this version instead. But they're still getting plenty of heat in the comments.
I think an underutilisation of marketing is a partial mis-step here because the shade range is not amaaazing but it's not terrible. Fenty seeded a ton of pre-launch marketing hyping up the shade range using a very diverse cast of models and influencers in a variety of formats and media spots. I just see a product drop here for BeautyBlender. Brands can't get away with just dropping a collage these days. The diversity angle has to be integrated into the whole campaign from the beginning. Looking at their instagram in the days leading up to the launch, they focused too much on messaging "You use BeautyBlenders for foundation so obviously we made a foundation". Free marketing advice: If it's obvious, that's not the best marketing angle to go for... It makes them a bit tone deaf to the conversation around foundation that has dominated the last, oh two years.
People are comparing it to the Tarte fiasco, which is slightly unfair. Tarte had way less range and they had a lame excuse that deeper shades were coming later (lolwhut). Temptalia (who deserves an FPP in her own right) had a thoughtful write up for that episode.
posted by like_neon at 4:12 AM on July 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
And just to expand on this because I think I could have made my point a bit clearer:
Free marketing advice: If it's obvious, that's not the best marketing angle to go for... It makes them a bit tone deaf to the conversation around foundation that has dominated the last, oh two years.
It's obvious why BeautyBlender chose foundation as the first makeup product to create. But this is a business case. It is not a persuasive argument for a consumer to buy their foundation and thus falls flat and off the mark as a marketing message.
posted by like_neon at 4:44 AM on July 19, 2018
Free marketing advice: If it's obvious, that's not the best marketing angle to go for... It makes them a bit tone deaf to the conversation around foundation that has dominated the last, oh two years.
It's obvious why BeautyBlender chose foundation as the first makeup product to create. But this is a business case. It is not a persuasive argument for a consumer to buy their foundation and thus falls flat and off the mark as a marketing message.
posted by like_neon at 4:44 AM on July 19, 2018
I also wish they had broken up the shades into warm and cool undertones. Japan might be on the lighter end of the distribution, but most of their colors have beige/yellow undertones, and I can't wear any of them.
I read a really good rant from an Asian beauty blogger recently where she talked about how you can have yellow undertones AND not be "warm" toned. She named some brands and specific colors that work for her (with comparison photos) and it might be worth googling for it. It was a pretty well written article on why some people just can't find foundation and red lipstick to save their lives while others can waltz into the closest drugstore and look like they stepped, perfectly coiffed, out of the 1940s. I have pinkish skin (kinda it gets yellower when I tan) but I found her lipstick recommendations absolutely bang on.
posted by fshgrl at 6:25 PM on July 19, 2018
I read a really good rant from an Asian beauty blogger recently where she talked about how you can have yellow undertones AND not be "warm" toned. She named some brands and specific colors that work for her (with comparison photos) and it might be worth googling for it. It was a pretty well written article on why some people just can't find foundation and red lipstick to save their lives while others can waltz into the closest drugstore and look like they stepped, perfectly coiffed, out of the 1940s. I have pinkish skin (kinda it gets yellower when I tan) but I found her lipstick recommendations absolutely bang on.
posted by fshgrl at 6:25 PM on July 19, 2018
I read a really good rant from an Asian beauty blogger recently where she talked about how you can have yellow undertones AND not be "warm" toned.
You're right, this is also true! "beige/yellow undertones" should probably (more accurately) read "beige and/or yellow undertones" in my case, at least. I'll see if I can't find that article for later reading, thanks!
posted by lesser weasel at 11:00 PM on July 19, 2018
You're right, this is also true! "beige/yellow undertones" should probably (more accurately) read "beige and/or yellow undertones" in my case, at least. I'll see if I can't find that article for later reading, thanks!
posted by lesser weasel at 11:00 PM on July 19, 2018
Here is is. She is a genius, her color charts are brilliant. Despite not being Asian and having pinkish skin I saved this post to help me buy red lipstick ages ago. I had to admit I looked better in the dreaded pink - she's dead right. And it looks like she's kept her blog active. Yay.
posted by fshgrl at 1:25 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 1:25 PM on July 22, 2018 [4 favorites]
Here is is. She is a genius, her color charts are brilliant.
Thanks fshgrl, I'm half Asian and have never ever been able to figure out my undertones. Gonna give this a read.
posted by rachaelfaith at 3:25 PM on July 22, 2018
Thanks fshgrl, I'm half Asian and have never ever been able to figure out my undertones. Gonna give this a read.
posted by rachaelfaith at 3:25 PM on July 22, 2018
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full shade data available here
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:28 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]