It looks like Kim Kardashian should have asked Kylie Jenner for advice when choosing shades for the new KKW Beauty foundation and concealer.
If you haven’t seen Kim Kardashian or one of her many KKW Beauty models talking about “conceal, bake, brighten” on social media, you might live in a bubble. On Friday, Kim released her new concealer kids to the delight of many. Like everything else in her life, this new cosmetics release didn’t come without controversy.
To kick of Kim’s concealer campaign, earlier this week a photo was posted of a KKW Beauty model showing off swatches of the product on her arm. It took less than 2 nanoseconds for Twitter to comment on how the celebrity beauty brand chose such a dark model. There are only 16 shades in the range, meaning that someone is going to get left out.
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Diversity is great and should be celebrated but the issue they found is that none of the concealer shades were actually dark enough for her skin. According to the Washington Post, many Twitter users were upset about the KKW Beauty flub, calling out Kim Kardashian for pushing her concealers on darker customers but without actually selling shades dark enough, or at least not enough of them, for many women and men to find a shade that suits them.
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Inclusivity is a huge thing in the beauty industry now and those who don’t offer shade ranges for the lightest and the darkest skin tones often get called out. Previously, Kim Kardashian mostly avoided controversy with her makeup line. She mostly stuck to lipsticks and body glitter. She did hear a bit of backlash over the contour and highlight kits, especially since they only came in three shades. Now she’s getting it again.
Some suggested that she take a tip from Rihanna, whose Fenty Beauty has 40 different foundation shades. It has been touted as one of the most inclusive beauty brands and is extremely popular right now.
I say, she could stay much closer to home and still get some great advice. Kylie Jenner worked to create an incredibly inclusive line of concealers that were released back in December. With 30 shades to choose from, Kylie Cosmetics fans were thrilled with the range of shades.
On the other hand, another company that has been hammered over lack of inclusivity is Tarte. When they released the Shape Tape foundations, they only offered 15 shades. This was a huge bummer for everyone but especially for those with darker skin, since there were only three shades that would have really been suitable and we haven’t even talked about undertones yet.
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In the beauty industry, inclusivity is a big deal now. Consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated with brands who don’t offer up a full range of shades to cater to any women (or man)who would want to wear them. Kim Kardashian absolutely should know this by now. Hopefully, she’ll consider how many people just want to find the right shade and feel comfortable with the way their makeup makes them look.