Last week Becca Cosmetics launched their Skin Love collection last week. Beauty lovers had high hopes for their new skincare-meets-makeup products.
After releasing a questionable campaign image, the excitement made a quick turn into worry and concern over diversity within the beauty industry.
Four arms of different skin tones modeling swatches of the Skin Love Weightless Blur Foundation, with the palms of the deeper toned models noticeably colored in were shown in the photo. People of color’s palms are not the same complexion as the rest of our arms and tend to be lighter. Becca Cosmetics obviously did not know this common knowledge.
Beauty lovers quickly picked up on this insensitive oversight and voiced their opinions on Twitter. @xfarahalyx accused the brand of blackface by writing, “So did Becca Cosmetics really refuse to hire black women for these swatches? They just edited a white hand darker? Look at the two darker hand’s palms.”
After a few days of silence, Becca responded to the backlash on Thursday with a new photo on Twitter. “Thanks to everyone who shared feedback on our recent arm swatch image, we hear you and want you to know that we remain committed to continually representing our inclusive BECCA Beauties, ” the statement read. “To demonstrate this commitment, we’ve re-shot with real girls from the BECCA office.”
https://instagram.com/p/BmSCNEPA-Fm/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_loading_state_control
They also posted on Instagram to apologize. The brand denied the blackface accusations and insisted they used four models with different skin tones. However, they admitted to ‘adjusting’ the photos in the caption reading, “Some insights: Truth: The image featured four models of different ethnicities. Truth: We acknowledge the way we adjusted the image missed the mark and are deeply sorry for this oversight. Truth: BECCA is committed to showcasing the lightest to the deepest skin tones and hiring inclusive models for our campaigns. To demonstrate this commitment, we’ve re-shot with real girls from the BECCA office.”
