Rihanna's Sold Out Shades Prove that Making Products for Black and Brown Women Pays Off

It’s only been four days since Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty makeup line dropped, and, unsurprisingly, some of the stock is already selling out.

The line has received accolades for offering 40 different shades of foundation, making sure there were options for those with darker skin who are often left out of regular makeup lines. And it looks like making the effort to give brown women suitable shades worked, because, as a flurry of reports makes clear, those are the shades that are flying off the shelves.

After seeing several Twitter users express some disappointment (and excitement) to find that their Fenty shade was sold out, I decided to hit up a couple New York City Sephoras and check out the situation for myself. For Journalism. Not to see how Trophy Wife looked like in person. Definitely not to pickup a Match Stix trio. Dammit, I’m a professional. (We also reached out to Fenty Beauty for a comment and will update as soon as we hear back. Okay?)

At both the Union Square and Flatiron Sephora locations, a huge chunk of the foundation colors were sold out, and nearly all of them were darker shades of brown.

The Union Square Sephora was completely out of nearly every shade between 300 and 460—the darker end of the line’s spectrum—except for 340 and 410. They also appeared to be sold out of some fairer shades, like 210 and 290. An employee told me they had sold out of all their 400 colors the day they went on sale, though there were some boxes of 470, 480, and 490 when I checked.

The Flatiron Sephora was out of every shade between 370 and 440. According to Revelist, six of the Pro Filt’r foundation shades are sold out (330, 400, 430, 440, 450, and 460) online, but as of publishing, it appears only the 420 is currently out of stock.

I realize that New York City is one of the more diverse cities in America, but that doesn’t mean that Sephoras in whiter communities aren’t also doing well.

Of course, between potential understocking and the sales pheromone that is Rihanna, it’s par for the course for a celebrity makeup line to sell out. Every time Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics releases a new product, it sells out within minutes. But what makes Fenty’s situation so great is that it (once again) proves that black and brown women are willing consumers if you just meet them halfway.