Maybelline accused of only selling 'white people' make-up in the UK
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Maybelline is under fire for not selling a full range of darker skin products in the UK.
The brand recently released 12 new ‘Dream Velvet’ foundations with black model Jourdan Dunn starring as the face in its ad.
But a beauty blogger discovered that the ‘Caramel’ shade Dunn is wearing is not for sale in Britain – and nor are five of the other darker shades.
Nadia Gray, 26, from Luton, explained on her blog that she searched on the Boots website to look for the darker skin shades but only found six “white people shades”: Nude, sun beige, Ivory, Beige, Fawn and Natural Ivory.
A screenshot of the UK site
She went on the Maybelline website only to find the same six products advertised, though when she visited the US version, found all 12 products were available including the darkest shade ‘Coconut’.
A screenshot of the US site
“Even though I am annoyed by this I am not surprised, this is an issue that plagues any woman who is not white. Getting anything to suit your skin tone from global beauty brands is almost impossible,” she wrote.
“Maybelline has taken a black British woman and used her in their adverts to sell products but Jourdan couldn't walk into Boots or Superdrug and buy the same product she is advertising.”
Maybelline has responded with a statement saying: “We continually review our product ranges to ensure we are keeping up with and responding to demand from consumers in the UK. This includes, for example, introducing new shades of products into the market.
“In the case of Dream Velvet Soft Matte foundation, we currently offer and advertise six shades of the product but we are looking forward to introducing an additional shade – Jourdan’s shade – into UK stores within the next few months.”
The controversy has come up just as Maybelline New York has announced that Tanzanian-born model Herieth Paul, 22, Ottowa, Canada, will be the new face of the brand.
On February 18, the day before Gray wrote her blog, L'Oreal - which owns Maybelline - tweeted:”Maybelline embraces diversity as Herieth Paul names global spokesmodel.”
But according to Gray, that diversity is not being carried through to ordinary Maybelline customers in the UK.
“I like so many other black women have to buy high end foundations and concealer because billion dollar beauty corporations simply don't cater for us,” she wrote.
“They always make the same excuses saying there is no market for the product which is just not true. There is a huge population of black women in the United Kingdom.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
