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To whom much is given, much is required, right? That's how the saying goes, yet never in a million years did I think it would apply to my foundation. Case in point: last year, Rihanna — the global pop star who gave us our favourite good-girl-gone-bad hits like "We Found Love," "Umbrella," and "Work" — launched Fenty Beauty, which changed the game by introducing 40 inclusive foundation shades. Finally, a makeup line we — people of colour and all skin tones — could wear. You would think all my cosmetic nightmares would be put to bed, but instead, my discernment in choosing just one shade to match my complexion grew weary.
For the sake of greed, and finally being able to order numerous tones from a single cosmetic line, I got antsy and ended up ordering four varying foundation shades.
On one end of the spectrum, I was elated that WOC now have multiple options to choose from like everyone else. On the other, it was tricky navigating this space because it's completely foreign to me. All of a sudden, what I demanded makeup-wise was far greater than what I could've imagined a year prior to the birth of Fenty.
Even though the brand's website does a considerable job matching colours to pictures of 40 diverse skin tones of models, I could not determine online which Fenty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation was for me. I got picky. So for the sake of greed, and finally being able to order numerous tones from a single cosmetic line, I got antsy and ended up ordering four varying foundation shades.
Between pigments 380, 390, 400, and 410, I didn't think any of them resembled me at first. As the days went on, I took fancy to the colours and began to love my options. Some days I reveled in hue 400; on others, it was 380. In the Winter, I tend to look lighter, and when I travel, I get tan. However, I knew dabbling between four foundations was impractical — it's too much to swatch all four bases in the morning and travel with them on trips — and that I needed to edit down for money purposes (the bottles go for $34 a pop, which adds up to $136 for me) and also my sanity.
Not sure where to start, I reached out to celebrity makeup artists to figure out how they navigate this new space of beauty. Do they stick to one foundation or blend multiple? How do they match their clients' skin tones on the regular with one makeup kit? Keep reading to see what they had to say about their favourite products for people of colour, plus tips on how to wear them.