00:02I've lived in New York all my life and despite the fact that it's a huge cultural and beauty
00:07hub, as a woman of color I still feel a sense of insecurity when it comes to makeup. I'm Madison
00:15Utendahl and I'm a creative associate and video host at Refinery29. I go to drugstores and
00:21department stores and see so many more options for pale tones and for darker ones. Over the years,
00:26too many foundations have made me look gray or orange. With millions of women in this country
00:33that are of color, beauty brands can't use the excuse that there isn't a market. There must be
00:39something deeper here. I've decided it's up to me to ask, why aren't so many beauty brands creating
00:47makeup that work for us? Why is nobody asking? As it turns out, this problem can be traced back
00:56to slavery. As slaves, women were discouraged from looking after their personal appearance.
01:01The simplest effort, such as color on their lips or slicking back their hair,
01:05was mocked by slave masters as uppity. Slaves were property after all. Following abolition in 1865,
01:14freed slaves began migrating to urban centers. Lighter skinned blacks received more privileges,
01:19and so in many ways, lighter skin meant greater freedom. By the 1890s, the early black cosmetics
01:26industry was born. White manufacturers sought to profit off of black women's insecurity
01:31and marketed bleaching products with shocking names like Black No More.
01:36So from the get-go, the retail experience wasn't about meeting the needs of black skin. It was about erasing
01:43it.
01:47By the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, and for the first time in American history,
01:52black was chic. This sudden visibility of black women, however, was not without its caveats.
01:58African American chorus girls entertained New York's cultural elite at hot spots like the Plantation
02:04and the Cotton Club. In order to appeal to white patrons, the showgirls were exclusively light-skinned
02:10with Caucasian features. No woman better defined the era than Josephine Baker. Baker escaped an
02:17abusive household by joining up with a vaudeville troupe at 15. She first earned her keep as a
02:23performer of blackface comedy. A talented dancer, she was told she would have to pale up if she wanted to
02:32work as a chorus girl. By 19, Baker had made her way to Paris, where she was an immediate and
02:38stunning
02:38success as a performer of groundbreaking erotic dance. Ernest Hemingway declared her as the most
02:44sensational woman anyone ever saw or ever will. Despite massive celebrity, Baker was famously insecure
02:53about her skin. In 1928, when traveling to Vienna for a series of shows, her luggage allegedly included
03:00141 pounds of pale face powder. This convention only began to change when Coco Chanel inadvertently
03:08made the tan trendy after accidentally getting burnt on the French Riviera. By 1927, Brown was beautiful,
03:16but again, only on a white face and only as a seasonal fashion accessory. In the 1930s, Hollywood saw its
03:24first wave of black movie stars. The aspiring African-American starlet had two options. She could
03:29either be a mammy or the exotic light-skinned beauty. This strict binary left even less perceived need to
03:36formulate cosmetics for women of color. Meanwhile, studios were still putting white actresses in
03:43blackface. Here's a black Judy Garland and a little black Shirley Temple. You can see here that
03:50formulating accurate shades wasn't a priority. This didn't change until 1950 when Lena Horne was
03:57auditioning to play the role of a mulatto leading lady. MGM studio executives decided she needed to
04:03look a touch darker and called in legendary makeup artist Max Factor. After viewing Lena's skin,
04:09Max Factor formulated a hue called Light Egyptian. However, studio execs realized that they could use this
04:16newfound mulatto hue and applied it to white actress Ava Gardner, who ended up getting the role.
04:23Did you catch that? All of that work for the right shade and still the industry chose blackface.
04:32The civil rights movement brought not only political changes, it also inspired the Black
04:37is Beautiful movement, leading to greater visibility of black women in media.
04:41In 1974, Beverly Johnson was the first black model to grace the cover of Vogue.
04:47And by 1983, Vanessa Williams had been crowned Miss America.
04:53But the cosmetics industry remained decidedly segregated.
04:58In 1976, top model Naomi Sims advised young black women to use an eyebrow pencil as concealer.
05:07And in 1990, Iman told fans that she had to mix her own foundation at home.
05:13And still now, 20 years later, in a media environment dominated by Rihanna and Beyoncé,
05:20and with Michelle Obama in the White House, I still can't find my shade.
05:27Why hasn't the mainstream beauty industry caught up?
05:31I sat down with leading authority Mickey Taylor, beauty editor at Essence from 1980 to 2010,
05:37to get her take and to answer some questions.
05:39Why do you think these companies still don't seem to understand the breadth of what we need?
05:44I think part of the problem is companies are having the conversation with themselves,
05:48as opposed to having the conversation with black women.
05:51You really, again, have to get to know who you want to serve.
05:55Here's an audience that has a distinct group of needs and desires,
06:00who loved celebrating their distinctive features with cosmetics, if you will.
06:07It was a form of art for us.
06:10We're trendsetters. We're not trend followers.
06:14We spend dwell time, that's how it's referred to in the industry,
06:18in magazines, at counter, shopping our beauty, in every corridor, if you will,
06:25because it's a joy. We love showing off our beauty and showing off products.
06:31So to be in the corner of a store at the end of an aisle on two or three shelves,
06:36it conveyed to us that we were an afterthought. That was offensive to me.
06:41The only question I still have is, should this even bother me? Does makeup matter?
06:48The audience that I serve, there is nothing shallow about beauty for them.
06:53They are passionate about their beauty, spending their hard-earned dollars,
06:59working three times as hard for their psychic income, just for the celebration of self.
07:06So, whoever says that beauty is superficial, didn't take a good look.
07:19I'm so glad I had the opportunity to sit down and ask Mickey these questions. She really provided
07:24an amazing perspective on why we need to continue to put pressure on the beauty industry to be
07:30inclusive for women of color. Nonetheless, while there's still a lot of change that needs to be done,
07:35there are so many incredible brands out there, big and small, that are taking active strides.
07:40Some of my favorite brands that are more well-known are L'Oreal, Bobby Brown, Makeup Forever, and NARS.
07:47And for the smaller brands that have been really taking this into consideration from the get-go,
07:52I'm a huge fan of Becca, Juvia's Place, and Black Up.
07:56Who's with what you do?
07:56Who's with the care?
07:56And I'm saying to myself, I knew that that's very good for you.
