Beauty influencer, straight shooter and leader of the inclusive makeup movement are the defining traits of Golloria George. However, these qualities weren’t handed to her; they were hard-earned through voicing the issues surrounding the beauty industry for people of color.
With 1 million followers on Instagram, over 3 million on TikTok and ranking on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, George is a consultant and a rising activist in the beauty industry space, working with major brands to develop products and increase visibility about the lack of inclusive makeup.
Seeking representation
As a South Sudanese immigrant and refugee who was raised in the U.S., George noticed the lack of representation from a young age.
“I grew up relatively… quiet,” George says. “I didn’t really say too much, just because the colorism, the racism, it was thick… [being] the only Black person in every room that you walk into. And conceptualizing that at a super young age was just really confusing for me.”
Like many young girls her age, she was naturally curious about makeup, although most of the products she sampled as a child in the early 2000s didn’t match her complexion. On frequent grocery trips, she would try several different makeup products, and realized that makeup shades for very dark-skinned people were missing.
“I started going to the grocery store with my mom… and I wandered off into the makeup section. And there wasn’t really a lot there for me in terms of complexion or anything,” George recalls. “Of course, there were the highlighters, but even that… still looked really ashy. But that’s kind of when I [thought]… ‘This stuff is cool, but it just doesn’t seem like anything’s made for me.’”
Making beautiful changes
In her early college years, George began using makeup and documenting her experiences on camera and sharing them on social media to highlight the makeup inclusivity gap. She would post “darkest shade” videos, where she tested products like foundation in their darkest shades to confirm if they were really suitable for her. As a beginning makeup user, she knew her skills would improve over time and her content would make an impact.
“I was also like, ‘OK, I’m kind of learning how to do this myself. It looks really bad right now, but there’s going to be a day where I get on camera and it looks fabulous.’ That’s kind of where the ‘darkest shade’ [idea] just sprouted. I was like… ‘If I’m struggling this bad, I know there are so many other women struggling this bad, too.’”
Now, as a principal tester of makeup for darker skin tones, George’s reviews are vital for others like her. She consults with beauty brands trying to expand their color ranges, helping them understand how to better formulate products for these skin tones.
Beauty collaborations
One of her latest collaborations is with Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand. When George initially tried some of the products, they showed up poorly on her complexion. “When I first tried the Rhode blushes, there was just like an intense white base. And it just goes to show that a lot of makeup brands, they’re not considering things like adding white or adding mica and how it might look on dark skin. And further than that, they’re just not really doing the testing that they need to do on dark skin,” she says.
Her video testing the Rhode blushes was not received without a little bit of recoil. “When I made that video, I of course got a ton of backlash because Hailey’s got a lot of fans… and it’s definitely an experience that’s not a lived-in experience for most.” George says.
After that experience, she collaborated with Rhode to create products that worked better on darker skin.
Voicing the bias
George says she often receives pushback from companies when she calls them out. “I feel like the No. 1 thing that a lot of brands do tell me whenever I do make a video is, ‘Oh, is that the right batch number? Are you sure it’s the right product? Are you sure you’re using the darkest shade?’”
In those moments, she knows speaking up is the only way to propel an inclusive future in beauty. “You might be like, ‘Oh, should I say this?’ The answer is always yes,” she says. “Say it, because you never know where it’s going to take you, and you also never know what you’re going to do to change an industry that is so rooted in anti-blackness, colorism and just very Eurocentric white features.”
And she’s just begun exploring new paths in makeup. She is considering entering entrepreneurship to launch her own makeup line after gaining more experience in consulting.
“Navigating this world through the life of an immigrant and refugee… was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do… always knowing that in every space that I walk into, I’m going to be different,” she says. “And with that link alone, I just knew that I wanted to be a change and a positive change that reflected the inner child in me that I wish I saw.”
Photo of Golloria George by Grace Bukunmi
