Living in the U.S., makeup is accessible everywhere — be it at the drugstore, mall, sometimes even gas stations carry lip balms or concealers. However, one thing that is not as easily accessible is the correct shade of makeup for people of color. My personal skin tone is pretty fair, what makeup artists or brands would call “caramel,” “honey beige” or some other bizarre food related name. I don’t find it extremely difficult to find my shade in some brands, but I cannot help but notice the pink or cool undertones of the makeup I purchase, which doesn’t represent my yellow and olive undertones. It is not as simple as light, medium and dark.
Skin-tone is a spectrum; there are dark skinned individuals with cool undertones, with warm undertones and everything in between. There are light-skinned people of color with the same variety of undertones, and yet with the plethora of makeup brands and overwhelming amount of beauty gurus, there is not nearly as much variety for people of color, particularly black people.
My close friend Celeste always had this issue when preparing for dance shows in high school and shopping at the mall. She would complain about the lack of availability and variety for her specific shade, a deep tone, which was frustrating for her. She went on to explain how she has never been able to purchase the correct shade of makeup, unless she buys a very expensive foundation. Which is telling, sure there are brands like Makeup Forever, Bobbi Brown, MAC and so on, but bare in mind those foundations and concealers typically cost about $50, and they don’t always release lines with as broad of a spectrum as needed for people of color.
The drugstore options, though progressing, are doing so at a slow pace. Yet, it’s not only foundation that is the issue. It is the makeup industry itself — the gurus we watch on YouTube and the commercials on TV are not inclusive to the broad spectrum of color that clearly exists. There are many YouTube makeup gurus of color who offer makeup tutorials. However, these women don’t get nearly as many views as Jaclyn Hill or Nikkie Tutorials, who are white women. This leaves the other gurus to be labeled into niche categories, not to be consumed by the masses.
A YouTuber I watch, Jackie Aina says it best when confronted with comments saying, “I must be the only white person to watch your videos.” She says, “How many times you ever seen a black girl write a comment on Jaclyn Hill's video saying ‘I'm black but I love your videos!’ You probably haven’t, because we're not only watching her for the color of her skin, we watch her because she has good content and she's fun ... I'll be glad when we don’t divide ourselves from people based off color on YouTube.”
At face value, makeup is considered a shallow topic. We must realize that makeup helps self-expression, identity, helps us feel more put together at work or school and helps people feel beautiful. Why then, is it so difficult to offer the correct shades of makeup to everyone? I hope that with more dialogue and support for makeup artists and gurus of all colors, we can add variety and representation to makeup. Being a person of color in the makeup field, or finding the perfect shade should not be a novelty, but a norm.
Related Links:
SPM Beauty: A New Look for Makeup
SPM Beauty: 5 Minute Wake up and Makeup
Reach the columnist at anshakoo@asu.edu or follow @ashak21 on Twitter.
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