Fenty Beauty changed the foundation market forever when the brand launched and RiRi is set to do the same for the rest of your complexion. Here’s why she reckons your concealer might need an update…
The phenomenal power of Fenty Beauty cannot be understated, either in the sphere of cold, hard sales stats (a casual $72 million in its first month) or the global impact where increasing diversity and inclusivity in the beauty industry is concerned. The drop of Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation , £26, in 40 shades with a wide variety of undertones not only made meticulously matched base accessible to a wider variety of people, but it gave other makeup brands worldwide a firm kick up the bum in terms of colour ranges, triggering what will herewith be known as the ‘Fenty effect’, whereby companies rushed to equal or better the brand’s 40 strong offering.
As of the New Year, you can make that 50, as despite the overwhelmingly positive reception of the Fenty foundation, Rihanna identified a number of customers who still weren’t being catered for the base stakes. To remedy this, she did as RiRi would do really and personally flew in customers who couldn’t find a shade close enough to their skintone to the Fenty Beauty product development office to assess their needs and ensure that shades and undertones were an exact fit. As such, the Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation family has expanded by ten shades, and it also occurred to Rihanna and co that there remained a complexion issue that simply wasn’t serving many of us:concealer.
As such, Rihanna took to her Instagram on New Year’s Day to announce the launch of Fenty Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch Concealer, £19, because let’s be honest it’s the day when the world could probably do with bathing in the stuff, or in Rihanna’s words:
“Everybody knows that concealer is made to hide bags, dark circles, hangovers, and bad decisions.”
The thing is, concealers on the whole aren’t available in wide shade ranges, and even when they are they can be a nightmare as far as colour matching goes - ‘almond’ and ‘cacao’ rarely correspond to your foundation and things can get altogether patchy and unconvincing. Enter the Fenty take on concealer - 50 shades, with names that align with each foundation to help you to pinpoint your ideal colour. As far as formula goes it delivers a matte, long-lasting finish, it’s crease and sweat resistant and it apparently brightens as well as it conceals, although we’ll back that up once we’ve given it a proper road test.
Rihanna isn’t stopping there where skin finishing is concerned either - there’s also a Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch Setting Powder, £24, coming your way, with eight translucent shades to ensure a more realistic effect than many of the chalky “translucent” setting powders on the market. It also combats one of Rihanna’s personal powder bugbears:
“I’ve never been able to find the perfect setting powder that won’t flash back on you in pictures - until now.”
In short, Fenty’s on fire where your face is concerned - all three of the new complexion launches will be available in the UK from 11th January at Harvey Nichols , alongside new cruelty-free tools for seamless application, namely a Powder Puff Setting Brush, £26, a Precision Concealer Brush, £19 and Makeup Sponge Duo, £16. January’s not looking so dull after all…