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Rihanna's Cover Girl campaign will begin in Summer, 2007.

Queen Latifah is the face of her own new makeup range, "Queen."

Kerry Washington, Oluchi and Beyonce join forces to head the H.I.P (High Intensity Pigment) campaign for Loreal... Are you worth it?

Earlier this month Cover Girl cosmetics announced Rihanna as their newest spokesperson. This got me thinking about how far the beauty industry has come in regards to recruiting African-Americans to promote their products. Veronica Webb was the first black model to sign a major cosmetic contract with Revlon in 1992 and Liya Kebede followed in 2003 when she won a highly coveted contract with Estee Lauder and became their first black spokes model. In between that time Brandy has worked with Cover Girl and Halle Berry signed a major deal with Revlon. I once wrote a paper that talked briefly about corporations and their efforts to reach the African-American community. I found that while it’s beneficial public relations-wise for them to feature black women in their campaigns, it’s hard to convert that exposure into actual dollars. What do you guys think? Are you swayed by seeing images similar to yourself on the pages of magazines or on the TV screen? For me it’s simple. I go by brand and products. Revlon will always have a hard time getting me to use their foundations no matter how many black women they employ to ‘speak’ on their behalf (I don’t think they even make my skin color?!)

I do believe that hiring African-Americans is a necessity for giant cosmetic companies however, their products need to be developed further. Why only have four dark shades in their line when we come in at least 30 different shades? I am impressed by the range of products Cover Girl and Loreal have produced in their “Queen Collection” and “H.I.P.” lines respectively, but I’m sticking with M.A.C and Nars for the foreseeable future.

In any case, congratulations to Rihanna (Cover Girl), Gabrielle Union (Neutrogena), Queen Latifah and Joy Bryant (Cover Girl), Angela Bassett (Olay), Selena Breed (Lancome), fellow Ugandan Kiara Kabukuru (Cover Girl), Kelly Rowland (Dark & Lovely) and of course Beyonce, Kerry Washington and Oluchi (Loreal), for all scoring contracts. Let us not forget all the ANTM winners like Danielle, Eva the Diva for Cover Girl and Yaya who is currently in an ad campaign for Garnier.

Note: BAP’s: Reality or Myth? Find out here.