When people think of Black History Month the beauty industry is not the first place you would think, especially with the history of the industry and its faults, but there are some great beauty visionaries that should be highlighted this February. There are two great beauty entrepreneurs that I really want to touch on and how they are inspirational to me. The first is someone we all know and love, and I bet you can guess.
Rhianna
Of course, I had to go with one of the literal queens of beauty, she has revolutionized shade range like no other. Rhianna’s company Fenty Beauty is one of the first companies in the history of beauty to come out with a huge shade range for foundation. The beauty community hasn’t exactly been good to anyone who has a shade of foundation deeper than tan. The selection for deeper skin beauty consumers is horrible before the last couple of years. MAC cosmetics was one of the few brands actually having an inclusive shade ranges while many other companies continue to keep leaving out all the makeup lovers in our community. If it wasn’t for Rhianna, there wouldn’t be more awareness of shade range problems and putting other companies who have been around much longer accountable if it wasn’t for Rhianna. Before I get to my next visionary, Rhianna not only made makeup more inclusive for deeper skin tones she did it for every skin tone she thought more about fair, medium, and deep shades; but there are many different types of skin tones and she has made makeup inclusive no matter what skin color.
Pat Magrath
Now if you are a regular reader you know we love fashion and who is as revolutionary in high fashion makeup? No other than Pat Magrath herself. This woman has created her own business and is an innovative makeup artist. Her mother used to train her on eyeshadow shades, she practiced fashion designing at a young age, but if it wasn’t for her hard work and dedication we wouldn’t have her cool creative brand. She has such elemental inspirations from feathers, gold, and leather. She has come out with numerous palettes, lipsticks, and face products with Pat Magrath Labs. Her net worth has been estimated at $1 billion, which compared to one very popular brand Kylie Cosmetics it is almost $200 million dollars ahead. Besides changing the game of high fashion makeup looks she is a successful businesswoman and an inspiration to me.
These two women have accomplished many great feats in a business not so welcoming to people of color in the industry and have created an environment that welcomes and inspires everyone. I will continue to learn and grow from such great muses and I hope you all can too.