The Her Edit

Black History Month · Then & Now

In 2017, one foundation launch changed what the beauty industry thought was normal. A reflection on inclusion as a beginning, not an afterthought.

I remember the feeling before I remember the launch.

Standing in front of a beauty counter, scanning the shades, and quietly realising that the deepest one still wasn’t close. Buying it anyway. Mixing. Making do. So many of us have a version of that memory — the small, familiar sting of not being considered.

In September 2017, Rihanna gently changed that.

A girl from Barbados

Robyn Rihanna Fenty grew up in Bridgetown, Barbados. Long before she was a global name, she was a girl who loved watching her mother get ready — the ritual of it, the transformation, the quiet confidence that came from putting on your face for the day.

By the time she launched Fenty Beauty, she had already spent more than a decade as one of the most recognised artists in the world. She could have attached her name to something easy. Instead, she built something she said she had been waiting for.

Forty shades

Fenty Beauty launched with forty shades of Pro Filt’r foundation. Today that number might not sound radical, but at the time it was quietly revolutionary.

Deep shades sold out almost immediately. Women who had spent their whole lives mixing, compromising and going without were suddenly buying foundation that simply matched. The response made something undeniable: the demand had always been there. It had just been ignored.

Time magazine named Fenty Beauty one of the best inventions of 2017. And within months, other brands began expanding their ranges. The industry gave this shift a name — “the Fenty Effect.”

Inclusion was not the marketing. It was the product.

More than a makeup line

What I find most meaningful about Fenty isn’t the numbers, though they are remarkable. It’s the permission it gave.

It said to a young woman in Lagos, in Croydon, in Kingston, in Atlanta: you are not an afterthought. You were in the room when this was created. You were part of the brief.

Rihanna went on to launch Savage X Fenty, a lingerie line celebrated for showing bodies of every size and shape, and Fenty Skin, a skincare line designed to be simple and shared. In 2021, Forbes recognised her as a billionaire — largely because of the beauty business she built. But I’ve come to believe her true legacy isn’t the fortune. It’s the new standard.

The quiet lesson in it

There is something in Fenty’s story that speaks to how we build, whatever we are building.

So often, inclusion is treated as a second phase — something we’ll get to once the “main” version is done. Fenty turned that on its head. It began with the women who were usually left until last, and in doing so, it created something better for everyone.

I find myself asking, in my own work and my own life: who am I building for first? Who have I quietly assumed can wait?

It’s a tender question. But it’s an honest one.

Softness and strength

Rihanna is often described as bold, and she is. But there is a softness in what she built, too. A kind of care. Anyone who has finally found their shade knows that feeling — a small exhale, a sense of being seen without having to ask.

That, to me, is what makes this story belong here, in a space about becoming. Because becoming often begins with being seen. And sometimes being seen begins with something as simple as a bottle that finally matches your skin.

Softly, Fiona x.