Is Inclusivity in Beauty a Trend?

A recent New York Times article in which one of the greatest makeup artists EVER Sam Fine is quoted, poses the question about whether the influx of inclusivity in the beauty industry right now will be long-lived or if it’s a trend.

In the article, Sam Fine notes that we’ve been here before in the 90s with brands pushing lines for women of color. About two years ago, in prepping for my #TSABDBlackBeauty series that I do on my Instagram in February for Black history month, I came across a photo of supermodel Beverly Peele in an ad for Almay’s line for women of color. YUP, AL-MAY. Yes, THAT Almay. Almay is one of the whitest beauty brands I can think of right now and they at one point had a line for women of color. There are other examples which you can read about in the New York Times article.

My thoughts are pretty much aligned with those of the makeup artists quoted in the article in that I do feel like it will be a trend unless brands really put in the work of educating the people at the counters (a big part of the issue is that TOO many counter reps and makeup artists don’t have the skills to properly match deeper skin tones), education as well for the consumer, and there needs to be more of a diverse presence of people with deeper skin tones in brand’s marketing plans through social media and traditional advertising, etc. There are numerous issues within the industry that has many of you (and others I’m sure) apprehensive about buying foundation as noted in my Are You Scared of Buying Foundation post. If these issues aren’t addressed, no matter how many shades a brand creates, they may not sell in the way they’d like and they may decide to discontinue them. I’m nervous this will happen without brands really digging deep as to WHY the shades aren’t selling.

Watch me discuss this—press play below to watch my Youtube video

I speak more about this in depth in the video below—you can also click on it to view on Youtube to read the comments—there’s a great conversation going down over there so check it out!

Do you think inclusivity in beauty as we see it now will last? Will it be here 10 years from now? 20 years? Let’s talk all about it in the comments!