It’s terrible...finding a foundation to match us. My neck is literally 2 shades darker than my face and my chest.
The sun naturally makes the skin warmer and deeper around the hairline. If you have a good match around your hairline and it blends seamlessly into that area, it’s going to give you a really smooth veil of color for your complexion everywhere else.
3. Apply Foundation Around Your Hairline
For women with dark skin tones to match their shade, start by applying foundation around their hairline. When companies did offer dark shades, they would often be too orange, too red or look ashy, flat and muddy on the skin, neglecting the diverse range of undertones that foundations should cater to.
Women of color have to understand that they’re not just one color everywhere; that is the biggest misconception. You want a lighter foundation and a deeper one, because you should aim for your skin to look three-dimensional. If you just take one foundation and swipe it all over, you’re taking the dimension and the character away from your face.
Beyonce's Makeup Artist - Sir John
Beyoncé celebrity makeup artist Sir John on how he nails foundation-matching his clients with dark skin:
"It’s no secret that women with darker skin tones often have trouble finding the right foundation shades. Whether it's picking out the perfect match for their skin tone or having limited shade options available in cosmetics lines, it can be tough."
The pro has beautified the faces of Hollywood’s hottest—including Gabrielle Union, Joan Smalls, and Iman—and he's a firm believer that having a great complexion is what women with darker skin tones need to master before anything else. “The first step is to know your undertones. Do you have a peach, orange, or olive undertone? They’re all completely different dynamics,” said Sir John.
His go-to technique for women with dark skin tones to match their shade is to start by applying foundation around their hairline. “The sun naturally makes the skin warmer and deeper around the hairline. If you have a good match around your hairline and it blends seamlessly into that area, it’s going to give you a really smooth veil of color for your complexion everywhere else.”
Many major companies still don’t offer enough shades, but in 2017, Rihanna revealed her make-up line, Fenty Beauty, with diversity at the very heart of the brand. It launched its first foundation with an inclusive range of 50 shades, causing what's known as "the Fenty effect", forcing the industry to face its own failures in diversity.
In the last two years, what people call the "Fenty Effect" has influenced many brands to expand their shade ranges to be more inclusive of people with darker skin tones.
While there are brands that have catered to people with darker skin for years, like MAC and Bobbi Brown, it's great to see more brands step their game up to be more inclusive.
Though the beauty industry still has a long way to go, it's nice to know that nearly every day, there are more base makeup options being created in both drugstore and high-end brands.
- Samantha Customer
There are so many makeup brands out there that claim to have the best foundation for dark skin—but do they really? You go to the store to pick something up only to find out a certain brand has just ten different shades. It’s frustrating, but you pick what’s closest to your tone, and you head home to try it on. In most cases, your choice is either too runny or cakey, or it don’t absorb and mesh with your skin.
Beauty brands do not make enough products that cater to a narrow margin of skin tones and colors and many makeup products are not suited for women with darker skin tones and those with mocha-toned skin.
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I need to see my own beauty and to continue to be reminded that I am enough, that I am worthy of love without effort, that I am beautiful, that the texture of my hair and that the shape of my curves, the size of my lips, the color of my skin, and the feelings that I have are all worthy and okay.
Tracee Ellis Ross, American actress and television host.
Our late founder, Cindy Joseph, created our original Boom cosmetics and skin care line. As a makeup artist for 27 years, Cindy had unique insight into exactly how to bring out every woman’s natural beauty at every age. Cindy always said: “As women age, looking fresh, rather than made up, is the key.”
“The biggest makeup mistake that middle-aged women make is putting on too much under eye concealer,” Cindy used to say. “At home, it might look OK, but in the daylight, it just looks like a bunch of gunk under your eyes.The older you get, the less makeup you should wear. It ’s not a blank canvas anymore.”
“My favorite trick is this crazy thing called The Advanced Blemish Lotion with Sulfur,” she says. She admits that it doesn’t have the best smell (“It smells like a fart,” she says), but it works like a charm on her spots. She dips a cotton swab into the separated liquid, mixes it, and swipes it over her active breakouts.
Alicia Keys uses a sulfur-based nighttime solution for blemishes, acne & breakouts.
Complaints about other makeup products not focusing adequate research and aiming enough new product development on female African American. Beauty brands used to make products that catered to a narrow margin of skin tones and colors. if you’re sick of trying and ditching makeup that doesn’t work for your skin tone, this might be a good place to start.
There are so many makeup brands out there that claim to have the best foundation for dark skin—but do they really? You go to the store to pick something up only to find out a certain brand has just ten different shades. It’s frustrating, but you pick what’s closest to your tone, and you head home to try it on. In most cases, your choice is either too runny or cakey, or it don’t absorb and mesh with your skin.
“I need to see my own beauty and to continue to be reminded that I am enough, that I am worthy of love without effort, that I am beautiful, that the texture of my hair and that the shape of my curves, the size of my lips, the color of my skin, and the feelings that I have are all worthy and okay.” — Tracy Lee Ross
Though the beauty industry still has a long way to go, it's nice to know that nearly every day, there are more base makeup options being created in both drugstore and high-end brands.
When companies did offer dark shades, they would often be too orange, too red or look ashy, flat and muddy on the skin, neglecting the diverse range of undertones that foundations should cater to.
While there are brands that have catered to people with darker skin for years, like MAC and Bobbi Brown, it's great to see more brands step their game up to be more inclusive.
Though the beauty industry still has a long way to go, it's nice to know that nearly every day, there are more base makeup options being created in both drugstore and high-end brands.