Any broad sense of optimism seems to continually be met with frustration. Yes frustration is something most women of colour have to deal with when picking a foundation to match them. Lately the largest makeup companies have attempted broader selections, celebrity collaborations and more targeted marketing. So why do we have this problem.

Well firstly being brown, despite what some brand “experts” may think, we do not all have the same tones and shades on our faces. From a commercial point of view it is more expensive to make the darker tones with different undertones. That is because apparently they do not sell as often. WHAT !!

in fact there is more humans with darker melanin in their skin than your Caucasian skin. to top that, there are lighter skin toned men and women who constantly tan get a “healthy” glowing skin. So for darker colour foundations not to sell is a poor excuse.

Major brands are now only jumping on the band wagon as the proud melanin skinned beauties are causing a ripple in the sea.

Lets take the spotlight away from these major brands and show some love and support to new up and coming brands, who actually went out their way to cater for this group.

Twok London The Woman Of Kolor is a London based cosmetics company offering a wide range of awesome products for women of colour. Our products are innovative, inclusive, trendy, safe and of the highest quality. TWOK London loves to collaborate with other brands and makeup artists in the celebration of diversity and empowering others.

They believe make up is more than just coloured paint on your face, it’s a powerful accessory, well being enhancer and personality courier. Everyone, regardless of their skin tone, ethnicity, shade, colour or texture should have convenient access to products that enable them to celebrate their identity, without the need to break the bank.
TWOK is all about real people expressing themselves apologetically — Talk it-Walk it — Own it — Kill it.

What amazing about this brand is that their lightest shade (50) starts of medium to tan range then it goes darker. They are defiantly catering to the women of colour and like they said being apologetically about it.

They have 10 shades available, and the key claims of the this foundation is to give you a flawless filter look, without looking chalky. This is a matte finish foundation which will give you a 12 hour stay. It is suitable for all skin types which will brighten up your complexion.

One layer goes a long way which will give you a natural yet full coverage look. Personally i didn’t even need to add a concealer under my eye, if need be just add a dab more of this foundation and blend.
the consistency of this foundation was not runny and the bottle came with a pump which made things a lot easier. for a 30ml you are looking to pay £16.00 which is amazing for a foundation which offers so much. Marked as one of their bestsellers i can see why.

They may only have 10 shades but for a up and coming brand its a start. especially as they offer other items catered towards the women of colour on their site. I gave this foundation a try for the first time today and here is my personnel thoughts after having it on for the whole day, yep i gave it a full 12 hours test.

The foundation that matched my skin the most was 110. I only needed 1 pump to give me a full coverage look all over the face and I applied it with a dense makeup brush. As it is long wearing what I discover was that this foundation does dry fast, so you do not have much play time to blend and you must blend fast. Once it sets…..it sets. I have a combo skin with dry and oily areas, I deliberately didn’t use a primer to see just how well this foundation holds out. I also skiped on the powder to see just how good it does around my oily areas.

(Photo taken in natural day light on Iphone)

When I checked back 4 hours later, the foundation was still as it was when i applied, yes i could see some smile lines appearing, but for someone who smiles a lot its hard not to get them. I still felt matte, the foundation felt comfortable and not sticky, it didn’t go patchy and i still had the coverage.

Checking back after 9 hours of wear, the foundation did change. The shine came through!. My problem area was the center of the face around my chin and nose. Do have in mind that i did not powder down my face just to see exactly how long it would take for the shine to come out. As for fine lines, they are a lot more noticeable but not as bad as what other foundations have given me. One other test i did do is a flash back test. i took a picture of myself with a flash to see if there would be a difference in colour……and yes there was.

The flash could be because the foundation does have a illuminating ingredient or aspect to it which helps to brighten the complexion. We all know anything which is illuminating will have a certain level of flashback. This can be overcome by setting the foundation after application with powder. Taking the foundation off needed a little bit of elbow grease. This defiantly clarifies this is long wearing foundation which will defiantly give you 12+ hours stay.

Overall this foundation gets a 4 star, It is long wearing, It is full coverage, it did keep me matte for most parts, i had a lot Less lines than some foundation, it was comfortable and it is affordable great value for money.

Author: FwBeauty
https://twoklondon.com/fashion/blog/foundation-for-women-of-colour/