Rihanna Really Delivered With Her Fenty Beauty Collection

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One of the only things that could drag a bunch of beauty editors to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on an evening during the beginning of New York Fashion Week? Rihanna. And we were all early.

Photo: Fenty Beauty

Rihanna was there to launch her Fenty Beauty collection, a range two years in the making. She gave a short speech to the crowd, then proceeded to circulate among us peasants wearing gold powder (from her collection) all over her eyes, a yellow Oscar de la Renta ball skirt slit up one side, and a thin yellow sweater sans bra. She was magnificent and graciously took pictures with everyone, taking time to stop at the bar in between photo ops.

Fenty Beauty is meant to fill in a gap that Rihanna saw after years of using some of the best makeup in the business and finding that it came up short for some skin tones and skin types. She wanted to create a line “so that women everywhere would be included,” per a press release.

The line, which is now available in 1,600 stores in 17 countries, is at Sephora, her own website, and Harvey Nichols. The products include multiple sticks and foundation for the face, a single lip gloss, blotting papers, and various brushes. The packaging, which has a nice heft and does not feel cheap, is in the shape of geometric octagons and hexagons in shades of cream and pinky beige. The sticks are magnetized to stick together, and travel brushes stick to compacts.

In the range you’ll find a mattifying primer ($32) and the rumored 40 shades of foundation ($34). To top that off, there are 30 Match Stix that allow you to individualize your look and add glow, contour, and blush, plus correct and conceal; they even double as eyeshadows. There are 20 shades of matte sticks ($25) and 10 shades of shimmer sticks, which come in traditional neutral highlighter shades and all the way up to orange and purple. There are also four pre-packaged trios ($54) in different combinations of Match Stix.

There is also a rose gold lip gloss called Gloss Bomb ($18) that Rihanna is so sure is universal that it’s the only color offered. It’s a super comfortable, non-sticky formula that stayed on for a few hours, and did indeed seem to look good on everyone who tried it at the launch. (Perhaps Rihanna is what the industry needs to finally topple extreme matte lips from their perch and usher in a new, gentle era of lip gloss.)

Photo: Cheryl Wischhover/Racked

For those who prefer powders, there are the Killawatt powder highlighters ($34), which include four duos, like the white shimmer and gold that Rihanna wore. Then to take away shine where you don’t want it, there’s one colorless Invisimatte Blotting Powder ($32) and a pretty ingenious Invisimatte Blotting Paper ($16), which looks like a tiny Saran Wrap dispenser and allows you to tear off the size you need.

Rounding it all out is a series of tools, including a makeup sponge ($16), a foundation brush ($34), a highlight brush ($32), and three magnetic portable brushes ($24) for highlighting, touching up powder, and contouring/concealing.

You can do a full, natural face here, but there is still lots of room for Rihanna to introduce new categories and shades. But for the moment, there’s definitely something for everyone.

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