Four Reasons Why Your Foundation Never Matches and How to Fix It

BlaqBeautKey
Apr 12, 2023
4 min read

Reasons why buying from unknowledgeable beauty brands is causing your make up to look pale and how to find the perfect brands for your skin

How long have you struggled with finding the best foundation, concealer, etc. for your darker skin? How much time and effort have you put into this with little return?

Even as things improve for our melanated society in general, the makeup industry refuses to catch up with the times. This leaves us our darker-skinned community needing to mix multiple products, spending way too much time researching different brands, and looking into different tips and tricks to find the almost perfect match. But really—why is this even the case?

1. Lack of consideration for undertones

Many brands struggle with getting the right chemical mix to consider the darker community's undertones. Generally, chemists will use white, yellow, red and black pigments to create a shade and then try to add additional black pigment to create deeper hues. This is why some foundation ends up looking too dark on your skin.

On the flip side, they can use too much red and yellow which leaves the skin looking orange-ish.

Sadly, there hasn't been much time spent looking deeper into the issue in order to find a better mix of pigments. Even with the considerable amount of shade-matching quizzes, this still seems to be a roaring concern.

Perhaps they think that black people all look the same, so we must have the same shades huh? SMH!

2. Your geographic location

Living in less diverse areas could certainly be a reason as well. For example, beauties in Los Angeles tend to have more options than beauties in Kansas or Oklahoma. Specifically, they can find local stores and retailers that carry brands that offer a better selection of makeup for dark skin.

This leads them to have to do research online and cross their fingers hoping that they found the right match. Not being able to test the shade before purchasing it makes it so people decide not to buy or if they do, they receive their makeup only to be disappointed with it's coverage and how it looks on their skin.

3. Poor representation within the beauty industry in general

4-5% of all employees in the beauty industry are black (wow). This means that when a melanated beaut goes into a store and seeks advice from one of its employees, there is a slim chance that they will get the information that they need to make the best choice. If it's not a personal concern of theirs and they don't feel committed to contribute to the beauty needs of folks that look different than them, then why would they?

Especially if their employer isn't providing them with training on best practices when it comes to matching darker skin tones.

4. Brands aren't losing customers or sales due to this problem

Now, this reason is selfish as hell if you ask us! But think about it — why would brands spend a considerable amount of money if they are making a healthy amount in revenue?

On top of this, many dark-skinned beauties will bite the bullet and spend a lot of money buying multiple products from these brands in order to mix them and try to find the best match. This leads to a lack of opportunity for brands as they are still getting our money while not meeting our needs.

So, how do we address this problem?

As they say, "it takes one to know one."

What we need to do is buy our beauty products from black-owned beauty brands that are committed to providing dark-skinned beauties with a considerable amount of options while considering their shades, undertones, skin type, coverage, and texture.

BlaqBeaut can help by connecting black beauty lovers to black-owned brands that are committed to making this happen for people of darker shades based on their various, unique needs! Whether its foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, lipgloss, highlighter, etc., we're the plug for the plugs!

What does this mean for you?

An online platform that helps you reduce a considerate amount of time that you spend researching finding the best beauty product for your skin tone, type, and overall preferences. We do most of the research for you!
A plethora of options of black-owned makeup brands to consider as you look to find the best product for your needs. We are committed to partnering with black-owned brands that offer quality options. If it's #BlaqBeautApproved - then it's good to use!
An online community of #BlaqBeauts with similar challenges and experiences as you! You will be able to use of Forum to connect with others, suggest or find recommended black-owned brands, and have a bunch of fun doing so!
The ability to subscribe to the BlaqBeaut Box (coming soon) to get various black-owned beauty products while keeping your costs low. Way more bang for your buck!