Figuring out what your undertone is and what makeup formula to get is hard enough, but finding a match for our silky melanated skin can be another job in itself. While brands like Fenty Beauty and OG Fashion Fair has set the bar for what a foundation range should look like, there are still some brands that just haven't received the memo—and that's fine, it just tells me where and where NOT to shop. Call me crazy, but I refuse to buy two different shades to mix together just to get the right match for me. If you don't carry my color, then I assume you do not want my business, and that's on period.
So instead of wasting time and money, here are 16 of the best foundations that offer a range for dark skin.
*Some links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, xoNecole may earn a small commission.
Bobbi Brown Skin Long-Wear Weightless Foundation SPF 15
Macy's
The 16-hour full coverage foundation gives a natural matte finish that's breathable and weightless. It goes on silky smooth and comes in 42 shades, 20 of which cater to darker skin tones.
Range Beauty True Intentions Hydrating Foundation
Range Beauty
It's literally in the name. Range Beauty offers clean beauty for the forgotten shades. They offer over 15+ shades of brown foundation that not only matches your melanin but promotes healthy and glowing skin. They aim to represent all shades, genders, and skin types while creating a formula for those with eczema or acne-prone skin.
Giorgio Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Foundation
Macy's
The oil-free foundation gives medium buildable coverage with a natural glow. Instead of using round pigments that can separate on the skin, this lightweight foundation is made with their Micro–fil™ technology so the foundation lays flat for a natural second-skin effect. The Luminous Silk Foundation come is a total of 38 shades, and 14 that cater to darker skin tones.
Mented Cosmetics Skin by Mented
Mented
Mented, short for pigmented, became popular because of its large range of nude lipsticks for darker skin tones. They eventually expanded that concept into their foundations and offers up to 16 shades of golden, neutral, and reddish-brown. Their creamy stick foundation offers a clean, vegan, and dermatologist-approved selection for people of color.
BareMinerals Original Loose Powder Foundation SPF 15
Macy's
Bare Minerals' loose powder foundation is one of the OG clean beauty formulas. This vegan-friendly powder promotes clearer, healthier skin over time, and protects the skin from UV rays and overexposure from the sun. The line features 30 shades and up to 12 tan and deep shades.
Uoma Beauty Say What?! Foundation
UOMA
Uoma Beauty, founded by Sharon C, offers up to 51 shades ranging from the fairest shade to the deepest dark. Uoma Beauty foundations are weightless, hydrating, and matte and aim to rewrite the rules of inclusivity and diversity to create a world of beauty that truly is for all of us.
IL MAKIAGE Woke Up Like This Flawless Base Foundation
IL MAKIAGE
IL MAKIAGE is designed to capture the spirit of confident women everywhere. With up to 12 deep shades ranging from different undertones, their Woke Up Like This foundation offers a streak-free, even, and natural matte finish.
Too Faced Born This Way Foundation
Macy's
Too Faced offers up to 10 deep shades in an oil-free smooth, velvet finish. It's designed to give you a skin-like and flawless look using coconut water which aids in replenishing the skin's moisture levels.
Blk Opl True Color Foundation with SPF
Blk Opl
Blk Opl offers a variety of formulas running from matte to foundation with SPF. The drugstore brand offers up to 19 tan and deep shades at an affordable price. Their foundation also has antioxidants like vitamins C and E so your skin is protected and flawless.
M.A.C’s Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15
Macy's
This long-lasting matte liquid foundation gives a medium-to-full buildable coverage with SPF 15 protection. It's easy to blend and controls shine without caking while minimizing the appearance of pores, giving skin a smoother, and more even look and finish. This foundation comes in 63 shades, of which 28 shades cater to darker skin tones.
Beauty Bakerie InstaBake Aqua Glass Foundation
Beauty Bakerie
Beauty Bakerie offers 10 shades for darker skin tones and navigating their site is very easy. It breaks down your complexion and then your undertone to help you find the perfect match. They also make it easy by finding the best shade comparison. So if you know your shade in Fenty, they can help you match with what your shade would be for Beauty Bakerie.
Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation
Macy's
This foundation is a true long-lasting foundation. The non-transferrable matte foundation feels lightweight and comfortable while unifying uneven skin tones. The buildable, medium to full coverage foundation comes in 40 shades and about 20 that cater to deep skin tones without leaving a grey hue or tint.
The Lip Bar Skin Serum Foundation
The Lip Bar
The Lip Bar is another brand that started out being known for its range of lip colors, especially their red lipstick. They've expanded into so much more including their skin serum foundation. The 26-shade collection offers a light to medium coverage and a buildable, dewy, skin-like finish.
NARS Sheer Glow Foundation
Macy's
This foundation is a sheer, buildable foundation with a natural-looking finish. It's also made with NARS Complexion Brightening Formula that leaves skin hydrated, softer, and smoother. It features 40 shades and 10 that cater to darker skin tones.
Juvia’s Place I Am Magic Velvety Matte Foundation
Juvia's Place
Juvia's Place is most known for its pigmented eyeshadow palette that looks great on all skin types and tones. As they expanded their collection, they also created a foundation that offers more than 20 tan and deep shades. The full-coverage foundation is also lightweight, long-lasting, and never looks cakey.
Pat McGrath Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Foundation
Pat McGrath
Pat McGrath is an OG when it comes to the makeup and beauty industry. Her skin finish foundation collection not only comes with years of experience but offers a lightweight and buildable flawless finish in 36 shades. This foundation also helps fight the formation of wrinkles by preserving the hydrolipidic film barrier of the skin.
Join our xoTribe, an exclusive community dedicated to YOU and your stories and all things xoNecole. Be a part of a growing community of women from all over the world who come together to uplift, inspire, and inform each other on all things related to the glow up.
Featured image by Shutterstock.
- The Perfect Nudes For Darker Skin - I Tried It Review - xoNecole ... ›
- What Happened When I Tried LA Girl's $5 Color Corrector ... ›
- New In Beauty: Too Faced x Jackie Aina Has Your Shade Covered ... ›
- I Tried It: Fenty Beauty vs. Make Up For Ever Foundation - xoNecole ... ›
- 6 Drugstore Concealers That Offer Range For Women of Color ... ›
- The Black Girl's Guide To Color Correcting - xoNecole: Women's ... ›
- Range Beauty CEO: From $300 to $300,000 - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- What's My Skin Undertone? How To Find It - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- The Perfect Nudes For Darker Skin - I Tried It Review - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- These Are the 17 Best Foundations for Dark Skin | Who What Wear ›
- These Are the 17 Best Foundations for Dark Skin | Who What Wear UK ›
- The 12 Best Foundations for Dark Skin of 2020 ›
- The 11 Best Drugstore Foundations for Dark Skin of 2020 ›
- 21 Makeup Brands With Inclusive Foundation Shade Ranges for ... ›
- Best Foundations for Darker Skin Tones — Foundation Guide for ... ›
- 18 Best Foundations for Dark Skin — Foundation for Black People ... ›
- 15 Best Foundations for Dark Skin Tones 2020 ›
RELATED
Let me start this off by saying that of course, to a certain extent, the answer is subjective because it’s mostly opinion-rather-than-fact driven. However, I personally think that sex is hella impactful, which is why I hope that my personal breakdown will at least cause you to want to think about what you do, who you do it with, and why, more than you may have in the past.
Because although, at the end of the day, the physical aspects of making love, having sex, and f-cking are very similar, you’d be amazed by how drastically different they are in other ways…at the very same time.
Making Love
GiphyBack when I wrote my first book, I wasn’t even 30 at the time and still, one of the things that I said in it is, I pretty much can’t stand the term “make love.” Way back then, I stated that sex between two people who truly love each other and are committed for the long haul, when it comes to what they do in the bedroom, it’s so much more about CELEBRATING love than MAKING it. To make means “to produce” or “to bring into existence;” to celebrate means “to commemorate,” “to perform” or “to have or participate in a party, drinking spree, or uninhibited good time.”
The act of sex, standing alone? It can’t make love happen and honestly, believing otherwise is how a lot of people find themselves getting…got.
What do I mean? Tell me how in the world, you meet a guy, talk to him for a few weeks, don’t even know his middle name or where he was born and yet somehow, you choose to call the first time you have sex with him (under those conditions) “making love.” You don’t love him. You don’t know him well enough to love him. He doesn’t love you either (for the same reason). And yet you’re making love? How sway? Oh, but let that sex be bomb and those oxytocin highs might have you tempted to think that’s what’s happening — and that is emotionally dangerous. And yes, I mean, literally.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times before, that one of the reasons why I like that the Bible defines sex between a husband and his wife is by using the word “know” (Genesis 4:1) is because, well, I think that is what celebrating love is all about — we know each other well enough to know that we love each other, we know each other well enough to know that we aren’t going anywhere, and that knowing is what makes us want to celebrate that union by getting as close to one another and bringing as much physical pleasure to each other as we possibly can…as often as absolutely possible.
To me, that is what the peak of physical intimacy is all about — and the people who choose to use the term “make love,” it should be seen through this type of lens. When this type of mental and emotional bond comes together via each other’s bodies, they are amplifying love, enjoying love, embracing love.
Making it, though? Chile, the love has already been made. Sex is just the icing on the cake.
Having Sex
GiphyA few nights ago, I found myself rewatching this movie called Four of Hearts (which you can currently view on yep, you guessed it: Tubi). It’s about two married couples — one that is in an open marriage and another that isn’t although they somehow thought that sharing a night with the other couple would be a good idea (chile). Anyway, as one of the partners found themselves getting low-key sprung, the one they fell for said in one of the scenes, “It wasn’t a connection. It was just sex.” JUST. SEX.
Listen, when you decide to let a man put an entire part of his body inside of you at the risk of potentially getting an STI/STD or pregnant (because no form of birth control is 100 percent except for abstinence), it can never be “just sex” (somebody really needed to hear that too). At the same time, though, I got the character’s point because, if one or both people do not love each other or even deeply care for one another and/or sex is treated as an activity more than an act to establish a worthwhile connection and/or you and the person you are sleeping with have not really discussed what you are expecting from sex besides the act itself — you’re definitely not making/celebrating love.
Not by a long shot. What can make things get a bit complicated, though, is you’re doing the same act that “love makers” do without the same mental and emotional ties…or (sometimes) expectations.
You know, back when I decided to put all of my business out there via the piece “14 Lessons I've Learned From 14 Sex Partners,” now more than ever, I am quite clear that most of those guys fell into the “having sex” category. I wasn’t in the type of relationship with them where “making love” even made sense; however, because I was friends with most of them, we weren’t exactly f-cking (which I will get to in just a moment) either. We had a connection of some sort for the bedroom yet not enough to be together in the other rooms of the house.
We were really attracted and curious, so we decided to act on that. Oftentimes, the sex was good and so we rationalized that “having sex” was enough because if the friendship was, eh, “sound enough”, that we could justify the physical pleasure.
And y’all, that’s kind of what having sex is — it’s the limbo (or purgatory, depending on your situation) between making love and f-cking. The thing about limbo ish is it’s a lot like something being lukewarm: it’s not really one thing or another which means that it can completely blindside you, if you’re not careful (and totally honest with yourself as well as your partner(s)).
So, if you are contemplating having sex, I really — REALLY — recommend that you figure out how you feel, what you want (outside of the act itself) and if you are prepared for what “not quites” can bring. My mother used to say that the consequences of sex don’t change just because the circumstances do — and there is some solid “wow” to that, if you really stop to think about it.
GiphyAnd finally, f-ck. Although most experts on the word (and yes, there are some) agree that its origin is rooted somewhere within the German language (although some say that it might’ve come from Middle English words like fyke or fike which mean “to move about restlessly” or the Norwegian word fukka which means “to copulate”), you might have also heard that it is an acronym that once stood for “Fornication Under Consent of the King”; and there is actually some data that is connected to that as well.
Legend has it that way back in the day, in order to keep reproduction rates where a particular king wanted them to be, he would instruct his residents to have sex with each other — whether they were married or not (hence, the word “fornication” being in the acronym). However, because sex outside of marriage was taken far more seriously at the time, residents had to apply for a permit to participate so that the king could determine if things like their occupation and lineage would prove to be beneficial for the kingdom overall. F-ck: no love; just necessity. And although some believe this to be more myth than fact, what is certain is it was only over time that f-ck was seen as a profane/swear/cuss word — a word that was perceived to be so offensive, in fact, that between the years 1795-1965, it didn’t even appear in dictionaries.
Personally, when I think of this four-letter word, the first thing that actually comes to my mind is animals. Take a dog being in heat, for instance. That’s basically when a female dog is ovulating and wants to have sex the most. It’s not because they are “in love” with another dog; they are simply doing what instinctively comes to them — and since animals do not reason or feel at the same capacity that humans do, although they science says that many of them do experience pleasure when they engage in their version of sexual activity, it’s not nearly as layered or even profound as what we experience.
Let’s keep going. Another reason why f-cking makes me think of animals is due to the doggy style position. Hear me out. Ain’t it wild how, most of us pretty much know that the term comes from how dogs have sex, even though most animals have sex that same way — and think about it: Doggy style doesn’t consist of making eye contact or kissing while having intercourse. It’s “hitting from behind” without much emotional energy or effort at all. Just how animals do it. And so, yeah, f-cking does seem to be more about pure animal — or in our case, mammal — instinct. I don’t need to feel anything for someone, so long as the sexual desire is there. Hmph.
Something else that I find to be interesting about f-cking is how dictionaries choose to define it. Many of them are going to provide you with two definitions: “to have sexual intercourse with” and “to treat unfairly or harshly (usually followed by over)” and that definitely makes me think of another term — casual sex and words that define casual like apathetic, careless and without serious or definite intention. So, the dictionary says that while f-cking is about having sexual intercourse — just like making love and having sex is — it goes a step further and says that it can include being treated unfairly or harshly.
And although that can make you think of assault on the surface, for sure — sometimes being treated unfairly or harshly is simply feeling like someone had sex AT you and not really WITH you; instinct (i.e., getting off) and that’s about it. Yeah, the way this puzzle is coming together, f-cking seems to be more about lust and self and not much else.
Now That You Know the Difference, What to Keep in Mind
Y’all, this is definitely the kind of topic that I could expound on until each and every cow comes home. That said, here’s hoping that I provided enough perspective on each act to close this out by encouraging you to keep the following three things to keep in mind:
1. Before you engage in copulation, be honest with yourself about what you’re ACTUALLY doing — and that your partner agrees with you. You know, they say that our brain is our biggest sex organ and honestly, breaking down the differences between making love, having sex and f-cking helps to prove that fact. I say that because, although the sex act itself is pretty much the same across the board, you and your partner’s mindset can make the experience completely different. That said, if you think that you are making love and they think y’all are just having sex — stuff can get pretty dicey. Bottom line: communicate in the bedroom before attempting to connect outside of it. It’s always worth it when you do.
2. Yes, you can feel one way and do something else. I can just about guess what some of y’all are on: Shellie, we can love our partner and still just want to f-ck. If what you are saying is you can emotionally love someone and physically lust them and want to act sometimes on the lust without really factoring in the love — yes, I agree. Doggy style continues to be a favorite sex position for people, in general, and I’m more than confident that many of the participants polled are in a serious relationship. However, having lust-filled sex with someone who you know loves you is vastly different than doing it with someone who you have no clue what they think about you or you barely know at all. Y’all, please just make sure that you know…what you should know. Sex is too amazing to have a lot of regret after it.
3. Have realistic expectations about sex. Listen, so much of my life consists of writing and talking about sex that I will be the first one to say that it deserves a ton of props for what it is able to do, in a wonderful way, for people mentally, emotionally and physically. Yet again, I’m not a fan of “make love” because something that feels really good doesn’t always mean that it is good for you. Meaning, you’ve got to be real about what sex with someone will do to your mind and spirit — not just what it will do for your body. An author by the name of Gabriel García Márquez once said, “Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love.” For no one, should this be a constant norm. Feel me? I hope you do.
____
One act. Three very different experiences.
It’s kind of wild that sex has the ability to create that — and yet, clearly, it does.
Please just make sure that you know which experience you’re signing up for.
So that you’re having sex (you know, in general) instead of sex having you. Real talk.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by Giphy