We Tried CoverGirl's New Collection For Women Of Color — & We Have Thoughts

We're in the post-Fenty Beauty era, which means, when it comes to foundation ranges, we're tolerating nothing short of greatness. If it comes in five shades — we don't want it. Women of color have been notoriously overlooked in the makeup department. It's one reason why OG brands, like MAC and Make Up For Ever, and new kids on block, like Fenty Beauty and Il Makiage, are praised for their incredibly inclusive range of complexion products.

CoverGirl is one brand that has been thinking about women of color longer than most. Back in 2005, the brand launched the Queen collection specifically for Black women, and recently the brand expanded its complexion category to include 40 shades of its TruBlend formula. But now, CoverGirl is catering to underserved complexions in a new way. Introducing Full Spectrum, a line of cosmetics for women of color, developed by a team of multicultural women.

Johanne Richard, Global R&D Face Manager of CoverGirl, tells Refinery29 that developing this line was important to her because she's had her fair share of confusion in the cosmetics aisle. "I come from a Haitian background and skin tones in my family run the gamut," Richard says. "So many of my friends and family have told me stories about mixing foundation shades, so we really wanted to create a collection that addressed the special nuances of our skin."

Richard and her team spent almost two years measuring the skin tones of various people of color. "Through our research we were able to get a better understanding of the undertones of dark skin — not only to deliver on shades but on finish, too," says Richard. "Most women of color are put into the same category, but we all have different undertones and our complexions are all really different." The CoverGirl team also surveyed women of color to find out what this particular group wants, finding that most seek full-coverage complexion products, matte finishes, and vibrant color pigments when picking out makeup.

This research birthed the Full Spectrum collection, which comes with 20 liquid foundation shades for medium-to-deep skin tones, powder foundation, brightening concealer, mattifying primer, eyeshadow, vivid eyeliners, lipstick, and more! We tapped Refinery29 staffers for a test run, and we're spilling the tea on CoverGirl's latest collection, ahead.