There's no secret about the fact that the beauty industry has some work to do when it comes to inclusivity. From marketing images to shade ranges, there are some things that need to change. Now, Beauty Blender's Bounce Foundation shade expansion is putting the brand on the path to doing just that, and it's a great development for the iconic beauty tool's first makeup product.
According to the brand, they've got eight new shades of Bounce foundation to compliment their existing 32, and they're on their way to fans right now. The eight new shades consist of a new lightest and a new darkest shade for the range. Plus, the brand added six additional shades that fall in the medium to deep categories.
In the caption of a photo posted to their Instagram account, the brand quote their founder Rea Ann Silva as saying, "When we started developing Bounce our goal was to launch with 40 shades of foundation. We were able to perfect 32 of those shades in time for our launch, all while continuing to work towards our initial goal of 40...And we are not done – there are an infinite amount of skin tones in the world and we will continue to innovate and develop."
The Beauty Blender shade expansion is major news for its place in the broader conversation about the need for more inclusivity in foundation shade ranges. However, it's also major news because of the brand's initial launch of Bounce.
When the foundation debuted, social media backlash flared as a result of what many saw as a lack of shades for deeper skinned women of color. Initially, an image on beauty Instagram account TrendMood had many crying foul over the shade rage, especially when it came to the deeper shades' undertones. As backlash grew, Beauty Blender stated in Instagram comments that the photo had a "wacky filter." When the backlash came to a head, the brand released a statement to Bustle explaining that their medium range was intentionally their largest stating:
We truly want everyone to find their perfect match, so to ensure this we put our shades to the test against some of the most inclusive on the market. While the range goes both very light as well as very dark, we have THE MOST shades in what we call our “medium plus” range. This was created specifically for people of multicultural backgrounds as they have the hardest time finding the right shade to match their undertone.
Now, the brand had worked to expand their offerings and seems to have concentrated seven of their eight new shades in the deep to deep dark categories. It's a major move for the brand to remedying the issues with the existing 32 shades, and while they're at 40 now, according to Silva's quote on Beauty Blender Instagram, there's more to come.
If you want to shop the expanded Beauty Blender Bounce shades, they're available right now at Sephora online and at the brand's website. If you want to shop in stores, it'll be landing exclusively at Sephora on Jan. 6.
