“The “Yellow/Warm Undertone” Foundation Trend
The main driver: Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty (launched September 2017)
Fenty Beauty launched with 40 shades and explicitly prioritized neutral-to-warm undertones across all skin tones. It was a massive cultural and commercial success, and essentially every major brand scrambled to follow suit — reformulating or expanding their lines with a warm/yellow bias.
Other contributing factors:
Influencer & social media culture — Beauty influencers, who dominate product visibility, tend to favor warm, glowy, “snatched” looks that lean golden.
The “no-makeup makeup” & natural skin movement — Warm, golden undertones photograph better on social media and look more “skin-like” under modern lighting and filters. Pink-toned foundations can look flat, ashy, or mask-like in photos.
Broader inclusivity push — The industry realized it had historically catered almost exclusively to fair, pink-toned (often Northern European) complexions. Reformulating toward yellow/neutral undertones serves a much wider global customer base (East Asian, South Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, African skin tones all tend toward warm/olive/yellow).
What you can do to find pink-toned foundations
- Look for foundations labeled “cool” or “pink” undertone — brands like MAC, Giorgio Armani, and NARS still label undertones carefully.
- Search specifically for shades with a “C” (cool) or “P” (pink) suffix (e.g., MAC’s NC vs NW system — NC = pink/cool).
- Drugstore tip: L’Oréal True Match and Maybelline Fit Me still carry some cooler-toned shades, though they’re fewer.
- A color-correcting primer in a very subtle pink/peach can neutralize a yellow foundation’s warmth in a pinch.
You’re not imagining it — the industry genuinely moved away from you, but the shades do still exist if you know where to look!”
Noir undertone…