It's not nice being taken for granted. It's even worse when someone gives you a glimpse of how they could be treating you (on a first date, say), but then decides they can't be bothered to make the effort. It's not that you feel used, more unappreciated.

Black women living in white societies get disturbingly used to this feeling, especially when it comes to beauty. A recent trip to New York reminded me just how far we haven't come. Gliding around the beauty counters of various department stores, I was met by rows and rows of bases suitable for dark skin: foundations, powders, concealers, the lot. And I'm not talking about exclusive brands that aren't available here, but about extra colours that well-known brands sell in the US, but not in the UK. Brands that I usually ignore or curse - because as far as I'm concerned they still don't get it - were there, bold as brass, offering all manner of browns as if that were how they normally treated me.

These, I later discovered, are known as their American shade ranges and, unlike European shade ranges, they take note of the fact that black women not only exist, but also give a toss what they look like and wouldn't mind some make-up that suits their skin, thank you very much. So instead of stopping their bases at beige, or throwing in a token "mocha", the American shade ranges have plenty of colours for black women. But only in America. Some have a few of the darker shades in South Africa. And Asia. But not in Europe. Hello? Black people have been in Europe since before America was "discovered".

Annoyed doesn't come close. These companies have the products, so they've done the hard work and spent the money on "development"; they just can't be bothered to ship them over. I know plenty of Americans think that Britain is full of old white ladies on bicycles, but surely their UK sales teams can tell them otherwise. It's almost more frustrating to know that a product comes in your shade, but is thousands of miles away, than to know they don't make it at all.