That's a good question. I'm a makeup addict, but I'm the palest person ever. Your post has inspired me to take a closer look at the foundation and concealer options for most makeup lines.

I generally think more brands today make foundation and concealer colors darker than 'beige', and do know that I see a wide variety of shades and colors, even if I don't seek them out. Let me have a quick look at some web sites...

Cheap drug store brands like Cover Girl have at least 18 colors and go to "Soft Sable." Maybelline has 16 colors and has "Cocoa" as its darkest color. Revlon has at least 20 foundation colors and goes up to "Mocha."

Ok, let's look at some high end cosmetics only available at department stores or Sephora. Nars has at least 11 shades and the darkest color is "Jamaica." Lorac may be the first offender. They have only 10 colors and the darkest one is dark brown, though it may be darker in person than on the computer screen. Stila has only 8 shades, but they go far darker and more diverse in colors than do Lorac.

Ok, so now I read the Racialicious article. The offending brand was Clinique. But on Clinique's web site, they list at least 22 shades of foundation and go up to "Clove." I think the issue is that stores or counters stock far fewer colors and shades than do web sites. So stores only stock the most popular colors. I have had this problem on the other end because of my paleness, I wear Nars lightest shade called Snow. After hoofing it around town, I have found only one store here that sells this shade, and it is often out because they don't need to restock it often.

I've been a makeup addict for about 14 years now, and I truly believe that most cosmetic brands are now producing a diverse range of colors and shades, and don't necessarily make darker colors just as a temporary niche range, and so that women outside of the "beige" range don't have to seek out niche, often hard to find brands like Iman's. Most brands have realized that people are not one color fits all. /She says with hope!

This is a simple business decision. Makeup companies are in business to make a buck. If there was an economic return on making foundation for the sisters, they would be doing it. Every company for I've ever worked has new product meeting constantly, pouring over ideas and ROI models to determine where to expand and capture new customers. If darker shades don't exist it's because an MBA ran a risk/return model and the proposed expansion didn't meet minimum return standards - not because the white man is holding women of color down.

I just wrote a long comment with a lot of links and it needs to be approved by Feministing. Thanks.

I see things marketed to men -all the time- that I am interested in buying (computer/technology products, tools/building, car stuff) and items marketed to me and not men (cleaning supplies?)...
so it seems understandable that makeup isn't marketed to WOC as 'standard'.

While companies are always looking for new customers, just like buffy says, I think they make a lot of moron, offensive, and (hopefully) incorrect assumptions when they do their marketing. They assume that men won't buy mops and will only buy washing machines as gifts for their wives, they assume that I'll only buy tools to give to hubby on Father's day, and they assume that WOC aren't going to pony up for Clinique.

String_Bean_Jen,

I edited to clarify that she was looking for tinted moisturizer. I'm kind of a makeup moron, so I didn't realize that was a different product.

I hate makeup. I feel like I look good when I wear it cause it smooths out my skin, but in the hot and humid kentucky summer it's hell on your face. It tends to just melt off anyway. The only time I wear it is to job interviews and other important events. Of course I wear ivory concealer, so I don't have to deal with not having it if say I wear darker skinned. But I've always wondered even when I was little looking around the makeup aisle with my mom that there weren't colors for darker skin tones.

The makeup situation for darker-skinned people has visibly improved in recent years, but being the whitest thing since bleached flour (I kid you not; I can use baby powder as foundation.), I can't speak to the quality of the range in the darker tones. I just know that I've been seeing more powders and foundations for darker skin over the past 5 - 10 years. And there are a few ranges out there specifically for women of color. Iman has a gorgeous one that I wish I could wear.

That said, whenever you see "neutral" and "flattering for all skin tones!" on makeup, I guarantee you it doesn't mean black women, and it doesn't mean me. It means, generally, medium-hued white people. (I adore makeup, but I have never found a liquid foundation I can wear for more than about 15 minutes without it making me look like I'm doused in fake tan.)

Tinted moisturizer may be a different story. I haven't had much experience with that, because it's too sheer to do a damn thing to even out my complexion. That may still be behind the times in terms of color selection.

Ah, ok Jen. Tinted moisturizer is a fairly recent broadly-marketed product. It's just for those who like a lighter coverage than foundation provides. Not all cosmetic brands make tinted moisturizer. Looking at the brands I wrote about, Cover Girl, Maybelline, and Revlon don't make tinted moisturizer. Nars and Lorac don't either. Stila does and makes ten colors, the darkest of which is "Deep." It's not that dark and they should make darker colors.

Ah yes, Clinique does offend and only makes three colors of tinted moisturizer and only goes up to "Beige." That's bizarre. Tinted moisturizer is a niche product, though, and most brands that do produce this product have a far greater and deeper range of colors than does Clinique. Lets hope they start making more colors soon. In fact, I'll email them. They're being bogus.

And oh, hey, String_Bean_Jen mentioned Iman already. Whoops. But yeah, her line and others like hers don't tend to show up in suburban mall counters and such, which would make them a lot harder to find.

Ok, I've just emailed Clinique's customer service. Hope to hear from them soon!

hey everyone,
one of the racialicious readers alerted me to the fact that the article had been cross-posted here, so thanks! also, thanks string bean jen for emailing clinique! i left a comment card with the salesman at the clinique counter that day, but clearly the more people who push for clinique to add more colors to their spectrum, the better.

with regard to general makeup for WOC, kudos to the readers who linked cover girl and iman. l'oreal also features a new HIP line that features colors that work well on women of darker skin tones and for white women of various tones as well who are looking for bold colors. their models features in the ads also happen to be of various ethnic backgrounds and shades, which i appreciate.

with regard to the comments about supply and demand...for a company to assume that makeup for women of color would not be a good market is, well, totally dumb on their part. we are heavy duty consumers in the fashion and hair industries, so why would they assume for such a long time that we wouldn't be worth targeting for makeup? also, i don't think it's about whites keeping women of color down, as a commenter said earlier. i never make that assertion. i do use the word "ignore" however, as i feel it aptly suits what has happened to women of color in the beauty industry (again, until very recently0. even now, it's still quite hard to find makeup (that's not crazy expensive) for very dark women. imagine alek wek in walgreens. she'd leave empty handed for sure.

"If darker shades don't exist it's because an MBA ran a risk/return model and the proposed expansion didn't meet minimum return standards - not because the white man is holding women of color down."

It is a matter of "the white man/woman holding women of color down." The make-up companies made a conscious decision, years ago, to make shades of a certain (white) color. Even now as some companies are expanding their make-up lines, they consider women of color a "niche" market. It's a strange marketing strategy that once again places women of color as the "Other." One only has to look at L'Oreal to see the racism inherent in their company culture that chose white women over women of color as employees and models. Business isn't infallible. Business, like everything, is tinged with white privilege. It's a privilege that I can walk up to a make-up counter and expect there to be a tone to match my skin. Women of color shouldn't have to place special orders or be told "We don't carry your color, hun" such as Muse found out on her shopping trip.

I'm also a beauty junkie with fairly dark skin and things have definitely gotten better over the last 10 years. However if a line doesn't carry a foundation dark enough for me I don't buy any of their products. Some of them I'm genuinely interested in. A funny thing is that Pat McGrath, who is black and is the top make up artist in fashion mags and runway used to be the creative director of Armani Cosmetics but couldn't have used the foundations and conceders herself. She's now left. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

It seems to me you have a simple and profitable solution. This is predominantly a US blog, home of small businesses, the free market, internet shopping and (until the recent market implosion) cheap capital. A person who is interested in this issue could establish an internet store for people to purchase the colours not generally stocked in retail outlets. It’s an ideal product for internet sales as it is small, easily shipped and does not expire. You even have readily available marketing tools as you could leverage advertising on th internet where people who are comfortable on the internet discuss the lack of supply for hard to find colours.

If you were successful enough the MBAs would soon take note and be more than happy to demands for wider colours if the ROI proved sufficient (or like the Body Shop you could start to make your own products).

Maybe you would get lucky and a big player would buy you out for significant money....every small business person's dream!

I have the same problem as Lilitu -- I'm so pale you could trace through me, and have the added disadvantage of having a blue skin tone, which means there's nothing I can wear that isn't either too dark or too orange for me. (What do dark-skinned women with blue skin tones do?)

I once found an ok lipstick at MAC, which may be an avenue to try, but these days I basically just don't wear makeup. It's better for my skin that way anyway.

I used to do work for a large Beauty Retail store and I can say, though I hate the place for so many reasons, WoC was a topic that was frequently discussed and the attempts to expand all lines (including hair care, which I understand is another area that has been difficult) was laudable. I saw Iman herself in the bathroom! :) SO TALL.

For those of you asking about make-up that doesn't melt / better for really pale colors and dark colors, I really think http://www.bareminerals.com/ is a great way to go. I know you're not searching femininsting for make up tips, but I love their stuff.

Has anybody considered that skin whitening cream is the cosmetic marketed at the dark-skinned cosmetic users?

It's elegant, if twisted: you have a full range of cosmetics to use if the right colour, and something to lighten your skin if not.

The two cents of an olive-skinned Sicilian:

I remember over 10 years ago (when did I get so old?) talking with my aunts about how hard it was to find make-up that would match our skin, and that our best bet was in the hard-to-find "Shades of You" line for African Americans.

I've definitely seen an improvement since then, with "standard" lines having a wider representation of color in recent years. But it's still always so strange to me that my color is usually the second darkest option. Yeah I'm darker than the average white girl, but there are many shades of color darker than me. Make-up lines always seem to look like this: 25 variations from ivory to beige, then one olive, and one brown.

Definitely annoying, but (slowly) improving.

p.s. And another shout-out for Bare Minerals... in their second darkest shade, of course. :)

Okay. Go to your standard cosmetic store/counter/whatever. Ask for the palest shade they have. I'm one shade lighter. Garunteed. I've done those 'free makeover' things, where the people are always like, "well, here's the lightest shade, it'll have to do". I think Origins used to make one that was light enough, but they discontinued it... This usually doesn't matter, as I don't really wear makeup, but it does make me sad when my face is doing it's impression of the moon...

Anyway, I've noticed that it's the stores stocking these things, not necessarily the products themselves. For example, when I lived in Houston, TX, finding darker tones was never a problem. (I look for them at every cosmetic related store I go to and I don't know why) However, when I moved to western PA they all mysteriously disappeared.

This problem is not limited to makeup. Hair products are even worse. I have a LOT of hair. Approximately three times as much by volume as normal people (think, in a ponytail). And its long. And curly. I cannot use brushes. I need a w-i-d-e toothed comb designed to handle hair of that magnitude, and the only place I've been able to find them is in the "ethnic" section. If I need a new comb its I can't find them in brush/comb section, but have to hunt down the 'ethnic' section, if it even exists.

Ooh, I got a response from Clinique, you guys!

Thank you for taking the time to contact Clinique.

At Clinique, we strive to offer cosmetic shades in a range suitable for all of our consumers. We herefore regret to learn that you were unable to locate a tinted moisturizer within our line. Please accept our apology, along with our assurance that your comments will be forwarded to our Product Development and Marketing Departments for their review and consideration.

Once again, thank you for this opportunity to respond to your concerns. We hope you will continue to enjoy and have confidence in our quality products.

The sad thing is is that the first and surname of the consumer communications specialist who responded to me is Latina, so I'd speculate that there may not be a tinted moisturizer color for her skin either.

"If darker shades don't exist it's because an MBA ran a risk/return model and the proposed expansion didn't meet minimum return standards - not because the white man is holding women of color down."

It's because the man is a dumb ass. I wear size 13 shoes. I've seen plenty of commentary on why sizes above 10 are hard to find, and 11s and 12s are just starting to trickle onto the market. The main explanation I've seen is the circular reasoning of marketing people:

-We decided back in the 1950s to not make any shoes larger than size X.

-We have not sold any shoes larger than size X.

-Therefore, there is no demand for shoes larger than size X.

The same likely goes for lots of other products, particularly those marketed towards women. Women of color likely would buy makeup if it came in a shade that suited them, but these shades aren't readily available, thus making it completely impossible for the white men that run cosmetic companies to realize that WoC exist.

It's mind-numbing.

How sad that they do not make produc ts for all types of women. Does anyone know if Clinique (that's the brand we are discussing, right?) has regular make-up for WOC?

And I third the love for Bare Escentuals. I don't know any WOC that use the line (I might, but I almost never talk make up with my friends) but I love it.

l.short.1230-
imagine being black...

clinique makes regular makeup for women of all shades, though again, alek wek is out of luck. if anyone doesn't know who she is, look her up. i like them, i was just uber frustrated that the one makeup item (besides cleansing products) that i wanted from them and only them (i have sensitive skin, so i have to be careful...and once i find a line i like, i stick with it), they didn't have it in my color. the tinted moisturizer i thought would work on me is called "olive dark" but it wasn't available online or in their stores. the words were there on the site, but no color display or option to buy. it wasn't out of stock, it simply did not exist. total tease.

but yeah, clinique has been pretty good as of late with producing products for women who aren't beige or lighter. they just haven't added us to their tinted moisturizer list.

[also, string bean jen, the rep who replied to you could be any color...as latinas come is shades of white, yellow, brown, and black...and it's only her dad's last name, afterall...so it's not that telling of her appearance.]

I'm a big fan of tinted moisturizer, because it's lighter feeling and it's easier to find it with a higher SPF. I'm pale, so I can't speak to how good the darker colors look, but in general there are a lot fewer colors available compared to foundation (even in white girl colors) because it's sheerer than foundation and more forgiving if the color's not quite right.

Although only four colors to choose from, Burt's Bees sells Tinted Moisturizer.

Light, Medium, Dark, Deep.
http://www.burtsbees.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10751&storeId=10101&productId=14967&langId=-1&categoryId=&showSubCategory=yes

My idea of tinted moisturizer is lotion with a hint/tint of color. It doesn't have to match exactly, like, say, foundation. In the winter I would use light. Maybe, if I was in to Going Outside and Getting Tan in the summer, I would use Medium.

Anyway.

Maybe I'm just tooting Burt's Bees horn, but. It's good for you. And, it's good for everyone else. And, it's widely available now: Borders Books, Walgreen's, etc. And, and! It's just has a better vibe about it than something at a makeup counter! Eep! But that's my personal opinion. And I'm into makeup, hello, dark circles and spider veins and I'm only 22...great. :)

"The two cents of an olive-skinned Sicilian:..."

Your line here reminded me of when I first got laser treatment. For some reason the nurse said my skin color was olive and 4 on a scale of 1 to 6 (1 lightest and 6 darkest) and so it was light enough to reflect the laser instead of absorbing it.

My first thoughts were

"Olive? I'm not green."

"4 out of 6? That squishes all the people paler than me - who have way more 1/2 the range of human skin tones - into 1/3 of your chart. o_O"

OMG, jost stop having such a POLITICAL skin color, ladies!

I am involved in the cosmetics industry and whenever I am presented with an opportunity, such as at a school or meeting with higher ups in the company I bring this very issue to their attention. The answer I recieve has always been either; "That is something we are working on." A cop-out I believe, can I have a date? Or "That is a niche market." That is simply untrue based on my experience.

I just read another comment in regards to the skin lightening products available, and well I might as well name the brand - also the main offender above - VICHY. Their products for "whitening" are targeted at Asian skin types as it so clearly says on the label. I would love to see an article looking at this "trend".

"I would love to see an article looking at this 'trend'."

Here's one:

http://www.jaalmag.com/01052004/smearscape.htm

On those extremely rare occasions when I shop for makeup, I buy MAC.

It's nonsense like this that led Iman to develop her own makeup line- sadly, I can't find it in my area, and have generally been able to find it in Philly and NYC (yet another reason to love New York).

b-rizzle: I am both olive skinned and fair skinned. (My dad's Italian, and my mom's irish.) Highschool sucked for makeup because foundations either looked bluey-pink, or seriously yellow.

b-rizzle: I am both olive skinned and fair skinned. (My dad's Italian, and my mom's irish.) Highschool sucked for makeup because foundations either looked bluey-pink, or seriously yellow.

b-rizzle: I am both olive skinned and fair skinned. (My dad's Italian, and my mom's irish.) Highschool sucked for makeup because foundations either looked bluey-pink, or seriously yellow.

As superficial as makeup seems to be, it really struck me when I read this. My kids are biracial. I'm white, my husband isn't. How will my daughter feel when she gets older and finds it hard to find suitable makeup shades, while it's relatively easy for mom?

hey deweyed...she might feel like me. my mother is black, but has very very light skin. when i was a little girl, i would watch her buy her products at the lancome counter. as i state in the article, she didn't really wear makeup besides a little lipstick here and there, but she would by foundation every now and then with no problem. at that age, i though companies geared toward meeting the color needs of women with darker skin, like fashion fair, were bad and the reason my mother didn't buy from them. but when i realized my very dark brown-skinned aunt did, i finally realized why they bought from different companies with very different models in their ads.