On Thursday, luxury makeup brand YSL Beauty unveiled their new All HOURS foundation line via their Instagram, touting the collection as being suitable for all skin tones. But anyone who took a look at the brand’s account and saw that out of 22 foundation shades only one was for dark skin could smell the BS from this claim.
https://twitter.com/taylormcgayhee/status/893144684658401280
YSL???? y'all really gonna only have one shade of foundation for POC??? right in front of my salad??? pic.twitter.com/WtAnttvCqR
— t (@333sigh) August 3, 2017
It’s 2017 and makeup brands like YSL Beauty still want to pretend that black women don’t exist.
Like white women and other light-skin WOC, black women have an array of undertones ranging from red to yellow to golden and more. But for some reason, whether it’s the common misconception that black women just don’t buy makeup or the idea that making darker shades is just too expensive. Maybelline is a drugstore brand that has 40 shades in their fit-me line while YSL Beauty is a multimillion dollar luxury brand, so let’s not pretend they don’t have money–makeup brands are still only including that one #tokenblackgirl shade.
The brand has since updated their post caption having received a lot of negative feedback from commenters stating “ALL HOURS, our new foundation that lasts forever, is available in 22 shades at the moment, from light to dark. New shades coming soon!” as well as a comment stating “We are pleased to let you know that five new dark shades are already set to join the range next year.”
Still, the damage has been done. A clear message has been once again sent out to black women reinforcing the idea that we are not a priority but an after thought.
