Throughout the years, makeup brands have released more shades for people with darker skin because historically, these individuals have struggled with finding perfect shades for them. Thankfully, there are so many more options today than there used to be, but one brand, Youthforia, has made headlines for their darkest shade foundation– and not in a good way.
Back in 2018, youthforia came out with a foundation line, but did not have nearly enough darker shade options. The internet went wild and gave youthforia a lot of criticism for their shade range. Fast forward to 2024: Youthforia debuted a whole new range of shades including 10 darker ones; the darkest shade called, “600 deep neutral.” First, a little context: the most important thing when looking for a foundation is the undertone. Every shade has an undertone because that’s what makes the foundation match actual human skin tone. Darker skinned individuals usually have red or purple undertones, but the darkest Youthforia shade is straight jet black– just black. with zero undertones. Because of this, many on the internet have compared it to black face paint.
When we want you guys to make shades for us, we don’t mean to go to the lab and ask for minstrel show black, what we need is to take the browns you have made and create undertones.
— Golloria George
TikTok star Golloria George is a Black makeup artist known for finding, trying, and sharing dark skinned toned foundations with her followers. She does reviews on them and gives her brutally honest opinion. For her review of Youthforia’s foundation, she literally compared jet black face paint to the darkest shade of the Youthforia foundation line and they were almost identical. Many other Black content creators have since reviewed this foundation, but George has been the one in the spotlight for calling out the brand.
Youthforia has not responded publicly to any criticisms.
