Beautyblender Launched 32 Shades of Foundation—and Instagram Is Not Happy
Beautyblender, the brand that brought us the original pink egg-shaped makeup sponge loved by all, is launching its first-ever makeup product: foundation.
The Bounce Liquid Whip Long Wear Foundation ($32), available at Sephora on July 24, has a lightweight but full coverage formula that's meant to last up to 24 hours. It blends seamlessly and gives a perfecting veil that blurs over any imperfections. From what I found, using it made my skin look like skin, not skin slathered with makeup.
Beautyblender founder and longtime makeup artist Rea Ann Silva says creating this foundation took about a year and a half, although she had the idea for it even before the blender came along. "It was like birthing a child. Like getting pregnant and spending months and months imagining and testing through your fingers and your face, and trying to make it as good as my dreams," she told ELLE.com,"I wanted a product that was longwear but not thick and mask-y. I wanted something that'd be buildable and had potential for looking natural."
The packaging is also worth noting: The front of the bottle is actually a concave-like palette so you can easily mix face oils, luminizers, and other products with your foundation-with, say a Beautyblender.
There are 32 shades in the foundation range. Silva says her personal experience played a role in trying to create a diverse collection. "As a professional makeup artist of over 20 years working with all different skin tones and ethnicities, a lot of times I'm left to my own devices mixing different brands, different formulas, just to get a tone," she said. "I'm so happy about it, especially being a Latina woman of color. This new heightened awareness is allowing these brands to get more options. I think it's amazing."
While 32 shades sounds impressive, when news and images of the line leaked on social media, the responses were not all complimentary. In the comments section of the beauty news Instagram Trendmood1's post of a screenshot from a Beautyblender video, @han_vanslyke responded, "The expansion of undertones is amazing, until it gets to people that have a lot of pigmentation. Did you get lazy when it came to the undertones of men/women of color." Meanwhile, @mikhaila.lambert directly addressed the brand, "@beautyblender wow out of 32 u have seven shades for all POC 😑." The rest of the 7,286 comments on the post echoed the same sentiments; of the 32 shades, only a handful seem deeply pigmented.
A post shared by TRENDMOOD (@trendmood1) on Jul 18, 2018 at 8:12am PDT
Beautyblender is also using a wide range of women of color in their marketing. Still though, the comments continue. "This shouldn’t even be launched yet because it doesn’t look finished to me. This is a big 'F You' to your black and Spanish customers," @lisialuxe wrote, "You guys need more deep shades. I would think you guys would from your competitors and not make this mistake. 🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️ This is SAD and embarrassing."
A post shared by beautyblender (@beautyblender) on Jul 18, 2018 at 8:56am PDT
We reached out to Beautyblender for a response for the backlash and they sent us the following statement:
Of our 32 BOUNCE blends, half the shades (16) are formulated for a range of olive to dark skin tones and include subtle nuances that make a world of difference on the skin.
We truly want everyone to find their perfect match, so to ensure this we put our shades to the test against some of the most inclusive on the market. While the range goes both very light as well as very dark, we have THE MOST shades in what we call our “medium plus” range. This was created specifically for people of multicultural backgrounds as they have the hardest time finding the right shade to match their undertone.
Our founder, Rea Ann Silva is not only Latina, but a professional makeup artist who has always worked with women of color throughout her 30-year career. Those with tan, deep and dark skin tones understand that finding the right color foundation is all about matching your undertone and this is where Rea Ann saw the biggest hole in the market: for women like herself and her multicultural family.
My take? The foundation itself is really a solid product that does what it promises. Still though, we're in the age of the Fenty 40, when a wide-range of shades in any skin product isn't an extra but a requirement. Beautyblender makes a fair case for catering to those in the medium/tan range but it looks like there's still work to be done. And of course, we'll be interested to see how Instagram users feel once they actually try the products IRL.
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