Maybelline’s Largest AAPI Campaign Wants to Advance Beauty Inclusivity

For Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, Maybelline New York is launching “Face the Difference,” a campaign showcasing the power of AAPI representation in the beauty industry.

In partnership with women’s magazine Bustle and nonprofit Gold House, the campaign spotlights 40 AAPI leaders across disciplines including fashion, sports, business, and activism. The push promotes the brand’s Fit Me Matte + Poreless Foundation, which comes in 40 shades.

It follows Nielsen research, which found one in three Asian Pacific consumers report seeing very few or no diverse Asian Pacific faces or cultures represented in advertising.

With “Face the Difference,” Maybelline and Gold House hope to change that.

“We were so intentional with how we cast [this] moment—making sure that we were reflecting diversity not only from a skin tone [or] hair type perspective, but ethnically. In addition to their passions,” said Maybelline New York’s brand marketing director Alex Wang, who led the initiative alongside Gold House vp of marketing Rose Yan.

“Face the Difference” debuts with a group portrait and a behind-the-scenes film showing how the photo shoot came together. The photo doubles as the cover of Bustle’s May 2025 issue and features prominent AAPI figures like the first Asian American Bachelorette star Jenn Tran, Olympic figure skater Maia Shibutani, author and creator Drew Afualo, fashion designer Kim Shui, and more.

The film is running across Maybelline and Bustle’s social media accounts, like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as their websites and email marketing. Gold House will also promote select content on its platforms.

“We are honored to partner with Maybelline New York and Gold House on Bustle’s biggest photoshoot yet, centering the broad spectrum of beauty in the Asian Pacific community in a truly impactful way,” said Charlotte Owen, editor-in-chief of Bustle Digital Group, in a statement. “We are thrilled to debut ‘Face the Difference’ and continue incorporating this type of rich, inclusive storytelling through our editorial brands.”

Championing the AAPI community

The campaign builds on Maybelline’s existing legacy of championing the AAPI community.

After working with Chinese model Shu Pei in 2010, Maybelline Worldwide expanded its Asian representation by signing its first Taiwanese model and first global Asian model I-Hua Wu in 2016.

Further campaigns and activism have followed as the brand has partnered with AAPI makeup artists and creators like Amrita Mehta and Vi Luong and has publicly condemned anti-Asian racism through its support of Stop Asian Hate.

Amid wider brand crackdowns on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the latest work from Maybelline and Gold House leans into cultural representation, rather than rolling it back.

“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do,” said Yan.

With “Face the Difference,” Wang said the goal is to represent all facets of the Asian diaspora by spotlighting diverse figures both in front of and behind the camera.

“From our photographer, head makeup artist, [and] hairstylist, we made sure to have inclusive casting because we know that it would help ensure true representation of what Asian Pacific beauty looks like,” he said.

From a business standpoint, Wang said that Maybelline’s research and engineering teams gather consumer insights from social media and surveys to understand the issues Asian people are having with its existing products to develop better formulas.

According to Gold Paper, a comprehensive consumer report by Gold House, the buying power of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) consumers is estimated to reach $1.9 trillion by 2026. 

“The conversation I’m trying to drive is that by embracing our differences, that’s where the beauty lies,” said Wang. “While this campaign is focused on the Asian community, it’s not limited to it.”