Meet The Influencer Helping K-Beauty Brands Cater To Dark Skin Tones

When beauty influencer Darcei Giles first tried a popular cushion foundation by Korean makeup brand TirTir, she knew it was not going to match her skin tone — but that was the point. The Toronto-based creative is known for her social media series, ‘Black Girl Tries’, where she attempts makeup styles, techniques and products that aren’t typically associated with Black women — from “goth” makeup to K-pop idols. “I made a video of myself being like, 'Hey, this is an awesome foundation, the coverage is beautiful and I love it, but it doesn't come in my shade,” she tells Unbothered over Zoom. Giles, who has a keen interest in Korean culture, says the video led to TirTir creating more foundation shades, going from nine to 40 shades last year. TirTir now offers one of the widest shade ranges among K-beauty makeup brands available in the US and UK. Now, Miss Darcei has finished working with another K-beauty brand, Parnell, on an inclusive 40-shade range for its new Cicamanu Serum Foundation — a move that not only reflects her growing influence but also the undeniable spending power of Black beauty consumers in the West.

It’s an exciting development, especially as K-beauty — skincare and makeup products made and innovated in South Korea — continues to leave a huge impression on Western beauty trends and self-care. Known for its innovation and effectiveness, it’s now a multi-billion-dollar import in the US, and a fast-growing market in the UK. And chances are, you’ve learned to speak the language of K-beauty over the last few years (from snail mucin serums to fermented rice water toners). Yet, while its skincare products have enjoyed mass appeal, Korean makeup brands such as Laneige aren’t known for catering to a wide spectrum of dark skin tones — something other major cosmetic brands have significantly improved over the last decade. For those of us with darker skin, many have asked: “Is Korean makeup for me?” Darcei has been helping to answer that question.
Unbothered spoke to Darcei about why she’s encouraging more K-beauty makeup brands to cater to darker-skinned customers internationally (despite some backlash) and helping all women of colour feel seen in the skincare and makeup aisle.

Darcei Giles: I had always been into Korean culture since I was a kid, even before YouTube, and I was only into K-pop and K-dramas. I wasn't even thinking about makeup at all. Once I started getting into American-style makeup, I began to discover that there were American beauty gurus and also Korean beauty gurus.

[When I watched] the Korean beauty gurus, I was like, Oh, that's so pretty, but you know, it wouldn't look good on me. Then, eventually, during that time, a trend came around where we would try the makeup routine of another creator. I thought it would be hilarious if I followed the makeup tutorial of someone who did not look like me at all. I thought, Oh my god, this is going to look so terrible and stupid at the end. So I started following the makeup tutorials of Korean beauty influencers, and then, to my surprise, a lot of the stuff turned out pretty good. It became a popular series on my channel of me trying the opposite of what you think someone who looks like me would try. It turned into the ‘Black Girl Tries’ series.

DG: Beauty is universal. A good glittery eye and a glossy lip — everybody can wear that. I feel like now people are also recognising that not only is Korean beauty really good, the quality is really good, but it's also a lot more affordable than the brands that we're used to. [Korean makeup artists] have different ways of applying makeup, different styles, and it’s this novelty of trying something you've never seen before. I also feel like [the makeup] fits Black people's features a lot better. We have a lot of features in common with Asian people.

[Because of my channel], I have found this community of young Black girls. I get messages all the time from Black girls telling me, “Oh, I was afraid to try this type of makeup or this certain style until I saw you try it.” I couldn't believe it because growing up, I was the only person who was into any of the stuff I was into. Like no one had even heard of what a K-drama was, what K-pop is, they'd never heard of that. Now I have found this online community of millions of people who are interested in the same thing that I am.

DG: It started back on YouTube when I started doing the Black Girl Tries series in 2018. Even back then, I was trying a lot of K-beauty brands, and some of them started to make dark shades, so I would try them out. But I started to notice a pattern. Every single time a Korean brand would come out with darker shades, they would get discontinued because they didn't know how to market to people who have darker skin. And so people with darker skin didn't know that it existed, or even if they did, they didn't think that the brand was really for them. Eventually, the shades would always get discontinued, and it was really frustrating. Then COVID happened and all of those brands completely disappeared from the market. Everything changed. So it's only now that they're all coming back. 

DG: Yes, so the makeup brand TirTir only had nine shades at the time, which is actually a lot for a K-beauty brand — the standard is like three. I was invited to an event by a local store in Toronto and everybody at the event was getting the nine shades of the TirTir except for me because it didn't come in my shade. But I was like, “Can I just have it anyway?” I get home and I try it [and I made a video of me] being like, “Hey, this is a really awesome foundation, the coverage is beautiful, it's like a satin finish and I love it, but it doesn't come in my shade”. So I said, “If you guys ever expand [your shade ranges], call me.” The brand actually did contact me, and they came out with 20 shades, which was like unheard of for a Korean makeup brand. That 20th shade was my shade. Now they have 40 shades.

DG: Parnell initially put out 30 shades, and even the darkest of the 30 shades was not dark enough for me. So I made a video saying, “There are 30 shades, but none of them are dark, and so they can contact me.”  They were like, “Can you help us make 10 more dark shades?” And that's exactly what we did. It's important to have people like me who can come in and consult on the shades and make sure that we're getting the right undertones and trying it on actual people. That’s what I found with working with Korean brands. It’s never a thing where they don't want to [expand their shade ranges].

DG: I was very picky with the undertones and it took maybe like four or five months of back and forth. I didn't go to Korea every time. [Parnell] would like to send them to me in Canada, and I would take pictures and give my notes, and then send them back. At the end of it, it turned out so amazing. The photoshoot was great. We had diverse models showing off all of the different foundations. We had an event with a lot of foreign creators who live in Korea, because I feel like people don't know that there are a lot of foreigners in Korea. The Parnell foundation is very glowy and moisturising, and that's really what I like in my everyday kind of foundation. I'm excited for everybody to try it out.

DG: My usual response is that, especially for the Parnell foundations, the expanded shades are actually only available in the US. They're not even available in Korea. This was a US expansion. Like a lot of Korean brands, they would love to expand internationally, to come over to the US. It's that a lot of them simply don't know how.

Because it is such a monoracial society, it's difficult to find people to try on the makeup when the brand is formulating it — it's a lot different trying it on a white piece of paper than it is trying it on an actual human being. They don't have the kind of resources that they would have in the US, where it's extremely diverse.

DG: Oh, for sure. [Expanding shade ranges] is not simply about making an existing foundation darker. I feel like [our needs] are almost the opposite of what people in Korea like. For example, some people in Korea may like a shade or two lighter for their foundations, whereas we want the perfect match. We want it to look exactly like our skin. We also have different undertones. We're not all golden; we're not all neutral; we're not all cool-toned. I find that a lot of Korean foundations run a little bit pink. I think it's because it has a brightening effect on lighter skin tones, but on us it ends up looking like Peppa Pig!