Sure, Makeup Is More Inclusive Now...But Not for People Who Look Like Me

News flash: It's not about shade number it's about shade range.

-  GOLLORIA GEORGE

Up until recently, my relationship with makeup was pretty one-sided. I've always been drawn to the creative expression it provides. I love experimenting with foundations, concealers, blush, and more. It's just that the companies that make this stuff haven't always loved me back-or, honestly, seen me at all.

In middle school, I would wander through drugstore makeup aisles and not be able to find a "single complexion product for my dark South Sudanese skin. I'd get angry and annoyed as I watched my lighter-skinned friends shop without a care in the world. Later, as a freshman in college, I vividly remember the embarrassment I felt when an associate at a popular makeup store picked up the darkest shade of a new concealer and swatched it on my cheek-only to reveal a chalky orange hue four shades lighter than my actual skin. I once again left empty-handed, feeling like there was something wrong with me. Where was my shade? Or anything even close to it?