The holidays are here, and with that comes Black Friday shopping, Thanksgiving, and most importantly, the Sephora Holiday Gift Sets.
In mid-September, Sephora started releasing their holiday makeup gift sets, which offer discounted product sets. While these sets might seem like perfect gifts to purchase for loved ones or yourself, they might not work for everyone, especially those with darker skin tones.
Nuvya Sharda, a sophomore at Carlmont High School, has trouble finding gift sets that work for her.
“I feel like some products in these sets work, but some don’t. They aren’t good shades for my skin tone,” Sharda said.
However, not everyone feels this way about the gift sets.
“I think that the sets we sell are pretty universal since they don’t come with concealer or foundation products specific to people’s skin tone,” said Beth Piper, a sales and service lead at Sephora.
Sephora Favorites Holiday Lip Set:
This set includes four full-sized products and three mini-products.
Sharda explains she would not buy this set because of the lack of inclusivity with the shades.
“The Charlotte Tilbury lip liner doesn’t work for me. Based on that, I would say that the Pat Macgrath lipstick wouldn’t either because the shades are similar. The Patrick Ta one might work, but I don’t really like those shades on me. I feel like many of these aren’t flattering on darker skin tones. So I wouldn’t buy it,” Sharda said.
Sephora Favorites Mini Luxe Vibes Beauty Set:
This set includes a range of mini products from makeup to hair care.
Henna Batnagar, a junior, expressed her opinion about whether or not she would buy the shades.
“I feel like the lighter lip color (The Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Lipstick in 01 Le Rouge) would wash me out, especially without a darker lip liner. The darker one (The TOM FORD Lip Color in Casablanca) would be fine, but I don’t know if it would look good with my undertone,” Batnagar said.
Sephora Favorites Glitz and Glam Makeup Set:
This set includes a range of mini and full-sized makeup products.
According to Sharda, this makeup set is more inclusive but still missing the mark.
“It looks fine, but I feel like the pink blush (The LYS Beauty Mini Higher Standard Satin Matte Cream Blush in Self Love) is really light; I don’t think it’ll show up on my skin tone,” Sharda said.
Sephora Favorites Holiday Sparkly Clean Beauty Kit: This set includes four full-size and two mini-products from Sephora’s clean beauty collection. The set seems to check all the boxes for Batnagar, who said it was the only one she would purchase. “Everything looks fine with this one. There aren’t too many lip products, and the ones in it would look good on everyone,” Batnagar said. Sharda also agreed with this, saying that this is one she has been looking at to purchase herself.
Both girls expressed that Sephora has to accommodate other skin tones in their gift sets, as many of the sets are a great price.
According to Batnagar, she cannot justify spending money on the sets just to be unable to use half of the shades.
I think if Sephora can make more sets that don’t include lip products or maybe include clear lip products, that could help make these sets more inclusive.
— Henna Batnagar
“If there could be three different sets for each skin tone, that would be much better. That way, there could be sets for people with darker skin tones,” Sharda said.
“I think if Sephora can make more sets that don’t include lip products or maybe include clear lip products, that could help make these sets more inclusive,” Batnagar said.
Despite Sephora’s efforts to become more inclusive, some people still struggle to find products that work for them.
“My friends and I just go directly to the individual brand website to get what we need. I have such a hard time finding things that work for my skin tone and undertone at Sephora,” Batnagar said.
