Let's adorn our tinfoil conspiracy hats, hop in our time machine and zoom back to September 2017. Hurricanes! The Equifax data breach! The Emmy Awards! And Rihanna, Her Royal Highness, announced the launch of her new cosmetics line Fenty Beauty,  and with that, the Pro Filt'r Foundation, 40 shades amassing a colorful rainbow of virtually every skin tone in her initial launch. 

I mean, look at this magic:

Women of color were thrilled. This, we thought, was a turning point. Finally, brands would take note and recognize that not all women and femmes of color are the same shade. We felt seen. We felt heard! We rushed to our Sephoras and our Harvey Nicholses and bought Every. Single. One. Those who fell short gladly joined waiting lists because it was worth it. We thought the tides were turning and representation was finally going to become a priority in the beauty world.

We thought.

Let’s fast-forward a couple months to January 2018, when tarte revealed the shade range for the foundation pair for its beloved Shape Tape concealer: 

If your reaction isn't immediately “what range?“, Here’s the shade range of Shape Tape alongside that of Fenty Beauty:

This. Is. Absurd. Have we learned nothing? Why didn’t tarte listen to Rihanna? We should *always* listen to Rihanna.15 shades and three of them are the “brown” options. In the swatch above , one shade is even lighter than the ones proceeding it and after it in the gradient. This feels like deliberate exclusion. This is like they didn’t even try.

Of course, tarte handled the criticism like a pro - pulled the line, apologized, and promised to do better in the future, including educating themselves about the history of inclusivity in the beauty industry.

No, just kidding. They sent PR of the foundation to beauty gurus that they knew it would never work on. In her review, Makeupshayla swatches the darkest three shades on her face, scoff/laughs and says, “It blows my mind that these are the three darkest shades.”and released an “apology“ on their Instagram stories, because Instagram stories notably last forever (sarcasm).

 “We want to let you know we hear you… You all know by now that we revealed our much anticipated shape tape foundation & the final shade range that we launched was definitely not representation of all of you. It may be too little too late, but we can assure you this was not meant in any kind of malicious way.”
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“We all just got so caught up in #shapetapenation and seeing your tweets asking for it… We wanted to get the product out as fast as possible, & we made the decision to move forward before all the shades were ready to go. We know there is no excuse, & we take full responsibility for launching this way. We lost sight of what’s really important in this industry, & for those who feel alienated in our community, we want to personally apologize. We’re doing everything in our power to bring those unfinished shades to market as fast as we can, at any cost. We CAN and WILL DO BETTER.”

Now, this seeming "trend" turned out to be a fluke and all the brands learned from tarte's mistake. I mean, tarte basically broke the interne--
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Wait, what? You’re telling me this happened again… Recently?

Come ON.

Everyone, even people who have used the same foundation since middle school has seen or heard of the company Beautyblender. Revitalizing the way that we apply foundation, Beautyblender's squishy foam applicator has its fair share of attempted dupes, but not to the same success.

READ: these people know what they are doing when it comes to putting stuff on your face. 

Or so we thought, right? When beauty blender announced  its debut foundation Bounce, a cruelty-free and vegan formula with 24-hour coverage in 32 shades, beauty obsessives rightfully lost their minds. ...Until they saw the shade range. High Priestess Ariana Grande, please help us on this day with your infinite grace and wisdom because… this is some kind of mess.

Just for funsies / rage, here's Shape Tape, Bounce, and Fenty Beauty next to each other: 

Harry Potter and the Audacity Of It All, right?

32 shades, and maybe *four* of them at work on somebody darker than Zendaya. There isn’t an undertone in sight. One of the brown shades was definitely mixed with leftover because it is straight-up orange. Orange. If you or a loved one are orange, please seek medical help immediately - unless that something you’re into. Every shade of white - eggshell, ivory, ecru, semen, sour cream, cornstarch - is represented, there's barely any variation in the first two rows. But nothing for women of color, olive undertones, nothing, zilch.
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In response, Beautyblender defended the shade range by invoking their CEO's ethnicity as a way to defend themselves in the tornado of negative reactions.

"Of our 32 blends, half the shades (16) are formulated for a range of olive and brown skin tones. We truly want everyone to find their perfect match and our founder, Rea Ann Silva, is not only Latina, but a professional makeup artist working primarily with women of colour- so she is an expert in this colour range.

This is like saying "my best friend is black" when you’re accused of being racist. 

Now normally, I consider myself a factual, evidence-based person with a slight tendency to lose myself in Wikipedia-holes, but there’s no way the beauty brands aren’t doing this on purpose, right? It’s a cycle: 

• Brand announces product
• “Shade range“ is released
• Social media outrage
• PR packages just sent out to gurus to make YouTube videos about said outrage
• Clicks, clicks, clicks
• Apology Statement

Last September, when we thought Rihanna was changing the game. We wanted Fenty Beauty to be the new rule, but it's turning into more of the exception to the rule. It’s simple -  if the brands cared, shade inclusivity would be a priority, not “an expansion”. Women and femmes of color are not The Sims Expansion Pack of the beauty world. If the shades were that important, it would be done already. There shouldn't be a scene made and threats of boycotts to cause change.  

My skin tone is not an afterthought for me. It is the only thing I am constantly being reminded of.

It even rings reminiscent of the Tigan laws of the 1800s, and the long history of restricting access to access an expression of beauty in black women in American culture:

“Did you know that in late 18th century Louisiana, black and multiracial women were ordered to cover their hair in public? [...]

With a little digging I found that there was in fact a 'law' of sorts that demanded women of color in Louisiana to cover their hair with a fabric cloth starting in 1789 as a part of what was called the Bando du buen gobierno (Edict for Good Government). What these rules were meant to do was try to curtail the growing influence of the free black population and keep the social order of the time. The edict included sections specifically about the changing of certain 'unacceptable' behaviors of the free black women in the colony including putting an end to what he and others believed to be the overly ostentatious hairstyles of these ladies which drew the attention of white men, and the jealousy of white women. These rules are called the 'Tignon Laws.' A tignon (pronounced 'tiyon') is a headdress."

"Apparently, women of color were wearing their hair in such fabulous ways, adding jewels and feathers to their high hairdos and walking around with such beauty and pride that it was obscuring their status. This was very threatening to the social stability (read: white population) of the area at the time. The law was meant to distinguish women of color from their white counterparts and to minimize their beauty."
- Cassandre for  BLGH

 Women and femmes of color spend the most money and time on their hair and beauty, but it is if they are invisible. Black women and femmes are constantly left until left out until we get something really popping going on. 

Some people might wonder why this all matters, why the outrage. It’s just makeup, it’s not cancer. It matters because we're constantly being served reasons not to include people as if it's for their own benefit. Sorry To Bother You won't get worldwide distribution because "profits". Look at the reaction to the female Ghostbusters or Star Wars star Kelly Marie Tran having to leave Twitter because of constant racist attacks from trolls, and tell me inclusivity doesn't matter, that being seen doesn't matter.  People are asking to be included and the response is 'No, you don't need this as much as other more deserving people'.  It shouldn’t be so hard, and Rihanna made it look easy. Why you acting brand new, other beauty companies?

We're asking for inclusivity and makeup companies are saying "no, we don't want your money, do it yourself." And when we do do it ourselves, people rage about not being included. There is no excuse for a lack of inclusivity anymore - the fear of it not being profitable, or "people of color have better skin and don't need makeup," or whatever it is they’re trying today. This matters because having a beauty brand means that you’re working for people of all colors with the hope that your products make them feel beautiful.  They want us to buy their makeup, but they don't want to make makeup that works for us. The logic makes no sense.

This matters when the CEO of It Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima, has her company acquired by L’Oreal for 1.2 Billion (with a B) dollars, but not a single one of their foundations has a range larger than seven shades, the darkest of which could possibly work for Gabrielle Union. ... Maybe, if Gabrielle Union was playing a zombie because the undertone of said foundation is gray. Coffin chic, if you will. One billion dollars, even though people have commented on the shade range for actual years and is told every time that “they’re working on it“. One billion dollars and Lima needs a thesaurus to describe dark skin tones for her appearances on QVC but happens to have an extensive vocabulary to describe fair or pale skin.

One billion dollars for not being inclusive.

It isn’t really an insane request - include me! But instead, beauty brands enjoyed stoking the fires of outrage rather than spend the time to invite other people to the table to make them feel included. I just wish they wouldn't be so obvious about it. Beautyblender can have 100 colors for the foundation applicator... but won't invest the same time into its foundation.