Chromallogy gives brands a scientific answer to every complexion decision, from building a new range to auditing what's already out there to pricing what it's worth. We built the most sophisticated model of human skin tone to date, and it becomes the fixed reference every decision gets measured against.
Brands have mostly figured out which shades to make by copying whatever the competitor already has, asking the lab what they'd recommend, or leaning on bestseller data that only tells you what sold within a range that already existed, not what was missing from it. It's understandable when there's never been another option, but it's still a guess, and the data shows what that guess actually costs.
We scored every foundation and concealer shade across 90 brands as if it were one combined range, and it landed at 18 out of 100 for coverage, with a -0.73 correlation between how many shades a brand makes and how well that range actually covers people. More shades, worse coverage, which means most brands have been solving this by adding volume instead of adding the right shades in the right places. Fenty proved in 2017 that designing for the full spectrum was commercially undeniable, and Youthforia proved in 2026 what happens when a brand still hasn't caught up.
Chromallogy's proprietary, patent pending software is the most advanced model of human skin tone to date, built from the deep understanding of how skin creates color rather than from competitor products, sales history, or any sampling photos of skin that already existed. It's the fixed reference every complexion decision gets measured against, whether that's building a new range, auditing what's already on shelf, translating it across mediums, or pricing it into a deal. Shade development based on who exists, not who has been served before.
Build new shade ranges from a scientific starting point, with lab-ready CIELAB values before a single dollar is spent on production.
Identify where to expand and where to retract. Find redundant shades wasting SKU space and critical gaps leaving populations unserved.
Ensure accurate product representation across every medium. Shelf, billboard, e-commerce, editorial. Every touchpoint, consistent.
Price shade complexity into the deal. Before an acquisition, investment, or portfolio decision, know what a complexion line costs to fix, and what it's worth once it's fixed.
You're planning a complexion launch or expanding your shade range. You have a lab partner but no systematic method for deciding which shades to make. We give you the scientific starting point so you launch right the first time, not the third.
Your clients keep asking how you know these are the right shades. We give your colorists a biology-based framework that backs up their expertise with data. One partnership reaches your entire client roster.
You're advising brands on shade selection and you need something more credible than competitor benchmarking. We give you the tools to defend your recommendations with science, not intuition.
You're evaluating a complexion brand or portfolio for acquisition or investment, and shade quality isn't showing up in any diligence checklist you've used before. We give you a scientific read on what the range actually covers, what it would cost to fix, and what it's worth once it's fixed, before the deal closes instead of after.
The Shade Positioning Report maps your current complexion range against the full biological color space. It shows precisely where your shades land, what populations they cover, and where the gaps are.
White-label audit reports for your lab or portfolio? Get in touch.
We audited every foundation and concealer shade in the category and pooled them into one range. 3,144 shades. 90 brands. Graded as a single range, the category scores 18 out of 100. The shortfall is shared, not particular. Everyone is missing roughly the same territory, in the same direction, at once.
Read the report →Alex joins the SCC Diversity & Inclusion Committee on August 26 for Inclusion at Every Stage: From Concept to Consumer, a live panel on what it takes to build inclusion into a product from the first sketch to the shelf. She'll speak to color and product development, the stage most panels skip and the one Chromallogy lives in. Live online, 1:00 to 2:30 pm ET, with replay access for anyone who can't make it live.
Read more →Beauty Work Friends is a professional community for the people who actually build beauty products: founders, consultants, and brand teams working in and around complexion. Chromallogy joins as a preferred partner, bringing the network a defensible answer to which shades to develop and why, built from how skin creates color rather than from ranges already on shelves. More planned together soon.
Read more →Chromallogy Audited 86 beauty brands and their respective complexion lines. 3,000+ shades. Average industry score: 33.1 out of 100. Most brands are covering roughly a third of the full spectrum.
Read more →Chromallogy is proud to serve as a technology partner behind the SeeMe Inclusivity Index for Beauty. SeeMe built the first index to score the industry on inclusivity. We built the model of human skin tone underneath it, giving the index a scientific standard to measure against instead of a moving target. It is the kind of partnership that only works when both sides are building the same thing from different ends.
Read more →Selected for the Winter 2026 cohort supporting women founders in tech, backed by the NYC Department of Commerce.
Read more →Partnered with CEW to bring pilot program access to their member network. Sponsored partnership rates and priority access for members.
Read more →Follow Alex Flohr on shade development, color theory, and building infrastructure for the beauty industry.
Read more →Book a demo and see how Chromallogy gives your next complexion launch a scientific foundation.