Youthforia, the clean and sustainable make-up brand founded by Fiona Co Chan in 2021, is facing backlash over the darkest shade of its Date Night foundation. After being criticised in October 2023 for releasing foundation shades that many called out for not being inclusive, they released more dark shades. But even with this attempt, Youthforia continues to miss the mark. 

Here’s a brief explainer of what’s going on with Youthforia and how one video has spurred essential discussions about genuine inclusivity in the beauty industry. 

WHY IS YOUTHFORIA UNDER FIRE?

Yesterday (April 30), beauty and lifestyle content creator Golloria George tested out shades 599 and 600 from Youthforia’s Date Night foundation line as part of her series on her TikTok page, where she swatches the darkest shade of make-up products offered by a beauty line. Through trying both shades, George found that Youthforia doesn’t make a foundation that matches her skin tone. Shade 599 is a warmer dark brown, whereas shade 600 is, according to her, ‘jet black’. There is no in-between shade. “How on earth did we go from this shade to this shade,” George queries in her video. “There’s no undertone, no depth, no dimension, and that’s a problem.”

While George acknowledges that there are darker people than her, she compares the foundation to black face paint because the shade “lacks colour and is flat.” She argues that the shade would not “compliment any skin tone, let alone the one they [Youthforia] are marketing it for.” George then put black face paint on one side of her face and shade 600 on the other to highlight their similarities, showcasing the lack of effort or care put into creating the foundation.

George’s review of the foundation has gained 4.7 million views since it was published and has prompted others to call out Youthforia and investigate what they put in their products. Cosmetic chemist Javon Ford found that the lighter shade of Youthforia’s foundation line uses three different colours to make the shades. However, the darkest shade only has one colour, black iron oxide, which is essentially just pure black pigment. “This problem is so avoidable”, he explains. “This brand does not care about us.” 

WHY DID YOUTHFORIA FACE BACKLASH IN 2023? 

Those in the beauty industry have called this the “biggest inclusivity stain on the beauty community in 2024”, but this isn’t the first time Youthforia has been called out for their lazy attempts at inclusivity. Last October, Youthforia launched four medium-deep to deep shades in their first interaction of the Date Night foundation, which had a total of 15 shades. Additionally, when make-up gurus with darker complexions used Youthforia’s darker shades, they found that the foundation made them look grey.

In response to the backlash for the lack of darker shades, the company’s founder, Fiona Co Chan, asserted in a number of videos uploaded to TikTok that the launch was a limited test to see if the product would be successful. However, several Black and non-black beauty creators saw Chan’s statement as an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for their poor formula and lack of inclusivity. 

With this latest launch, many feel the brand is rubbing salt in the wound. “When we say that we want you guys to make shades for us, we don’t mean to go to the lab and ask for minstrel show black,” George said in her video. “What we mean is to take the browns that you have made, create undertones and do what you need to do in the lab so it’s a darker shade of brown.”

Model Aerin Creer wrote that the release was “malicious compliance and racism wrapped in one” in a post on X. “They sold black pigment as a foundation to insult the people who called them out.”

HAVE YOUTHFORIA RELEASED A STATEMENT OR APOLOGY? 

Youthforia has yet to make a statement on the matter and has turned off its comment section on TikTok. But, as one TikTok user asserted, “Youthforia is a masterclass of what not to do when trying to be inclusive.” With Black consumers being responsible for 11.1 per cent of total beauty spending in the United States, they are a consumer base who deserve to be genuinely listened to. Yet, they are three times more likely to be dissatisfied than non-Black consumers when it comes to make-up. This is why make-up brands such as Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty are so popular among consumers of colour. Their products acknowledge what brands like Youthforia don’t: the tonality of skin.