A MAC chemist has helped Crayola create an entire range of skin tone-coloured crayons

by
A MAC chemist has helped Crayola create an entire range of skin tone-coloured crayons

Remember sitting in the classroom and asking your friend to pass the ‘skin colour’ crayon? Then proceeding to use a pale, slightly orange tone to colour in the face of your illustration?

RELATED: Mecca’s top rated products and their dupes

RELATED: Turn’s out spearmint tea is excellent for clearing adult acne

Well as we fight for adequate representation in the workplace, the sporting arena, award shows, and the beauty and modelling industry, there is definitely something to be said about the lack of representation in colour palettes for children trying to draw themselves, their friends or their family members. 

Enter, CEO of MOB Beauty, Victor Cassal.

The ex-chief chemist and managing director of MAC, as well as co-founder of Cover FX, has partnered with Crayola to bring us the ‘Colours of the World’ crayons. The carefully curated range of 24 shades covers light and deeper shades, including pinks, neutrals and golden undertones. 

“This is exactly the science and treatment I have used to create global shade palettes for the beauty industry,” said Victor.

 And for those who are thinking 24 shades doesn’t even scratch the surface for complexion variation, Casale explains “when you apply a complexion product on your face, and you compare it to your skin – side by side – you have to be very precise.”

“When translating this knowledge and experience to support the colours of the world initiative, I felt it would be difficult for a child to notice the difference on paper.” 

Working side by side with the research and development division at Crayola, instead of aiming for 50+ shades, the team and Victor enlisted the process of merging two similar complexion shades into one crayon. 

And just like that, Victor  and Crayola are doing it for the kids, and making a huge impact on our children feeling confident, seen and important. Bravo. 

Had you noticed these colours were missing from your childs pencil case?

Keep reading

What Our Community Really Thinks Of The Biggest Cult Beauty Products

What Our Community Really Thinks Of The Biggest Cult Beauty Products

Makeup — October 5, 2021

Share your thoughts

Comments 80

  1. Back in the day (seems aeons ago, before internet)…we didn’t need any but basic colours (red, , blue, yellow) and a few extra thrown in (pure white aka no colour, black). So mixing and making new colours from those was all we needed to do. It was so much fun and creative. Now everything has to be instant. Quite limiting human brain.

  2. I love this idea and I’m surprised it wasn’t thought of years ago. When I owned my child care centre we had so many resources such as dolls, felt people, Duplo characters, books, etc. that showed different skin tones but when it came to crayons we had to mix colours which really wasn’t all that successful.

  3. I’m not sure that kids really care that much. After all, most kids’ drawings bear no resemblance to reality anyway, so the fact that a genuine skin colour is not used is not that big a deal. I guess if there are artists who use crayon for creating this might be good for them.

  4. This is all sorts of amazing!!! This has made my day, I wish these were around when I was little. That peach-pinky tone we used to call ‘skin colour’ was never really quite the match for my skin!!