Robyn Rihanna Fenty: singer, songwriter, actresses and now beauty pioneer. Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty September 8th with little to no advertisement but a one minute campaign video and teaser Instagram posts. The mystery and suspense behind the launch kept the beauty world on edge, and what came with the drop was revolutionizing.
The line was a partnership with Sephora, making it widely available for consumers, and includes 40 shades of the Pro Flit’r soft matte long-wear foundation , 30 Match Stix shades, 6 Killawatt highlighters, a universal lip luminizer gloss bomb and all the tools needed to apply. The products were made with everyone in mind and are light weight and natural looking, it was important to make “skin look like skin” said Rihanna. It is also affordable with the foundation retailing for $34 and a trio of Match Stix for concealing, contouring and highlighting retailing for $54 (a $21 value). All the products are great quality with nothing but positive reviews from the beauty community.
But the groundbreaking part of the line is the 40 different foundation shades divided equaling between light, medium, tan, and deep shades with cool, natural, and warm undertones. As a black girl herself, Rihanna knows the struggle black women have when finding a foundation that does not make them look too red or too grey. From the palest white to the deepest brown, there is a shade for everyone. The beauty industry is known to leave people of color out when it comes to foundation by saying,
“they don’t wear makeup”
and “those shades wouldn’t sell,” but
Fenty Beauty has proved they wrong with all the darkest shades selling out within minutes.
The fact that the line took Rihanna two years to develop the line and months of testing really shows how personal this is to her. She wanted the products attached to her name to be a reflection or her and show diversity and inclusiveness. Complexion products are very ambitious for a first release of any makeup line and Ms. Fenty has set the bar high for what all companies should be doing; making all makeup lovers feel fabulous in their own skin. This is only the beginning of the Fenty Beauty empire and I’m hoping to see many more launches to come.
