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The latest trends, techniques, and insider secrets—revealed.

True Colors
These days, the shelves are teeming with products designed for darker skin tones. Our experts reveal which ones make the grade.
By Janelle Harris

Before the beauty needs of darker-skinned women became big business, before we could stroll up to the cosmetics counter and walk away with a perfectly matched product, shopping for makeup was no cakewalk for women of color. As far as most brands were concerned, brown skin came in two, maybe three, shades (too bad for would-be customers who weren’t fortunate enough to be café au lait or cocoa crème). Not only was the color spectrum devoid of deeper shades; formulas heavy in talc and synthetic ingredients were notoriously unkind to darker skin, as evidenced by photos bearing the gray- and green-tinged faces of women of color.

But thankfully, some enterprising women became master mixologists, customizing products to suit chocolaty complexions, and pioneering brands like Iman and Milani began to make their mark. And now, a new day is dawning in the cosmetic world. Non-ivory complexions are being embraced by makeup behemoths like M.A.C. and L’Oreal, who have struck industry gold with frustrated multicultural women tired of not seeing their likenesses reflected in advertising or their colors stocked on store shelves. But taking advantage of these late-breaking offerings also means reevaluating what we know about skin care and makeup, from blemish control to shade matching. That’s why we enlisted the help of some of today's leading beauty gurus, who reveal how darker-skinned women can use these products to maximize their long-overlooked fabulousness.

The Skin We’re In
Smooth, even-looking skin is the nexus of a beautiful face and, ideally, the canvas for stunning makeup. But many women of color suffer from specific skin issues that stand in the way of complexion perfection. However, Susan Taylor, a veteran Philadelphia dermatologist specializing in the treatment of dark skin, is quick to point out the advantages. “Brown skin is naturally warm and glowing, ranging from tapioca to cinnamon to deep chocolate,” she says. “It possesses greater natural protection from the sun and a lower risk for skin cancer. It also has fewer visible signs of aging, like deep wrinkles, fine lines, and sun spots.” At the same time, she concedes that sisters of color also share some unfortunate dermatological conditions. “Because of the reactive and unpredictable nature of melanin, women with brown skin are more likely to suffer from problems like dark marks, blemishes, and other skin discolorations.” Given these sensitivities, not every product on the drugstore shelves is up to snuff. When it comes to over-the-counter options, Taylor recommends the Aveeno and New Ambi skin-care lines and applying a sunscreen of at least SPF 15 daily to keep blotchiness and hyperpigmentation at bay. In addition, Taylor has launched her own specialized line, Dr. Susan Taylor’s Rx for Brown Skin, which addresses everything from dryness to acne to hyperpigmentation, and is free of troublemaking ingredients like alcohol, lanolin, and propylene glycol.

About Face
Because the darker skin is, the oilier it tends to be, keeping makeup (A) on and (B) looking fresh can be about as challenging as scoring a genuine Prada purse from a Chinatown street vendor. But don’t fight it. “There’s a way to make oily skin look good,” says makeup artist A.J. Crimson, who paints the faces of celebrity knockouts like Christina Milian, Amerie, Keyshia Cole, and Faith Evans. “It’s all about controlled shine. If you have oily skin, just roll with it because that’s the look right now, dewy and fresh. It actually looks better and healthier.” But if you, like so many of your brown-skinned sistren, were raised to believe in the power of matte and can’t quite embrace that glossiness beaming from your nose and forehead, Crimson suggests some alternatives to whipping out a pressed-powder compact. “Use blotting papers or a blot powder along the bridge and sides of the nose and your upper lip—you don’t need to be shining there,” he advises, adding, “but leave the cheek; let the cheek shine.” Almost every company now offers blotting papers and powders, which are more suitable for summer skin than a sweat-saturated powder puff. “M.A.C. makes a really great blot powder,” Crimson says. “I like the deep/dark formula because it works whether you’re light-, brown-, or dark-skinned. In addition, silicone-based primers, like Smashbox’s Photo Finish, are really good. Just take a small, dime-size amount and apply to the oily spots.” Tarte’s Little Blot Book, a nifty compact containing both blot powder and papers, and Proactiv’s Daily Oil Control are also godsends for subduing shine. And for powder traditionalists, Iman’s Perfect Response Oil-Blotting Pressed Powder and Nars’s Loose Powder offer lightweight, natural coverage that doesn’t fade to black.

Meet Your Match
Foundation is arguably the trickiest makeup product in the history of cosmetics, especially for women of color. The good news? Shade matching is getting easier, according to Taylor, who points to M.A.C., Fashion Fair, and CoverGirl’s Queen Collection as some of the best options on the market. That said, no matter what the store display claims, foundation still is not one bottle fits all. Although more and more brands may be embracing richer skin tones, there isn't a single wonder shade that’s able to meet every need, even, in some instances, for one woman. “Sometimes you’re going to have to buy two bottles, a darker and a lighter, to get achieve the color in the middle,” Crimson says. “Or you’re going to have to use both because your face is not all one color. You may be lighter toward the center and darker toward the outer part and around the contours of your cheeks and nose.” But by all means, start with your neck to avoid creating an obvious mask of makeup: “If the color matches your neck, you’re working with gold at that point.”

Watch Your Tone
“While one product will look great on Christina [Milian], that same product may look really dry on Keyshia [Cole] or Amerie,” Crimson reveals. “It looks totally different because of the undertones in their skin.” In the past, foundations and powders made just about every brown complexion look nightmarishly ashen and blotchy, especially in natural light. And depending on the brand and the formula, the possibility for gray face is still very real. For this reason, Crimson tells women of color to be mindful of the tone and ingredients before making a purchase: “One product may have too much yellow in it, and you may not have that same undertone. Another product may come off white after the talc that’s in there oxidizes with your skin.” (Talc is the ingredient that reflects light when you take pictures and can cause makeup to appear frightfully unnatural). Along these lines, shopping for foundation is definitely not the time to go frugal. “You’ll need to spend money on foundation,” Crimson says. “If you’re going to use it, go get a good one—you’ll definitely see the difference.” Some of Crimson’s favorite formulas include Make Up For Ever’s foundations, M.A.C. Hyper Real, and Bobbi Brown Moisture Rich.

Applied Basics
Even if you’ve found or mixed up the perfect shade, that doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods yet. Put a bottle of foundation and a sponge in an unqualified set of hands, and you could wind up looking more Phantom of the Opera than belle of the ball. According to Crimson, one of the biggest blunders women make is piling on layer after layer to cover imperfections. Instead, he advocates distributing the color uniformly across the face, going light on amount but heavy on blending: “I like to use foundation to build as a concealer, going all over the skin with a liquid, dabbing with the sponge, then going back and touching up areas that need a little extra coverage.” And of course, there are other faux pas that can make an otherwise great look go horribly awry—darkly lined lips, brow bones covered in frosty shadow, the infamous white eyeliner. That said, Crimson believes the greatest mistake women of color make when it comes to makeup is failing to experiment. “After seeing girls like Beyoncé try different things, they’re starting to be a little bit more adventurous, but they’re still not all the way there yet,” he says. “Don’t think that just because you’re a certain skin color, you can’t wear a pink or peach. Sometimes the best beauty discoveries are made when you step outside of the box.”

Photo credit: Sharon Dominick

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