Canadian television personality, Monika Deol just launched her first beauty collection called Stellar, exclusive to Sephora. Her brand was inspired by her personal struggle to find makeup shades that matched her medium skin tone. After careful research, Monika came to the realization that she was not alone — and for real she’s not! This is something my middle-eastern skintone has struggled with as well! Her findings that the beauty industry does not effectively cater to women with medium and olive skin tones was so on point! And something I’ve spent a lot of time talking to brands about. Especially with diversity being such a hot topic, but somehow I always felt like we were lumped into the latina skin-tone category (which I find limited if you fall in the more middle eastern/Indian decent). Taking matters into her own hands, she began to create Stellar, a line that addressed all skintones but with a focus on those with overlooked skin tones in the beauty world.

The collection goes beyond foundations and concealers – Deol was determined to create other products that would flatter a range of other complexions, such as lipsticks, eyeshadows, and powders. I was so excited to meet her at the launch party (there was glitter lattes and rainbow bagels, no lie!) and played around with some of her products.