The Youthforia foundation shades. Picture: Instagram.
THE beauty industry is growing rapidly with brands introducing new products all the time. Most make-up brands were asked to include dark-skinned people because, in the past, there weren’t the perfect foundation shades to match their skin tones.
In an attempt to be as inclusive as possible, some brands did get it right while others failed dismally.
Asian-owned beauty brand Youthforia recently came under fire on TikTok following the launch of its Date Night Tint Serum foundation. While the brand did get the other shades right, they missed the mark with their darkest shade, which looked like black paint.
South Sudanese beauty influencer Golloria George was one of the first people to pick up the error made by the brand on the foundation.
She posted a video of her wearing black paint and the Youthforia foundation on each side of her face and you couldn’t tell the difference between the two.
@golloria the darkest shade of the youthforia date night foundation.
♬ original sound - golloria
People on the internet started complaining that even the lightest shades were either too yellow or orange on the skin.
“The make-up industry is horrible. I’m extremely pale, and I can never find a concealer that isn’t yellow or a foundation that works (the only one that works is Haus Labs), and many concealers are too yellow,” commented @kara.
Another TikToker user, @Steph, said: “This is why I follow you. I’m nowhere near your skin tone, but if a brand doesn’t make a shade for you, that means the brand is not for me!”
After many people stitched George’s video, which had over 26 million views, cosmetics developers like Jane The Chemist came forward to educate the Youthforia team on what they could do moving forward.
“Although I can’t speak to the hurt and disappointment the black community must feel from the shade extension, I do want to speak objectively to what I think this brand needs in order to possibly survive.
“In order to develop a good product you need to identify your consumer’s needs and wants before going into the lab and making something. This applies to every single category of beauty, haircare, skincare and make-up, especially with make-up when it comes to shade ranges,” said Jane.
“You need to identify the shades needed to be very inclusive. And sometimes that means you need to do a wide panel testing before even putting your products up for manufacturing.
“What Youthforia did was the complete opposite. They made a product and then tried to find someone that would match it, but that doesn’t work.”
@janethechemist #stitch with @Javon Ford Beauty my thoughts as a cosmetic chemist and beauty product developer #youthforia ♬ original sound - janethechemist
On their TikTok page, Youthforia posted a video searching for models to match their darkest foundation shade, which proves Jane’s point that they didn’t do thorough research before mass-producing the product.
@youthforia Replying to @niqueywiquey ♬ original sound - Youthforia
After seeing the backlash they received, Youthforia posted an apology video on their TikTok page but quickly deleted it.
They have also switched off the comments on their videos and have not yet released a statement to address the issue.