Fenty Beauty: Rihanna's Successful Venture Advocating Inclusiveness

Photo: Twitter @rihanna

Musical phenomenon. Fashion Icon. Innovator. Risk taker. At only 29 years old, Rihanna is undoubtedly one of the most coveted celebrities of our time, whose rare authenticity and bad-ass go-getter demeanor is one very difficult to ignore.

She continues to raise the bar as a businesswoman, as her highly anticipated beauty line, Fenty Beauty, launched online in over 150 countries at midnight Friday, following the Fenty Beauty Launch during New York Fashion Week Thursday. If there's a time to truly freak out over makeup, this is the perfect moment. Let's dive into a few products from Fenty Beauty's breakthrough collection.

Foundation

Fenty Beauty's Pro Filt'r Foundation is a soft matte, long-wear foundation that gives skin a smooth, shine-free finish that's available in 40 shades—yes, 40 SHADES! In an interview with Refinery 29, Rihanna strongly spoke on the importance of catering to a wide range of skin tones:

‘There needs to be something for a dark-skinned girl; there needs to be something for a really pale girl; there needs to be something in-between.’ There’s red undertones, green undertones, blue undertones, pink undertones, yellow undertones — you never know, so you want people to appreciate the product and not feel like: ‘Oh that’s cute, but it only looks good on her."

The shade range is exquisitely impeccable, as Rihanna tackles the persistent dilemma of the lack of darker skin tones, while also giving consideration to much lighter skin tones.

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation, $34 Photo: Melissa Heng

Glass Bomb

The Glass Bomb Lip Luminzer is one universal rose nude shade with exploding shine and conditioning shea butter. Rihanna handpicked only one shade that is compatible with all skin tones, ushering a new era of subtle lip gloss, rather than the extreme matte lip.

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer, $18 Photo: Fenty Beauty

Highlighter

Fenty Beauty's Killawatt Highlighter consists of a weightless cream powder, in luminous solo and duo sets, giving you the ultimate glazed honey bun look. Killawatt is more than your average highlighter, as it also serves for illuminating eyeshadow. Fenty Beauty's most sought out product is the Killawatt Highlighter in Trophy Wife, a true yellow gold.

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter in Trophy Wife, $34 Photo: Vogue

In addition to the mentioned products, the Fenty Beauty lineup also include a wide variety of brushes, sponges, concealing-and-correcting sticks, and even blotting paper for convenient touch-ups.

While Fenty Beauty products are top of the line distinctive, its campaign is set to steal your heart (and your edges and wigs). The campaign features 15 models of color with a striking range of skin tones including Duckie Thot and Halima Aden (1st woman to wear a hijab on the cover of Allure Magazine). Talk about representation.

Fenty Beauty may frankly be the first inclusive beauty line we have ever witnessed. If anything, Fenty Beauty is a ground-breaking investment that is vital for the sake of diversity. The issue is not that there is no makeup for POC, but more so that the shades, tones and products are VERY limited. No black woman should have to ever have the feeling of embarrassment or hopelessness when searching for makeup, not finding their sense of belonging, and settling for that "perfect shade". In this day and age, makeup companies need to stop treating darker shades, and even the lightest shades failing to be acknowledged, like an afterthought. What truly makes Fenty Beauty a home run in the makeup industry is that Rihanna genuinely wants makeup for ALL—her passion underlining how much women of color should be in position for beauty gives the inherent trust that there is a positive future for the beauty industry. As of now, beauty companies need to take notes on what authentic inclusion looks like—and for us to invest our coin on a remarkable and well-executed venture.

Fenty Beauty products can be found and purchased online at fentybeauty.com, online or in-store at Sephora & Harvey Nichols.

#rihanna