Becca Cosmetics last week, announced their Skin Love collection and got beauty lovers talking about their new skincare-meets-makeup products, However, after releasing a questionable campaign image of a white photoshopped to dark skin, worry and concern over diversity within the beauty industry took over their fans attention.
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. pic.twitter.com/GROoMYBQUx
— Farah | فرح (@xfarahalyx) August 8, 2018
The photo shows four arms of different skin tones modelling swatches of the Skin Love Weightless Blur Foundation, with the palms of the deeper toned models noticeably coloured in to look darker. Well, as we all know, our dark skin palms are not the same complexion as the rest of our arms and tend to be lighter. As shown by Becca beauty brand, it was obvious that something fishy was going on.
As you may expect, concerned beauty lovers picked up on this insensitive and voiced their opinions on Social Media. One user 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.”
Another user pointed out that Becca used a different photo of a darker toned arm, with a lighter, seemingly unedited palm, in a separate swatching image posted on the brand’s Instagram.
After a few days of silence, Becca responded to the backlash with a new photo on Twitter and said. “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.”
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. To demonstrate this commitment, we’ve re-shot with real girls from the BECCA office. pic.twitter.com/Vl9rQO0u90
— BECCA COSMETICS (@BECCA_COSMETICS) August 10, 2018
They also posted an apology on their Instagram page. The brand denied the blackface accusations and insisted they used four models with different skin tones. However, they did admit to ‘adjusting’ the photos, with 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.”
In this day of Social Media where clients can easily point out a companies error, we hope that Becca and all brands learn from this situation moving forward so it never happens again.
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