On June 26, Too Faced Cosmetics expanded its Born This Way foundation range, partnering with none other than YouTube star and beauty icon Jackie Aina to curate nine additional shades for deeper skin tones. BuzzFeed's As/Is reached out to Aina about the collaboration and the larger conversation around beauty standards.
"I’ve been beauty and fashion obsessed since I was very young," she told As/Is. "It wasn’t until I was 21, married and depressed, that I needed a creative outlet. At that time I started playing with makeup more and practicing on basically anyone who would allow me to."
"I have Asian viewers, Latino viewers, Native viewers, and others, who have all talked to me about their struggles with colorism in their community," she told us. "I also love how I have a ton of male and non-binary viewers, and even some that don’t wear makeup but just come to enjoy the content."
As for her collaboration with Too Faced, Aina said she looked at what was missing. "In the beginning, it took tons of swatching and identifying gaps in the existing shades. Basically I saw that foundations don't run very dark, but there was also a lack of varying undertones between each shade. So I sought to fix that."
Now with 35 shade ranges, the Born This Way foundation is oil-free, offers medium-to-full coverage, and gives you a perfect finish. It also has coconut water and hyaluronic-filling spheres included, which help replenish and retain the skin's moisture level.
In the larger conversation around beauty, the entrepreneur and social media star said, "Your standards for beauty change when you’re constantly surrounding yourself with people from all walks of life. Try things like going outside of your social circle and befriending people from work or school from different backgrounds or cultures."
