It’s been brought to my attention by BeautyPulseLondon that the new B. range at Superdrug offers no base products for darker-skintones. When Natalie first relayed her disappointment, I thought she must have been mistaken – I haven’t seen the products in person myself and simply assumed that a brand who openly boasts…
We’re here to give every woman the knowledge and tools to feel her most beautiful every day*.
Would never make such a ridiculous oversight.
Despite offering an impressive range of no less than five foundation products, the colour swatch shown above (taken directly from their website, HTML Code: #DCB18E) is as dark as it gets from an extremely limited five shade range.
Think on this….
It’s 2013, you’re a dark-skinned woman living in a multi-cultural society that likes to pat itself on the back for its tolerance of diversity and celebration of multi-ethnicity AND YET… AND. YET. You can’t buy a foundation from one of the biggest and newest cosmetic lines at one of the UK’s largest high street beauty retailers?
Just how long is this bullshit going to continue?
* taken from their about page here
wow I can’t say I looked at the base products yesterday but that is a pretty big oversight
Interestingly, on a similar note, I’ve been discussing today why it is that most hairdressers don’t know how to cut afro hair. Why is that? Why do some of us have to search around or travel further just to get a hair cut?
Also, I think this brand is missing out on catering for all the orange folk out there. That’s big bucks! xx
Hi Charlotte,
Thanks again for publishing this post.
It is SO disheartening when the beauty industry continues to fall short when providing products for darker skin tones. To be fair the premium category has improved in leaps and bounds over the past 5 years, but the mass category is woeful.
I believe that things will only improve as the industry dialogues with the woman of colour and the attempt to change is a purposeful and collaborative.
well said, it’s absolutely ridiculous that shades are so limited.
Wow, that IS bullshit. I’m really surprised. Maybe they’ll see this and realize the giant error they’ve made!
Thanks so much for raising this, you and BeautyPulseLondon. I had a look at the range when you posted a link the other day, and I was disappointed by the range of shades they were offering. It didn’t strike me as something to complain about at the time, because I’m just so used to it. That said, I just bought a concealer which is a perfect match for me from L’Oreal, and have a Rimmel powder I would never be without. So actually, thinking more on it, I’m now more outraged – other high street brands are trying to expand their shade ranges. To introduce a new brand to market as “universally accessible” to “every” woman without any thought to darker skintones in this day and age isn’t acceptable.
I think that’s what prompted me to post about it… we all know that there’s a lack of representation but it’s easy to be all like “oh well, doesn’t affect me”. And sometimes, it’s even partially understandable like with the lack of range in BB creams… there really isn’t “as big” a market in the countries where they originated. Although, that too is thankfully changing.
But this… this is actually pretty unforgiveable.
A brand new, mass-marketed brand in one of the biggest beauty retailers in the country not catering to a significant proportion of their potential audience? WTF are they doing?
If YSL can do it…
Wow, that’s unbelievable.
That’s insane 🙁
I actually have recently started including comments about foundation shade range in my reviews. In the past, I’d noticed that people who are ultra fair and ultra dark were left out a lot. However, I thought companies were making strides to improve in that regard. This is a setback 🙁
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Well said ladies and thanks for highlighting it! Just like one commentator said, we are just used to it which is deeadful! We shouldn’t get used to such dreadful things. It doesn’t feel good not to be able to walk into any large retailer in the high street and shop for skin products just like anyone else. Inevitably we end up paying more, in travel time,money and having to buy premium brands out if necessity. As another blogger said on her website (Dija’s world) it’s beauty apartheid!
Not just darker skinned, but yellow skinned ladies get missed out as well! High street foundations nearly always look like blush on me, even the ones with “yellow undertones”. When I ask for help I’m told to go to Mac. But what if I don’t want to put out £20 on a foundation?
It’s such a sad state of affairs when companies do things like this. In this day and age there really is no excuse for such an oversight and what is so stupid is that in modern-day britain they are so happy to disappoint and alienate so much of what *could* be their customer base. I mean, WTF???? WHY would you think that’s a good thing to do for a fledgling brand anyway??? Issues of equality aside it just doesn’t make any business sense. Stupid companies!
I find it absolutely shocking how few affordable brands stock skin colours darker than a tan. I mean I’m incredibly pale and find it hard to find products too but that’s because my skin is a very specific shade not being catered for whereas brands like this are basically not catering for any non-caucasion skin.
Very disappointing. Very very disappointing.
I don’t expect every single range to have my perfect match but I do expect a new brand produced in 2013 in the UK, the most ethnically diverse country in Europe, to have a full spectrum of colours.
Sorry Superdrug there is no excuse for this. Why produce a range that the MAJORITY of Londoners can’t use (55% of London’s population is non-White and don’t forget the TOWIE Tango crew!). Commercially that is bonkers. Somebody made that decision though and I would love an explanation and the rationale.
I can’t believe that their tagline is B is for Beautiful. Why the hell is their packaging so darned ugly then? Rubbish brand, don’t think it will around for that long.
[…] Twitter exchange I had with the leading beauty blogger Charlotte of Lipglossiping.com led to this post on her site. 17 readers have commented on the post to date – make sure you add your […]