By Kaitlyn Cullen
Staff Writer
Musical artist Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, blew up the makeup world when she launched Fenty Beauty in September 2017.
According to the Fenty Beauty website, “Rihanna was inspired to create Fenty Beauty after years of experimenting with the best-of-the-best in beauty – and still seeing a void in the industry for products that performed across all skin types and tones.”
As a woman of color, Rihanna comes from a community that has historically been marginalized in all aspects of life – and cosmetics is no exception.
After rising to the top of the music industry, Rihanna expanded her resume to include her other achievements, including executive producer, fashion designer, actress, astute business entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Rihanna has always catered to the people, as exemplified by the Clara Lionel Foundation, a nonprofit organization she founded in 2012 that, according to their website, “supports and funds groundbreaking education and emergency response programs around the world.”
To further cater to the people, she “launched a makeup line ‘so that people everywhere would be included,’ focusing on a wide range of traditionally hard-to-match skin tones, creating formulas that work for all skin types, and pinpointing universal shades,” according to the Fenty Beauty website.
“Makeup is there for you to have fun with,” Rihanna says on her website. “It should never feel like pressure. It should never feel like a uniform. Feel free to take chances, and take risks, and dare to do something new or different.”
Rihanna created Fenty Beauty and partnered with Kendo Brands to create the brand. Kendo Brands also partners with KVD Vegan Beauty, Marc Jacobs, Lip Lab, Bite Beauty, and Ole Henriksen.
Within this cosmetic brand, Rihanna designed an award-winning Pro Filt’r Foundation that currently comes in 50 shades, exemplified by models who are albino (shade #100) to rich, deep dark tones (shade #498), that can be seen on the Fenty Beauty website.
Fenty Beauty is probably the most well-known beauty brand with this wide range of foundation shades, pushing other brands to expand their palettes as well.
Some other brands that have since expanded their coverage of skin tones include PÜR with 87 shades, M•A•C with 63 shades, Morphe with 60 shades, and Tarte with 50 shades.
All of these brands hover around the same $31-to-$39 dollar price range.
PÜR promised a 100-shade foundation collection back in early 2019, which makes their current 87-shade collection a bit of a let down, but a serious competitor nonetheless.
Rihanna’s marketing skills allowed Fenty Beauty to usurp the attention of her own fans as well as makeup fans worldwide.
You can find Fenty Beauty products at Sephora in-store and online as well as the Fenty Beauty website.
One year after launching Fenty Beauty, Rihanna also launched an even more inclusive line – Fenty x Savage, a lingerie brand made to Nt all shapes and sizes, which showcases a rainbow of models, including disabled model Mama Cax.
Rihanna continues to use her platform to push the boundaries on beauty standards, and it doesn’t look like she’s stopping anytime soon.