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Rihanna's makeup range will offer over 40 shades - celebrating every kind of beauty

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With a campaign that boasts a level of diversity not often seen in the world of fashion and beauty, it's clear that Fenty Beauty is all about endorsing the idea of embracing your own unique beauty rather than trying to achieve unrealistic beauty standards.

The internet justifiably lost its mind on 1 September when the official advert for RiRi's new cosmetic range dropped.

The ad features an array of models such as Duckie Thot, Paloma Elsesser, Slick Woods, Halima Aden, Leomie Andersen and Camilla Costa, who all embody a different kind of aesthetic appeal.

Her choice of models is a clear indication that Rihanna has set out to flip the usual beauty narrative of exclusively light-skinned (or white), svelte-framed women as the only faces who front beauty campaigns.

Here we see a curvy model, an East Asian beauty, a hijab-clad Vogue cover star, a dark-skinned Victoria's Secret runway model and a gap-toothed fashion girl (just to name a few).

Read more: Vogue Arabia's June cover star went from refugee to top model

In the ad these ladies own the streets with their glistening faces and poppin' lip gloss.  From the looks of it foundation, highlighter and lip gloss will be the first products to be released from Fenty Beauty - which launches globally this Friday 8 September.

Watch Slick Woods giving us a sneak peek of the dope lip gloss shade names:

CHILI MANGO. TROPHY WIFE. YACHT LIFE. CONFETTI. 9.8.17 @fentybeauty #shadenames

A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on

But the most exciting thing about the Bajan Princess' makeup range, which probably has every other cosmetics brand a bit nervous, is the fact that it will have 40 different shades. Yep, 40! A first for any global makeup brand.

Granted, the likes of Black Opal and blackUp have done their much appreciated bit when it comes to offering a wide array of shades for women of colour, but the reality is that the rest of the beauty industry continues to leave darker women a bit stranded when it comes to foundation.

According to Allure, beauty brands still fail to produce enough shades for darker skin-toned women despite the fact that 35 percent of American women are people of colour.

35 percent may not seem like a huge number, but it's a number which reflects a lot of women who have been desperately waiting for representation - not only in the US, but across the globe too. Especially in South Africa, where women of colour are actually the majority, yet we only have a handful of makeup brands to choose from when shopping for foundation.

So Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is definitely a long awaited breath of fresh air as it celebrates beauty in all its forms.


FENTYBEAUTY.com starts shipping globally at midnight on September 8th! #fentybeauty by @badgalriri

A post shared by Fenty Beauty By Rihanna (@fentybeauty) on

Fenty Beauty debuts on Sephora, Harvey Nichols and on the official website on the 8 September and there's no doubt that the sales will break the internet.

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