Over the last few years, celebrities have begun opening up about the skin struggles they face. From Adwoa Aboah sharing about her acne and the way she used to obsessively scrutinise her skin to Pete Davidson getting real about Accutane, it’s a refreshing and much-needed reminder that breakouts and bad-skin days happen to everyone.
Now Rihanna has joined the conversation, discussing her own skincare journey during a virtual press conference yesterday for the launch of her skincare brand Fenty Skin. “Whether it's starting with acne when I was a teenager, and then the acne treatments that led me to really blotchy skin and stripped my skin of all the good stuff that I already had in it, it was a tough journey to get it back here," she said.
Rihanna also shared the many misconceptions around skincare she had growing up in Barbados including that Black people didn’t need to wear sun protection. “You always thought that SPF was a tourist thing,” she said. “I learned the hard way, because over time the sun wasn’t that kind to my skin. I started to have hyperpigmentation in certain areas.”
This myth is one that Rihanna is hoping to debunk with her new skincare range which includes an SPF moisturiser as one of the three launch products and which she has emphasised in the marketing around the product as being for everyone, every skin tone and every race. “As a woman of colour, I am here to say, that's a lie. We need it,” she said. The Fenty Skin SPF is not only coral reef-friendly but it also doesn’t leave a white cast on the skin making it suitable for all skin tones.
Fenty Skin launching with just three products was a deliberate choice, Rihanna said, to help people who are confused and overwhelmed by the crowded skincare market. “I hate when I get to the counter, and I'm just like, ‘What does the platinum one mean? Does that mean it's better?’ It’s so confusing. There’s so much out there. My goal is to keep this really simple and effective,” she said. And in sharing her own skin journey, she’s hoping to let people know that they aren’t alone in their struggles.
“It just means you're human. I've had different issues with skin care at different points in my life,” she says. “You have to figure it out, and it's difficult to navigate and get a grasp on what's right for you.”
Fenty Skin has officially launched today, although be quick if you are hoping to get your hands on the products as the cleanser and the skincare bundle have already sold out and won’t be restocked until mid-August. Products are being resold for up to $500.
