Youthforia’s Jet Black Makeup Foundation Has Social Media Outraged…And Rightfully So [Video]

Makeup company Youthforia has received waves of backlash for its newly introduced dark foundation, and the outrage appears well-deserved. 

The liquid collection, known as “Date Night Skin Tint Serum Foundation,” has been making its rounds on social media, particularly for its Shade 600. This option is the darkest foundation in their line. However, instead of actually catering to dark-skinned customers, the product is jet black, disturbingly resembling Blackface when applied. 

Shade 600 gained unfavorable attention when beauty influencer Golloria, who sports over 300,000 followers, shared a two-part review of the offensive cosmetic.  In part one, she referred to the makeup as “tar in a bottle.” This video showcased Golloria applying the Youthforia foundation to one side of her face and then using actual black face paint on the other. The comparison colors of the foundation and the paint are pretty close. Toward the end of her part one comparison video, she asked her viewers if they could tell the difference between the Youthforia foundation and the dye. Many of her commenters confirmed they could not see a difference and began to call out the brand for its lack of diversity.

Part two of the comparison video demonstrates that when customers look at this particular foundation on the Youthforia website, the swatch itself is an unnatural black that is inappropriate for actual use. Additionally,  there are only six options for dark-skinned customers, compared to the 18 options for lighter and fair complexioned buyers. 

“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. What we mean is to take the browns you have made, create undertones, and do what you need to do in the lab so that it’s a darker shade of brown,” Golloria firmly stated, and the internet agrees with every word.

What youthforia did was malicious compliance and racism wrapped in one and I hope nobody is confused about that. They sold black pigment as a foundation to insult the people who called them out.

— Aerin (@FromAerin) April 30, 2024

i’m glad everyone in the beauty community is calling out that youthforia bullshit. so many people have been quick to defend them to say “that shade can be mixed with something!!” like no, it can’t

— ci (@cierraidkk) May 2, 2024

Lack of shade range is a deliberate choice.
Making a jet black foundation instead of one dark skinned Black people can actually wear is a deliberate choice and it’s unacceptable.

I hope Youthforia goes bankrupt and every business venture that owner touches crumbles https://t.co/g5AzhUXFmO

— AndRae Leon Talley ♉️ (@SandaaPandaa) April 29, 2024

why is there so many dckriders for youthforia? that's literally BLACK paint in a bottle and it turns grey when mixed

— . (@kissonjoon) May 2, 2024

At the time of this publication, Shade 600 is still available for purchase. Youthforia founder Fiona Co Chan, who appears to be of Chinese descent, has not commented on the backlash.