Millions of Pinterest users can now discover beauty inspiration and tutorials based on their skin tone as the platform launches its “inclusive” shopping features in the UK and Ireland.
For Black and mixed-race women, this means saving time as you shop for products and brands suitable to your skin colour inside of Pinterest’s refreshed search feature.
Selecting your colour palette immediately narrows the search results for makeup and hair ideas, so Pinners receive suggestions personal to them.
The beauty results search feature is one of many updates Pinterest has announced to make beauty products more discoverable and tutorials personalised to individual skin tone, style, and preference.
Product manager at the social media firm, Annie Ta, said: “Pinterest is the home of inspiration, but it’s hard to be inspired if you don’t feel represented. We’re making each person’s Pinterest experience more relevant to them through new technology and ways to control the beauty results they see.
“With these updates, Pinterest is becoming a more inclusive place to discover and shop for beauty ideas. No one should have to work extra hard to uncover personalised ideas and all should feel welcome. A more diverse Pinterest is a more useful, positive and powerful one.”
“Pinterest is the home of inspiration, but it’s hard to be inspired if you don’t feel represented.”
The desire for personalised skin and hair care continues to grow on the image sharing website.
‘Grey hair on dark skin women’, ‘soft natural makeup for Black women’ and ‘nude lipstick for dark skin’ were among some of the top trending beauty searches in June of this year, according to a statement issued by Pinterest.
Users searched for ‘natural hairstyles’ and ‘Black girls with freckles’ twice as much since June 2019 and ‘natural curly hair cuts’ six-times more.
These results signal a huge shift in beauty ideals with both men and women embracing their natural beauty.
Although Pinterest’s skin tone ranges feature first launched in 2018, recent developments in the technology means its algorithms are three-times more likely to detect multiple skin tones across fashion and beauty pins.
This will quadruple the number of recommendations shoppers receive and give them more buying power.
Londoner Chloe Pierre, who founded the wellness brand and community thy.self, said it’s about time brands acknowledged that consumers need to feel seen.
“Everyone wants to feel seen and it’s about time for all brands to get on board.”
“Everyone wants to feel seen and it’s about time for all brands to get on board. This is a great tool to make people feel seen, heard and it benefits everyone,” Chloe said.
“It’s great to know Pinterest will have a plethora of diverse beauty examples and inspiration to help grow the industry and that’s what inclusivity is. Features like this will help drive cultural change and make people feel good about themselves.”
What we will have to wait a little bit longer for in the UK is Pinterest’s virtual lipstick experience, which is currently only available in the US.
Try On lets Pinners virtually experiment with more than 10,000 lipstick colours from favourite brands like NARS to luxury newbies Cle de Peau and Thrive Causemetics – the cosmetics brand that gives back to female-focused causes.