It doesn't help that due to sensitive skin issues, I have to fork out for the slightly more expensive brands. This makes me even more fussy than normal. If a product isn't borderline perfect for me, then I won't even touch it. Especially if I've got to pay through the roof for it.
The hardest part is finding a good foundation. It's the base of your face and hunting a good one down takes me half the day at least. It's mental. I must have tried a hundred different brands trying to find something that works for me and still haven't found it.
A shame, but this isn't the point I'm making.
While hunting around, I noticed something. At first, I didn't really pay any great attention to it, but the more brands I looked at, the more it stuck out and the more it bugged me.
If you were, like me, a typical British ghost with the complexion of a white sheet, then there were at least twenty different shades of the right shade of white. When I managed to find my shade, I realised that I was right at the end of the spectrum; the powder base is so white it looks like talcum powder (sob, sob!). At least I had plenty of options to go one step further to have a light tan, but let's be realistic, it would not look good. I would look like a clown.
However there wasn't that much choice for other girls with a more tanned complexion.
I'm not kidding. When it came down to it, Asian and black women only had four shades to choose from when I had about nine, possibly more. I was speechless; why isn't there any choice for anyone else other than the white girl?
I'll give you an example; Maybelline New York's (New!) Dream Nude Airfoam Foundation. Guess how many shades? Eight. Guess how many of those were aimed at white girls? Six. And I'm certainly not making this up; the lovely sales assistant who I was chatting to while browsing told me: "Stay towards this end of the colours, since you're quite pale. 1 - 6 will suit you fine, depending on what you're looking for."
She was wonderfully helpful but it really inspired me. I decided to take foundation shopping to a whole new level. Instead of just looking for myself, in an attempt to find something to suit me, I also made a note of the skin tone range. It must have looked suspicious; scribbling notes down next to every counter I drifted by, but that's not the point.
When I got home that night, the crusade of finding my own make-up completely forgotten to the point where I made a separate trip the next day to finish up, I looked at the results. Most major brands, including Rimmel London and Chanel, focused more on what I'm now calling 'white girl shades.'
Call me melodramatic, but I really don't believe this is fair. It's time for change. Let's make suitable skins shades more accessible for everyone; it could be considered borderline beauty racism otherwise. Black and Asian women should be able to purchase their own colour (and I know foundations aren't going to be perfect for every skin tone, but if I can find a second best, then shouldn't everyone get that opportunity?) or at least not have to jump between two extremes of light and dark.
And as if to strengthen my point, I opened up my copy of this month's Company, a UK based fashion magazine and they had a free sample for a Rimmel foundation taped onto their advert.
Guess what colour?
White girl 'beige'.
Zoey Glass.
http://murderousblues.tumblr.com/
Top 5 brands which passed the Glass test (and had a great range of skin tones to choose from!):
• Avon Ideal Flawless, 20 shades to choose from.
• bareMinerals SPF 15 foundation.
• Covergirl, that's all I've written, but I put a <3 next to it, so it must be good.
• MAC Face and Body Foundation.
• Urban Decay Surreal Skin Mineral Make-Up - I have this in Nirvana.