Fenty Beauty in India is a flex. But will it last?

Rihanna did not build Fenty Beauty as a conventional beauty label. When it launched in 2017 under Kendo, a San Francisco–based incubator owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the premise was both simple and quietly radical. Forty foundation shades at debut, now expanded to 50 plus, were positioned as a correction. Beauty, as Rihanna articulated in early interviews with Allure, Time, and Vogue, should not require consumers to adjust to the product; rather, the product should meet them where they are.

It is worth noting that Fenty was not operating in a vacuum. MAC Cosmetics had long been considered a pioneer in shade diversity, particularly through the 1990s and 2000s, with its Studio Fix range becoming an industry benchmark for undertone matching. But it was only in 2018, in the wake of what came to be known as the “Fenty effect,” that MAC expanded its foundation lineup significantly to around 60 shades, reflecting a broader industry shift.