For the past several weeks, I have become very aware of the injustices in our society, and specifically, in the beauty industry, and it’s something I cannot unsee. I have always liked beauty products and never saw an issue with brand diversity until I began to look for it. I realized I had never noticed beauty diversity because I was never affected by it, because most, if not all beauty products were marketed to people who shared the same skin tone as me.
I first noticed the extreme and gut-stirring lack of exposure of darker skin tones on the Ulta Beauty website as I browsed through several products. Here is a screenshot I took a few weeks ago. Notice anything?
Each of the product images used as the cover photo to market the products is for an individual with fair skin, which is ultimately for white individuals. There are countless concerns I have with this screenshot, as it delves into a deeper issue of beauty standards and how ideals have been built on white beauty standards, making black individuals feel less applicable of said “beauty”. Not only are many products marketed to white people, but also we see products that have words like “lighten” or “whiten” complexion, which suggests that having darker skin isn’t beautiful. In an article that explores these issues and how companies have slowly started to combat these injustices, Osman writes, “there’s a booming market for skin lightening products, despite the moral and physical concerns associated with some cosmetics”. The issues that surround beauty ideals with a light skin complexion, come from far wider reasons than cosmetics. For instance, in the realm of status representation, lighter skin was a social signifier for rank and superiority (Sankaran 2017). European women who were already white would even try to be paler
by ingesting arsenic wafers to lighten their complexion (Adamu 2019). Issues surrounding beauty ideals with fair skin have stemmed from centuries ago and it’s an injustice that has been furthered by beauty brands and society. In Ortiz Cofers story, “The story of my body”. She mentioned many of her physical attributes that established her beauty as she grew up. Cofer has memories of others looked at her skin and she mentions hearing a pregnant Puerto Rican woman say, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out prieto” (slang for dark and black” (Cofer pg. 2) Cofer also has an unforgettable memory with her skin complexion when the supermarket clerk calls her skin dirty. Lighter skin has been a beauty ideal for many generations, and marketers have used these ideals as a way to market to consumers. Beauty brands are furthering these injustices by the ways they choose to market their products. All skin tones are beautiful and valid, and every person regardless of what color they are should feel valid to make themselves feel even more beautiful with makeup.
Worked Cited
Adamu, N. (2019, March 21). Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from
https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/ee63db55ad29f4e9078a5244e9f23f8c0be4f9dd_arsenic-complexion-wafers-smithsonian.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&w=1338&h=
Osman, N. (2019, April 4). Under the skin: How lightening creams exploit the beauty myth. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/skin-lightening-creams-are-they-exploiting-beauty-myths-south-sudan
Ortiz, Judith Cofer “The story of my body”
Sankaran, S., Sekerdej, M., & Von Hecker, U. (2017). The role of Indian caste identity and caste inconsistent norms on status representation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00487
Ulta Beauty product page, https://www.ulta.com/makeup-face-concealer?N=26y6
Great post! I really liked how you tied in how the attitudes of people who are the creators of products, like makeup, have a direct influence on who is represented. I also liked how you brought up the use of lighteners to get a paler completion. One of my roommates is Indian and we’ve discussed how popular those products are and how harmful they can be to people who are attempting to reach eurocentric beauty standards.
Great Context Presentation blog post! This was very well-written and got the message across. I also never really noticed the systemic injustices in the Beauty Industry either, mostly because I never ran into issues looking for a certain shade. The screenshot you took from the Ulta cite is very eye-opening. It uses the fair shades as the cover of all the makeup products. This is showing that lighter tone skin is the beauty standard in our society, which is definitely not the case. And not only are the lighter shades the cover for the products, but most products don’t even have shades dark enough for some people’s complexion. Overall, well done!
Great job, I really agree with your observation. I didn’t really think anything of it because I am not a big makeup person. This could be a simple fix, but how come we don’t fix it? Back a couple years ago I learned that companies do everything for a reason. So I looked more into this, and it says that many companies believe that people of lighter color tend to have more money and seek out all these luxurious items. I really enjoyed how you brought up the beauty standard in our society, I think that is very sad and points people to make unhealthy and dangerous choices. From changing how they look physically makeup, weight, hair to emotional. Society has too much influence on peoples appearance.
Love this post, I wrote something similar about Brandy Melville and one-size fits all controversy. I totally agree with the idea that companies, especially a couple years ago, really did not adhere to the idea of including all skin types and races when making their products. This is obviously a problem because no one wants to feel left out of buying something from a brand they want but can’t have because it doesn’t apply to them. Beauty standards are a dangerous thing and I’m glad you shed some light on it!