All products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
While wandering my local Sephora recently in search of a new foundation, I was faced with my usual dilemma: As I traveled down the skintone rainbow, there became fewer and fewer options toward the end. My skin skews more chestnut or toasted brown—and for years, I ve had to mix and match different shades to make one work.
I cannot begin to depict how many complexion products I have had to pass up on simply because I m unable to find a shade that fits my skin tone, and I am aware that the issue is exacerbated for those with deeper skin than mine. It’s a problem many people of color experience—as evidenced by testimonials from friends and peers, or more prominently, on social media, where TikTok has evolved into the most involved social listening platform—an open line of communications between brands and the consumers they serve. Though these days, it feels like that service ends around a certain complexion.
“I started creating beauty content because I couldn’t find myself in the beauty space,” Golloria George, a beloved content creator with 3.2 million followers on TikTok, tells me. Her experience as a dark-skinned South Sudanese woman inspired her influencing journey in the first place. George was tired of trying the “deepest” shade of a brand s complexion launch only to find it still wasn’t deep enough or worse, not included at all. “Shade inclusivity wasn’t a pre-planned mission, it was a lived experience. Speaking up about it was a natural response to being consistently overlooked.”
Makeup artist Danessa Myricks says that consumers really started voicing feedback in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. In a year where demonstrations in remembrance of George Floyd swept the nation alongside the rise of Black Lives Matter, many brands felt pressured to showcase their inclusivity efforts—via campaigns and social media posts, to the actual products they were launching. Many brands looked to Rihanna s Fenty Beauty, which launched in 2017 with a then-unheard-of 40 shades Pro Filt’r foundation and set a new standard with beauty consumers. “I don’t want women to [say], ‘That’s cute, but it only looks good on her,’ ” Rihanna reportedly said at her cosmetics brand’s global launch party that year. “I wanted things I love that girls of all skin tones could [also] fall in love with.”
At first, brands chose to react—but now they seem to have lost steam. “I think there was a point where, you know, brands may have felt pressured, but it wasn’t really authentic to the conversation that they were having as a brand,” Myricks tells me over Zoom, as the racial reckoning we had a few years ago simmered down, some brands went back to business as usual. “What becomes clear is the true intention of a brand, and that’s what I feel like we re seeing, and that’s what I see people reacting to.”
I often find it quite easy to suss out brands that are set on making products for anybody and everybody—and no, I don t mean the dreaded “universal.” And as a Black woman whose job is to essentially review and consult on the product industry, I’ve had to employ a keen eye to discern what will and will not work for me—and the people I service through my writing and editing.
“Not every brand can launch 50 shades, 100 shades, 40 shades,” Myricks continues, because of budget constraints. Instead, she leans into this idea of balance when it comes to shades, from fair to light to medium to medium deep and deep. “You’re going to know that I thought about you. I want everybody from this end to this one and everyone in between, and you can see that I m thoughtful about it.”
The real measure of inclusivity is not as simple as the number of shades offered. “An inclusive shade range doesn’t just mean checking off boxes from fair to deep, it means taking the time to understand undertones, depth, and nuance across all skin tones,” says George, from a consultant and consumer perspective. “It’s not enough to tack on a few deep shades at the end. Real inclusivity considers who’s being centered in the formulation process, testing, and marketing. It’s about making everyone feel like they were thought of from the beginning.” And sure, there are many reasons a brand might debut a more limited range: time, consumer interest, and money. Though Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist who has garnered nearly one million followers across social media platforms for his breakdowns on the science behind skin, makeup, and hair-care formulas, tells me over the phone that it s not actually more expensive to create well-rounded shades. What gets expensive is the production of an expansive shade range (i.e., 50 shades)—but instead, brands could revert to simply making 10 shades that are buildable and well-balanced between fair to deep.
“The standard pigments we use in [all color cosmetics] color are red, yellow, black iron oxides, and white titanium oxide, so with those four which you can pretty much get the bulk of the human skin tone and shade range from that,” he tells me, though larger manufacturers like L Oréal may have access to other pigments like green and blue ultramarine to achieve more diverse undertones. From here, research and development may set out to combine pigments to create the desired shades, as instructed by the brand, which has a certain range in mind. “If you can make different smokey eyeshadows in shades of brown, which they can, you can make different shades of brown for, say, a foundation.” He adds that it’s up to the brand to give R&D a good benchmark reference to what they’re looking for. “It comes down to whether the brand actually cares, and the diversity of the swatches and shades. This is why it’s important to have a diverse group of people developing on the brand side—a color on white skin is going to look different than a color on brown skin.”
Formulation aside, why would some brands make the decision, then, to stack their range on the lighter end of the spectrum? “A lot of people eliminate those shades because they feel like there s not a lot of revenue attached to it,” Myricks notes. “That s why you ll see lots of like yellow tone shades, a lot of medium shades, because there’s a lot of people in that bucket. From a revenue perspective, you know, the thought process for some brands, maybe the more shades I make in this space, the more revenue potential.” This thought can be proven wrong twofold: Black consumer spending amounted to $9.4 billion in 2023, outpacing the total U.S. dollar in household growth. Additionally, if you neglect to make shades to represent that audience, then you’re never going to see it represented in the numbers.
For beauty and lifestyle creator Toni Bravo, “There is a very clear distinction between brands that like the idea of inclusivity and the way it makes them appear rather than the brands that put their money where their mouth is.” Bravo has garnered a following of nearly 900K across TikTok and Instagram for not only her thoughtful makeup application videos, but also helping those with similar skin tones understand what shade matches will actually work on their complexion.
So it makes sense that Rhode would tap Bravo and George when it came to creating two new shades of the brand s incredibly popular brand’s Pocket Blush: Date Cake and Plum, after some of the initial six shades were criticized as not suited for deep and dark skin tones. “[Rhode] listens,” says Bravo. “I have never worked with a celebrity-owned brand that is so incredibly hands-on and passionate about the change they want to create. They make the time, which is a lot less common than you’d think.” She shares that she had been in conversation with the team organically for a while and had already worked together a few times on social media UGC content, so it made sense that they might ask her to consult. “We (Golloria and I) had months to try the product, share feedback, and just be completely honest about how we felt. In every feedback note I shared, I felt heard. And as a result, we created some of my new favorite blushes, which was a dream.”
While Hailey Bieber and Rhode declined to comment for this story, their decision to work with Bravo and George in the face of negative customer feedback calls to mind Myricks’s central point: It shows intentionality.
Myrick s brand has also set the bar high for inclusivity, ensuring that all skin tones and types feel seen in each product launch. Her line shines especially in color—from her Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder (the shade matches here are insane) to the Colorfix multipurpose pigments, there s something for everyone. “Danessa is a model example of what it looks like to be a pillar of inclusivity, positivity, and light in the beauty industry,” Bravo says. “Inclusivity is never up for debate with DMB.” It s a similar story for brands like Ami Cole, Pat McGrath Labs, LYS Beauty, and Fenty Beauty, who continue to champion people worldwide—creating a safe haven where all tones know they will never be overlooked.
Only time will tell how the shade inclusivity narrative changes through 2025 and beyond. “Pressure is turning into purpose, and that gives me hope,” George finishes. And for brands navigating their place in this conversation, remember some final words from Myricks: “as you build something, you know who you’re building it for.”
