L’Oréal To Remove Words Like ‘Light’ and ‘Whitening’ From Its Skin Products
The beauty company is dropping racially-insensitive phrases from its collections.
L’Oreal announced on Friday, June 26, that it will no longer be using words like “fair” and “whitening” in product descriptions.
“The L’Oréal Group has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products,” the French cosmetics company said in a statement.
This announcement follows the ongoing anti-racism protests and calls against racial inequality currently happening worldwide. Earlier this month, L’Oréal also received criticism due to a post stating that it “stands in solidarity with the Black community and injustice of any kind.” The company dropped British model Munroe Bergdorf in 2017 after she spoke up about systemic racism, leading many to comment about L’Oréal’s hypocrisy and performative activism.
Along with L’Oréal, other beauty brands are making similar changes within their business practices, especially when it comes to racially-insensitive products and advertisements.
Johnson & Johnson proclaimed that it would discontinue selling its “skin-lightening” products, mentioning in a statement that “healthy skin is beauty skin.”
Unilever also announced that it would change the name of its “Fair & Lovely” collection into, as reported by CNN, a “more inclusive vision of beauty.”
