The internet is not happy with Tarte Cosmetics‘ latest launch—and for good reason.
Earlier this month, the beauty brand teased a caption on its Instagram and Twitter pages reading, “Are you ready to shape what your momma gave ya in 2018?” Superfans predicted this spelled the release of a Shape Tape Foundation to complement the brand’s beloved Shape Tape Concealer. (One sells every 20 seconds.)
On January 12, Tarte confirmed the hunch, showing a new foundation range in 14 shades. That’s when the excitement turned to rage.
Swatches of the shades show an almost laughable lack of diversity: most of the foundations are tailored to lighter complexions, including porcelain, fair beige and light sand shades—many of which seem indiscernible from each other—and a grand total of only three, janky AF darker shades.
As one Twitter user pointed out: “Not even the model used [in the photo] has a matching shade!”
In a post-Fenty
world, it’s utterly inexcusable for a huge beauty brand to release a
product to their consumers that demonstrates such a blatant lack of
inclusivity. And the Twitter community was quick to call them out. While others took to Instagram to share their total disappointment, using the hashtag #dobetter Before this
blunder, Tarte was a well-loved brand for many reasons, including their
cruely-free ethos and vegan-friendly formulas that also happened to be
high performing. As for us, we’ll be taking our hard-earned beauty bucks where WOC are represented and celebrated.