by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
May 1, 2024
The foundation shade has left beauty influencers shocked and disappointed by the lack of regard.
Makeup brand Youthforia received backlash for claims that its darkest foundation shade resembled black face paint. After calling for the makeup brand to expand its shades, Influencers uncovered the similarities.
Beauty gurus first bashed the release of Youthforia’s Date Night Skin Tint Serum last year. The product, retailing for $48 at Ulta Beauty, was launched with 15 shades. Golloria George, a Black beauty influencer, critiqued the brand for the lack of diversity. She stated in the post that none of the colors matched her darker skin tone, thus excluding other dark-skinned women from using the foundation.
However, while many thought Youthforia took note of the criticism with its latest release, including darker shades, a second review led George to make a shocking discovery. She compared jet-black face paint with the darkest shade in the collection to expose the uncanny resemblance.
the darkest shade of the youthforia date night foundation.
“When we say that we want you guys to make shades for us, we don’t mean to go to the lab and ask for minstrel show black,” explained George. “What we mean is to take the browns that you have made, create undertones, and do what you need to do in the lab so it’s a darker shade of brown.”
Greater diversity in the beauty industry has been an ongoing conversation for several years. Many attribute the first stride of makeup inclusivity to Fenty Beauty, which launched its foundation with 40 groundbreaking shades in 2017. However, some companies have yet to match Fenty’s commitment to ensuring all buyers feel seen in their products. George feels the industry is going “backward” from the cause, even calling the Youthforia shade 600 a “slap in the face.”
“I feel like the beauty industry itself has taken a step backward,” she said in an interview obtained by AOL. “We’ve seen so many complexion launches that would never work for a skin tone like mine.”
Youthforia’s CEO, Fiona CO Chan, apologized last year for the initially limited range, as reported by NBC News. She revealed, “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.”
Beauty influencer and cosmetic chemist Javon Ford dived deeper into the ingredients for the now-infamous foundation shade. While the other shades have at least three pigments, shade 600 only had “black iron oxide” as a pigment.
@javonford16 Stitch @golloria #cosmeticchemist #makeupforwoc #youthforia#greenscreen ♬ original sound – Javon Ford Beauty
“What I feel like Youthforia did is ask their manufacturers to make the darkest shade possible,” he alleges. “But we all have different undertones.”
Despite the latest controversy, neither Youthforia nor Ulta have made an official statement.
