Diversity in the Beauty Industry
In the past few years a lot of has changed in the beauty industry when it comes to diversity. Brands went from brands having less than 20 shades of foundation to a wide variety of 40+ shades to fit every skin tone.
Brands have been showing diversity before Fenty beauty
In the NY times article, the writer states that “brands like MAC, Nars and Bobbie Brown have been showing diversity since the 90s”.” They stared to bridge the gap and MAC particularly embraced people of colour with a wide range” which is true. Although these brands have been showing diversity, they didn’t focus or advertise darker skin colours until recently. How ever with the launch of Rihanna's Fenty beauty, more and more brands have been releasing a wide variety of shades for foundation and marketing towards darker skin people. Which is a great start, but it should not have taken decades for brands to realize that diversity is important, and it shouldn’t have taken the success of Rihanna’s line for them to notice either.
Beauty schools are apart of the lack of diversity issue
A makeup artist by the name Tym Buacharen has worked on the sets of Dreamgirls, Black panther and the Hunger games. In the NYtimes article he also states, “They teach predominantly how to work on Caucasians”. In beauty school everyone should be taught how to work on all skin types and colours, they shouldn’t only be taught how to do makeup on one demographic because, people of all races like to wear and get their makeup done. Anyone who wants to become a makeup artist should know how to work on every skin tone because they never know what clients they'll have to work on. Even though having 40 plus foundations shades is amazing , reasons like make many still feel like the beauty industry still isn’t diverse enough.
Are companies going about diversity the right way
In the Voxatl article the writer says that “it is very unlikely that you will see the different cultures displayed when big name companies are trying to profit”. Which is unfair to people of colour but as well as unfortunate for these companies because the main consumers of beauty products are minorities. Black women alone spend about 7.5 billion yearly on cosmetics. In most of the big-name brands you barely see any inclusivity and if you do it is most likely someone who’s biracial or has lighter skin. Don’t get me wrong many brands do show case diversity thanks to brands like Fenty and NYX etc but, there are still many more companies that don’t see an issue with the lack of diversity that they portray. For example brands like Tarte for example launched a line of foundations with about 15 different shades and out of the 15 shades only 3 of them would be suitable for darker people while the other 12 colours would be for lighter skin people. Yes, they added shades for darker people but there is way more than 3 shades of darker skin and it is unfair to see that lighter people get such a wide range but darker people of colour must struggle when finding foundation with certain brands. If Tarte is going to try to be diverse they need to do the correct research before doing so. When it comes to diversity having darker shades isn’t the only issue, having shades that are light enough to fit people who have skin conditions like albinism as well as having the right undertones in makeup.
Are brands being more diverse just to profit
The NY times article states that “every brand is trying to launch 40 foundation colours because it seems like the trendy thing to do. But is the brand doing the work, initiatives and outreach”. Although it is nice to see other brands releasing a wider range of makeup, people can’t help but wonder if they’re doing it only to profit or if they care about the lack of diversity in this industry and are, they concerned if darker skin people to feel excluded. Are they putting the effort to create the right shades with the right undertones or are they just trying to sell as much product as they can? Many of them are doing it because they saw the success of Fenty beauty to and they know that it would sell. I know the point of having a business is to make money and profit but it is more important that companies aren't being discriminatory as well as making sure customers are satisfied with the products. Votatl says “the lack of diversity displayed in advertising makes you wonder whether companies support diversity in mainstream repetition.” For decades in mainstream companies would only advertise people with light skin and straight hair and that was what people saw as beautiful . Being dark skin with kinky has wasn't glorified and you wouldn't see people like that on the market . They pushed this message out which made people of other races feel less valued or not beautiful which is simply not true because everyone is beautiful regardless of their skin colour. There are still brands out there that don’t care to show diversity in their ads, make up range and the models they hire which is fine but there are many brands that do care and those are the brands that we should be spending your money on, the brands that care that you feel beautiful in your own skin and want everyone to feel included.
