Makeup tool brand Beautyblender finally released their first official foundation, called the Bounce Whip Long Wear Foundation, amid much fanfare. While makeup lovers have long since been fans of the essential blending and contouring tool, it was unclear how the company would fair in the realm of actual foundation, but the time seemed right. Especially amid companies expanding their existing color ranges to be more representative of the wide range of skin tones that exist in their consumer base, Beautyblender promised they would be releasing a product that did the same. But now, less than two weeks since the brand officially launched their newest product, customers seem to feel as though they've fallen well short of their goal.
With 32 shades to choose from, Allure originally reported that Rea Ann Silva, the creator of the product, told the publication of the specific attention paid to representing and including shades on the darker end of the spectrum. Once Instagram beauty news user @TrendMood1 posted about the product, though, the comments to the contrary started to fly. When looking at the image of every shade lined up in a grid, it seems as though almost ¾ of the assortment are fairly light tones, with only the remaining quarter split up between mediums and darks.
One Instagram commenter noted, "If you have 7 deep and 7 medium why do you have like 18 light shades and girl not even the mediums are all medium this is just embarrassing." Another echoed the first, writing, "They released this foundation. But literally all the light shades look the same and there aren't enough darker shades for POC to find their personal shade/undertone. It's disgraceful, distasteful and so disappointing." Even further, beauty blogger Haylee Aníse took to Twitter to show an image of arm swatches that drive the point home, adding, "I'm sorry but the swatches make this SO MUCH FUMMIER. LIKE WTF @beautyblender."
Since the issues went viral, the brand gave a statement to Cosmopolitan, stating the following:
"Of our 32 blends, half the shades (16) are formulated for a range of olive and brown skin tones. We truly want everyone to find their perfect match and our founder, Rea Ann Silva, is not only Latina, but a professional makeup artist working primarily with women of colour- so she is an expert in this colour range. Those with tan, deep and dark skin tones understand that finding the right colour 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. BOUNCE offers a wide variety of undertones from neutral, warm, cool, and olive and a special ultramarine blue to create a deep rich tone."
Photo via Instagram