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Glossier Finally Increased Its Foundation Shade Range

Glossier Skin Tint
Skin tint. Photo: Glossier

Once upon a time (read: 2014), Emily Weiss had a vision, and she called it Glossier. The brand launched with skin care as well as a proprietary foundation, known as Perfecting Skin Tint in five shades. Since then, the brand has reformulated its recipe and added products like Stretch Concealer and Wowder, but kept its frustratingly limited number of shades. (This, in a world where people’s skin tones are extremely variant and Rihanna offers 50 distinct options to choose from.)

But the brand announced today that they’ll be expanding their shade range. Glossier is doubling up, Skin Tint and Stretch Concealer will now have 12 different shades, and Wowder will amp up to five shades from its original three.

The products also have a new shade naming convention, connoted via numbers. Rather than choosing between colors like “light” and “rich,” customers can use the brand’s Shade Finder tool to pick a color from G1, the deepest tint, to G12, the lightest. It’s a small but significant way to categorize product, given that people with darker skin tones are often forced to look at the end of the line when they deserve their shine, too. The move follows brands like Beauty Bakerie, which offers its Cake Mix foundation in 60 shades; 01 is their deepest color.

The Shade Finder tool offers translations and photos of real Glossier employees to help you determine what your new color is. It always struck me as odd that the Stretch Concealer in “Dark” seemed to match my skin best when I hit the sandy-medium zone in most other brands. I would always think of people who are darker than me and have historically almost never been able to find their shade. With new Glossier, I’m either a G7 or a G8 — still solidly in the middle of the Glossier spectrum, but with slightly more assurance that there’s space for everyone to find their shade, too.

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Glossier Finally Increased Its Foundation Shade Range