Thinking about Darker Tones

Ok so I had a thunk, and Fia had half of it really, we do that, hash things out and I have my eureka moments lol. It’s great when you have best friends like that, you just banter at it, and great thunks evolve.

So anyway, last week I went to find one of the stores I had posted on as the slurl was wrong, and while I was there I came across a mag I hadn’t seen before, it was Ebony style and it was its first issue, but that was last year and I don’t know if there has been issues done since, or if there is more to come. That’s totally a tangent but anyway, I have seen and heard numerous times comments made about black skins, all of the why’s and wherefores about them not being as available as the lighter/whiter tones.

Now as a person who has never needed to shop for a darker skin, I totally understand that it would probably really be frustrating, especially if looking for the colour of skin that you are in RL, I mean I remember the big release of CS doing redheaded brow skins being such a huge deal to so many redheads… again another tangent, but something that was a very big need obviously for them to go back to PS and do a whole range with redheads in mind.

Ok so anyway, we were talking about it, and the usual thing came up, as this has been my experience in work and my dealings with skin makers. Many skinners feel that when doing the make ups on the darker tones it changes the make up. This is true, and well it makes sense, it is also the reason I helped Aleri name every one of her make ups with each tone a different name, so that any slight differences wouldn’t matter as they had their own name lol.

Ok so rambling on, so I said to Fia the thing is that people need to stop fearing the darker tones, instead embrace them as their own skin line, stop trying to make a darker tone with the same whatever amount of make ups you made for the original tan/sunkissed/pale/goth whatever tone.

Make a black skin with black tones, there are so many different shades and tones in black skin. The thing is too that its not only african or african americans you should be thinking about, but what about all the islanders all over the world with darker skin.

I also dont think that anyone particularly cares that the sunkissed berryguavadotsparkle make up is the exact same on a darker tone, because that is what demos are for. No one wanting a darker tone skin is going to try on a sunkissed demo and expect the make up on the dark tone to be the exact same, again that is what demos are for. If someone tries on a skin in the tone of their choice and they don’t like the make up they don’t , end of story, they aren’t going to buy it just because they thought it looked good on the other tones first.

I am sure it will happen, that someone will see the make up you do on one skin range, and be dissapointed that its not available in another, but thats just how it is, don’t fear it embrace the diversity, thats the whole point right, thats why people are frustrated in the first place.

Go wild, be creative, use it as a chance to explore and expand your horizons, ask in your groups if anyone has a particular darker tone they love that they would want to see , grab some regular customers that might be seeking a darker tone and ask them to be beta testers for you.

Spread the word that you are going to give it a go, and ask people to give you feedback on what they don’t particularly like in darker tones already on the market – try not to get them to put down other skinners by name, but just things that they have seen that don’t really work for them. I know from experience with one friend that opts for darker tones, that she hates when people make the faces look lighter as though they are wearing the wrong colour foundation. I’m guessing thats the workaround for the make up issues.

But yeah that was my thunk today – and Fia’s, and I really think its something people need to give a go, I mean just think of it this way, those tones you end up with the darker tones, well the lighter versions could totally appeal to many other nationalities also.

xox Sasy xox