How Skin-Care Companies Are Tackling Issues Faced by Women of Color

In the beauty world, women of varied skin tones can now find the right foundations. But can they also find the right skin-care products?

If you were to ask some beauty experts, the answer would be yes, but not as easily.

“The truth is that a woman of color faces different concerns and at different times — hyperpigmentation being one of them,” said Jeanine Downie, a dermatologist in Montclair, N.J. “Any white person over the age of 42, they start with fine lines and wrinkles. Any black person over the age of 42, they start with pigmentation issues. Asians and Latinas, it depends on their skin tone, but they are often somewhere in between.”

In recent years, a few indie brands have started to address these issues, Dr. Downie said, pointing to Senté and Restorsea as a couple of her favorite lines. (She is on the scientific advisory board of Senté.) “There are great products out there now, but you have to ask someone knowledgeable,” Dr. Downie said. “There’s still a huge info gap on what to use and when.”

Susan Akkad, senior vice president for local and cultural innovation for the Estée Lauder Companies, said that these concerns are the very ones the company has been hearing from its multiethnic consumers for years.

It is why this month, Estée Lauder’s Clinique brand rolled out a new moisturizer system called Clinique iD. It comes in three bases (Dramatically Different Jelly, Moisturizing Lotion+ and Oil-Control Gel) with five different “concern cartridges” that address irritation, pores and uneven texture, uneven skin tone, fatigue or lines and wrinkles ($39 each).

Hyperpigmentation, for example, can be addressed by inserting the uneven skin tone cartridge into the moisturizer one needs. For women with darker skin tones, that base may be the oil-control gel. (Janet Pardo, the senior vice president for product development at Clinique, pointed to a 2005 British study suggesting that women of color tend to produce more sebum.)