Youthforia may be the latest in a string of makeup brands closing their doors in 2025, but it’s also the least surprising of the bunch. The brand’s four-year journey in the industry has been nothing short of polarizing. What started as a promising, innovative vision saw a sharp decline after a catastrophic foundation launch in 2024, steeping the brand in controversy and customer ire.
Fiona Co Chan founded the makeup brand on the idea of curating makeup that operates as an extension of skincare, dubbing it “makeup you can sleep in.” For the generation that coined the phrase “clean girl makeup,” this concept brought eyes to the brand immediately, especially after a successful Shark Tank pitch won over investor Mark Cuban in 2023.
Youthforia’s BYO Blush Color Changing Blush Oil, the first of its kind in the makeup world to react to the individual wearer’s pH, was an instant best seller for the brand thanks to its dewy and lightweight finish.
i love this @Youthforia #colorchangingblush#blushoil#phblushoil#youthforia
However, the launch of Youthforia’s Date Night Skin Tint Serum Foundation marked the beginning of the end, as the product was available in only 15 shades, significantly fewer than the new industry standard of 40 shades previously set in stone by the highly lauded 2017 launch of Fenty Beauty.
When Fenty Beauty hit the makeup scene, it touted a far wider range of skin tones and undertones than most brands on the market. (Notable exceptions that offered 40-plus shades before 2017 include Make Up For Ever, MAC, and Maybelline New York, though the standard became firmly entrenched in the industry after Fenty Beauty entered the picture.) In the years following Rihanna’s makeup debut, the 40-marker has served as the baseline for makeup companies; anything less is perceived as a failure, especially in the eyes of socially conscious beauty consumers.
After the initial controversy, the brand attempted to rectify its exclusionary error, but things only got worse from there.
To correct its mistake, the brand quickly expanded the foundation’s color range, but even this move fell short.
TikTok content creator Golloria George, a South Sudanese woman known for her reviews of brands’ darkest base makeup shades, tested Youthforia’s new shades after the extension. The darkest shade of the latest launch was unrecognizable from black paint, leading George to ask viewers, “Which side of my face is the black face paint or the Youthforia foundation?”
the darkest shade of the youthforia date night foundation.
George’s video showing her swatch a Youthforia foundation, which she likened to “tar in a bottle” and equivalent to “minstrel show black,” amassed over 47 million views. The brand then received substantial backlash for its perceived lack of effort to formulate and offer a foundation line with usable, equally high-quality shades for darker-skinned folks.
Chan took to social media to issue a video apology on September 25, 2024, saying that she takes “full accountability.” In it, Chan acknowledges that she “wanted to rush the process,” which in turn, “snowballed into this huge mistake.”
Chan stated discussions were being had behind the scenes and that changes within the team were being implemented, assuring Youthforia’s audience that “love and community is really at the forefront of everything we put out.”
In light of the dissolution of the brand, however, it is clear that Youthforia never fully recovered from the deep stain of what social media dubbed “Foundation-Gate.” The brand shared a post on its Instagram page announcing its closure on August 4, 2025. In the caption, Chan wrote, “It’s been a dream to create such a beautiful brand,” adding that she “[looks] back at [the] past few years with such love and appreciation.”
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