Color Cosmetics: An Ongoing Battle For Beauty Brands

Despite the rise in skin tone-defining apps and new technology, many consumers still struggle to find the right shade. The debate was a hot topic at this week's Makeup In Paris trade event. Beauty expert Aïmara Coupet talks about why brands are still finding creating makeup for medium to very dark skins a challenge.

"The desire of every brand is to offer a product suiting every woman throughout the world," explains Aïmara Coupet.

Developments in foundation are a perfect example of the search for the holy grail beauty product. More and more brands like L'Oréal with its improved Make up Genius console, and more recently, Bare Minerals with its Made-2-Fit app, are developing technology to help consumers find the perfect shade match.

And yet, despite these new tools, significant research shows that 94% of women around the world are still wearing the wrong foundation, says Jill Scalamandre, President of Shiseido's Global Make-up Center of Excellence.

Aïmara Coupet can vouch for the shady area in the cosmetics industry: "A lot of women with dark-skin complain that they have problems finding what they are really looking for, or even, still feel excluded from the offer of some brands."

While the color of the skin remains one of the challenging elements, Coupet says texture, density, hyperseborrhea, dyschromia are also elements to take into consideration for an optimal product result.

Coupet is pleased to see however, that cosmetics counters across the globe are featuring more and more products designed for black and mixed skins.

For her, BlackUp, Fashion Fair, Iman, Black Opal are all examples of how the beauty market is taking a step in the right direction. Coupet applauded universal color cosmetics label Stellar's efforts to cater to medium beige-toned skins and offer women in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa high-performance makeup.

Stellar's vegan and cruelty free Limitless foundation ($38) line boasts 22 shades, tailored to match skins' olive peach, pink, yellow, golden or red undertones.

Indian-born and Canadian-raised Monika Deol's Stellar range aimed at 'middle-of-the-pack' complexions, is currently retailing online at Sephora.com and in stores in North America, priced from $22.