Target ups diversity with new beauty brands

Target is zoning in on diversity when it comes to the beauty aisles.

The retailer has introduced eight new cosmetics brands to its beauty section. The best part? They are all owned by women, and designed for medium to dark skin tones.

"We know our guests have a wide range of beauty needs and preferences, and we want to make sure Target has the best assortment for all hair types or skin tones," said Christina Hennington, senior vice president of Beauty and Essentials at Target, in a press release. "These eight new cosmetic brands will further our range of shade options-from foundation to lip-and are available at incredible prices."

The brands include cruelty-free label Coloured Raine, tinted moisturizer line EveryHue, and vegan startup Haleys. Hue Noir, The Lip Bar, Makeup Geek, Reina Rebelde and Violet Voss will also be added to Target's beauty shelves, boosting the retailer's offering by some 150 products priced from $9.99 to $24.99.

"We're elated to know that Target is continuously evolving the customer experience and meeting the shopping needs of an ever more diverse clientelle by expanding their current cosmetics offerings to include inclusive indie brands like Coloured Raine," said Loraine R. Dowdy, CEO of Coloured Raine, in a statement.

The beauty industry has shown signs of increasingly embracing the need to improve its diversity standards over the past few years, with a selection of major brands tackling the issue head on by increasing their product shade ranges and recruiting campaign stars from a wider cross sections of backgrounds. Expansive shade ranges have been championed by new brands such as Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and Huda Beauty, while household brands such as Maybelline, Neutrogena and Too Faced have also been working on widening their product ranges.

The new brands are now available to shop on Target.com and will be heading to stores on May 20.