Darker Shades, or the Oh-Now-You-See-Me? Effect

Kevin Aucoin Makeup

Photo property of Kevin Aucoin Makeup

So I was surprised to see that Almay has extended it's shade range. It seems like Rihanna's brand Fenty, with it's 40 shades, suddenly woke brands up. Maybe that wasn't the catalyst, maybe they were in the works already? Who knows. What I do know is there have been brands that always included diversity. Besides brands specifically for black women like Fashion Fair, Iman and Black Opal,  there were brands like Prescriptive who would custom mix any shade, and even Revlon, who started their Color Stay line in a bevy of shades from the beginning. As a pro there was always access to professional brands like Ben Nye, RCMA, Cinema Secrets, Graftobian, and Mehron. If these brands didn't have the perfect shade they had the raw materials for pros to create it. What other brands were diverse before it was fashionable? MAC, MakeupForever, Kevin Auccoin, Cover FX, Estee Lauder, FaceAtalier, Nars, Dior, Tom Ford, even Maybelline.

Dior Makeup

Photo Property of Dior

It's awesome for diverse skintones to have so many choices, we never thought we'd see the day! As more brands are coming on board, should brand loyalty be shown to those always recognized beauty in darker tones? Will the new brands jumping on the band wagon stay in the game or is it phase.  Questions to ponder as we let our beauty shine!