Featuring: Tiy
Summary
Tiy combines the boldness of the Mob Wife aesthetic with Maximalist Glam, creating a make-up look that balances statement beauty with everyday wearability. Her routine features Fenty Beauty, Milk Makeup, Maybelline, Giorgio Armani and Rimmel, while her preference for premium cosmetics influences where she shops. However, her biggest frustration is finding complexion products that accurately match her neutral skin undertone, highlighting a gap in shade development for Black consumers.
Meet Tiy: Mob Wife Meets Maximalist Glam
Tiy describes her make-up aesthetic as a mixture of Mob Wife and Maximalist Glam.
Her look combines complexion products, blush, highlighter and defined lashes, with the flexibility to create a more dramatic finish when she chooses.
While she wears mascara most days, she sometimes opts for false lashes, adding another step to her routine.
Pull quote: “I would say a mixture of Mob Wife and maximalist.”
A Routine Built Around Hydration and Glamour
Tiy has predominantly dry skin, making hydration an important consideration when choosing make-up products.
She begins with Fenty Beauty gripping primer, which she particularly likes for its hydrating properties.
Her routine includes:
- Fenty Beauty Gripping Primer – to hydrate and prepare her dry skin
- Milk Makeup Skin Tint – for complexion coverage
- Maybelline Fit Me Concealer – for concealing and evening out her complexion
- Mascara – for everyday lash definition
- False lashes – when she wants a more dramatic look
- Giorgio Armani Highlighter – to add luminosity
- Rimmel Maxi Blush – for colour and definition
Her product choices combine skincare-led preparation with the finishing touches associated with a more glamorous aesthetic.
Pull quote: “I use the Fenty gripping primer because it’s hydrating, and I mainly have dry skin.”
Learning Make-Up From Family Rather Than Tutorials
Unlike consumers who rely heavily on TikTok or YouTube tutorials, Tiy learned her make-up techniques from her older sisters.
Family influence has played an important role in developing her skills and personal approach to cosmetics.
Pull quote: “I’ve learned all my make-up skills from my older sisters.”
Her experience highlights how make-up knowledge can be passed between generations and family members, alongside the growing influence of digital content.
For Tiy, personal experience and advice from people she trusts have shaped her routine.
Shopping Habits: A Preference for Premium Make-Up
Tiy occasionally shops at Superdrug, but her preference is for higher-end make-up products.
She primarily purchases cosmetics online through Sephora, giving her access to the premium brands she favours.
Her shopping habits demonstrate that physical drugstores remain part of her purchasing journey, although premium online retail is her preferred channel.
For Tiy, brand positioning and access to higher-end cosmetics are important elements of her make-up experience.
Shade Matching: The Challenge of Neutral Undertones
Tiy’s biggest frustration is the limited availability of complexion products that suit Black women with neutral skin undertones.
She explains that many products available in stores lean too heavily towards either cool or red undertones.
Neither accurately reflects her complexion.
Pull quote: “In make-up stores, there’s either way too cool tones or way too red tones, and my skin tone is neutral.”
Her comments highlight an important distinction in inclusive shade development.
Offering a wide range of foundation shades does not necessarily address the needs of every consumer if the available undertones remain limited.
For Tiy, the challenge is not simply finding a shade with the right depth, but finding one with the correct undertone.
What She Wants From Make-Up
Tiy’s ideal product would address the lack of neutral undertones available for Black women.
Rather than asking for a new format or unusual packaging, she wants brands to improve the accuracy and diversity of their existing complexion ranges.
Her ideal offering would include:
- More neutral undertones for darker complexions
- Better shade accuracy for Black women
- Less reliance on predominantly cool or red undertones
- A wider choice of suitable complexion products
- Greater representation of different undertones within deeper shade ranges
Pull quote: “I think it would be better if we could find more neutral tones.”
For Tiy, genuine inclusivity means recognising the diversity of undertones within Black skin rather than treating darker complexions as a single shade category.
The Opportunity for More Inclusive Complexion Products
Tiy’s experience highlights an opportunity for colour cosmetics brands to refine their approach to complexion product development.
While the industry has expanded foundation and concealer shade ranges, her comments suggest that consumers can still struggle to find products with the right undertone.
For Black women with neutral complexions, the availability of deeper shades is only part of the equation.
Brands also need to consider how undertones are represented across their ranges, ensuring that neutral options are available alongside warm and cool variations.
Her preferences suggest that improvements in shade accuracy could strengthen consumer satisfaction and make complexion products more accessible to a wider audience.
Key Takeaways for NPD
- Mob Wife and Maximalist Glam aesthetics allow consumers to combine bold make-up with everyday products and routines.
- Hydrating primers are important for consumers with dry skin who want comfortable, long-lasting make-up.
- Family influence remains an important source of make-up knowledge alongside digital tutorials.
- Premium cosmetics appeal to consumers who value higher-end brands and are comfortable purchasing online.
- Black women with neutral undertones can struggle to find accurate complexion matches when ranges lean too heavily towards cool or red shades.
- Inclusive complexion development requires greater undertone diversity, not simply more shades across the light-to-dark spectrum.
