Makeup Drama and Current Online Backlash
The makeup brand known as Youthforia, is currently facing harsh critiques from the public online because of the darkest shades of their Date Night foundation line. This is a makeup brand that launched in 2021. They released 10 new shades on March, 2024 after their previous 15 shades of foundation were not inclusive enough, those being released on October, 2023. This set of shades are called “Date Night” as previously mentioned. However, their attempt of being more diverse and “inclusive” actually brought them more negative perspectives and backlash. Additionally, a lot of influencers online are doing reviews about them, more specifically on the TikTok platform. Now, due to this a lot of public are becoming aware of this controversy and are harshly criticizing it.
Moreover, in terms on how this makeup controversy came about, fired up and gained massive tendency is when the Beauty influencer, Golloria George, who produces a series on her social media platforms where she goes ahead and swatches the darkest shade of makeup products, more specifically foundation, that are offered by distinct beauty brands. Well, she posted a TikTok video on Monday, April 29 of a swatch test, regarding, Youthforia’s shade 600 foundation. Which in fact, is the darkest color in the line of the makeup brand. Not to mention, this time she started her video differently than how she usually starts her beauty videos. On one side of her face she applied the Youthforia makeup foundation and on the other side she applied the black face paint.
The Results of this Makeup “Swatch Test”
Furthermore, after influencer George applied both face items on each side of her face it revealed that that both sides looked the exact same. She said, “Which side of my face is the black face paint or the Youthforia foundation? Tea, you can’t tell. You know why? Tar in a bottle,” She made this outstanding statement, holding up the foundation bottle. Which ultimately made a huge impact in the social media community.
This video of hers became extremely viral and gained massive attention. It gained more than 11.6 million views, talking in terms of less than 24 hours. Afterwards, she then proceeded to create and produce a follow-up video also regarding the same makeup brand. However, this time she produced another swatch test on Youthforia’s second-darkest shade which is 590. Particularly for her the shade 590, leans to a more red tone towards her specific skin tone.
To this, she says, “I’m a little bit cooler than 590, guys, which means Youthforia does not even make my shade.” This was another impactful video for the social media community that also gained a lot of traction, obtaining more than two million views on this follow-up video. Due to this and many other reviews, Youthforia makeup brand has been criticized and now faces backlash.
Golloria George Talks About the Lack of Inclusivity
Beauty content creator, George has advocated and expressed about how she feels about the makeup brand “Youthful.” More specifically of their foundation line. She definitely feels like the makeup brand is not being inclusive enough and when they want to be “inclusive” and diverse in how the company produces the distinct shades, they exaggerate it. Overall, taking it to extremes. George said, “When we say we want you guys to make shades for us, we don’t mean for you to go to the lab and ask for minstrel show black. What we mean is for you to take the browns that you have made and create undertones.”
In fact, George was also interviewed by TIME and she took the time to express how trying out the new shades for the firsts time truly “shocked” her and “frustrated” her. Her experience felt very surreal, for her it was an out-of-this-world experience overall. Her frustration further grew because she had already previously tried their darkest shade that they had, in their last years release. However during that time it was not dark enough for her liking. For this she said, “Not only do you miss the mark once, you go back and miss the mark again.”
Youthforia CEO Fiona Co Chan Responds Back to the Backlash
In response to the Youthforia brand being criticized and facing backlash from Black beauty creators last year, Youthforia’s CEO Fiona Co Chan also spoke up and responded back to the negative constant ratings that the brand was receiving. According to TIME, she said in a video that is now deleted, claiming that the initial launch was a “proof of concept” in order to see if the company product would be successful.
Furthermore, she later posted another video that has apparently also been removed from social media. Which was of her apologizing for this outcomes and also stating that more shades would be developed. She made the following statement, “When I first started Youthforia two years ago, all I wanted to do was create a safe space where individual beauty could be celebrated. And unfortunately with our latest launch, we just fell short of that mission.”
Written by Jeanette Sanchez
Sources:
Business Insider: Makeup brand Youthforia criticized over new dark foundation shade
ABC NEWS: Youthforia criticized over new black foundation shade
TIME: Why Beauty Brand Youthforia Is Facing Backlash
NBC News: Youthforia criticized by Black influencers over deep makeup shade
Featured Image Courtesy of Gee Hair Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of TIM HOGGARTH Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
