Cosmetics makers are finally taking pains to broaden their portfolios with additional brands and sublines geared toward African Americans, Hispanics and other women of color. The trend goes for mass-market as well as department store brands, which are both seeing high-profile in introductions boasting an array of skin tones and starpower.

According to 2000 Census data, there were 35.3 million Hispanics and 34.7 million African Americans in the U.S. The cosmetics industry is now playing a game of catch-up to these potent demographic trends.

Foundation products have been the most limited in the past, so brands from Maybelline to Lancome have launched new shades to ...