Black creators on TikTok expressed their disappointment toward makeup brand Youthforia after it recently launched its skincare-infused foundation Date Night, with a shade range they say is not inclusive of deeper skin tones.
Beauty creators have been calling out brands for their lack of inclusive foundation shades for a while. Earlier this year, Tarte Cosmetics received backlash for its treatment of influencers of color and has also offered limited shade ranges in the past. While the rise of Fenty Beauty led to a reckoning within the cosmetic industry, the issue has persisted — and creators say Youthforia is the latest brand to drop the ball.
“We know that Black buying power is so powerful, especially in beauty,” said Christina Abiola, 26, a beauty and lifestyle creator. “And then to not even be included, it’s definitely something in 2023 that cannot keep happening.”
Representatives for Youthforia did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Youthforia launched four medium deep to deep shades of the Date Night foundation, which has a total of 15 shades. The company’s founder Fiona Co Chan posted an initial response to the backlash last week explaining that the initial launch was a “proof of concept,” or a limited test to see if the product could be successful.
Some Black creators said it felt like Chan’s response tried to excuse the lack of inclusivity, rather than take accountability for it.
“You already created the product,” Abiola said. “You knew exactly who you were selling it to. And then, once people actually spoke up and realized, ‘This product wasn’t made for me,’ and they came out and spoke about it, [Youthforia’s] first response was to make excuses and not even acknowledge anything that we said.”
Others suggested that the shade range offered sent a message about who Youthforia’s target audience was.
“We didn’t even get an option,” said beauty creator Chloé-Ana Braidy, 25, who reviewed the foundation on her TikTok page after the brand sent her products to try. “We didn’t get a chance to see if we liked it or not. We were just immediately excluded [right] off the bat.”
We were just immediately excluded [right] off the bat.
-beauty creator Chloé-Ana Braidy’s reaction to Youthforia’s Date Night foundation launch
In her video, she emphasized that Black and brown people need more than four shades available to them.
While she doesn’t have the darkest skin tone, Braidy said she still struggled to find a good match. She tried one of the medium deep shades, but had an issue with the product’s undertones, or the warm or cool hues reflected in a person’s skin tone. She said the foundation later looked gray, which was a common complaint among reviewers with deeper complexions.
Beauty creator Priscilla Oluwasola, 22, said company’s foundation launch made it seem like Black consumers were an afterthought to them.
“I feel like people need diversity in their teams,” she said. “Because if there was possibly a darker skinned woman on Youthforia’s team, this is something she could have picked up.”
Oluwasola suggested that founder Chan should review the product images with her marketing team because the darkest shade, No. 495, on the website looks different than the shade that was given to darker-skinned creators.
Other creators, like Abiola, also pointed out the discrepancy between the product photos on the Youthforia website and try-on videos on TikTok.
“I’m really not sure what’s going on with that, but it doesn’t look good because now the credibility of the brand is being put in question,” Oluwasola said. “So not only are they being discussed about not being inclusive, there’s the issue of dishonesty.”
Chan posted a second video on Thursday responding to the criticism. In it, she apologized more directly and explained that more shades were being developed. She also said that the product photos on the website were not altered in any way.
“I just wanted to come on and say I’m extremely sorry,” Chan said in her apology video. “When I first started Youthforia two years ago, all I wanted to do was create a safe space where individual beauty could be celebrated. And unfortunately with our latest launch, we just fell short of that mission.”
She said she will be meeting with community leaders to figure out the best way the brand can improve.
With more brands coming out with diverse shade ranges, inclusivity seems like the bare minimum when it comes to new complexion products. Abiola said that she believes makeup brands should develop at least 30 shades before launching foundations.
“We deserve to be included,” Abiola said. “There should just be a standard, no matter what, for every single brand.”
Those who spoke with NBC News about the beauty brand said they’d try the foundation again if the company expanded its shade range. However, they added that it would take time for them to rebuild trust with the company.
“It may take some time to grow, to get back the trust of your community,” Abiola said. “So I just hope that they hear the things that we’re seeing and implement them and actually work to create more inclusive products for their brand.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
