It’s 2020. Beauty Brands, It’s Time To Do Better For Dark Skinned Women

After reading the latest edition of brownbeautytalk’s email newsletter, a particular topic came to my attention.

Ateh Jewel’s recent experience at a London beauty hall

Here’s the gist of it. Ateh Jewel is a beauty journalist who recently documented her poor service received at a beauty counter on her Instagram account. After walking into a Nars store in London, she wanted to know where the darker shades of the new highlighters were. She was informed that there were no spaces for darker shades, even though Ateh noticed two empty spaces. She’d also been told that the darker shades weren’t available because of delays in deliveries as a result of the New Year period.

As she was about to leave the store, Ateh asked for three samples of foundation but was told that she could only have two because they’d run out. After expressing her disappointment to a supervisor (a black woman), the supervisor went downstairs to get extra pots, then she opened the sample draw and, lo and behold, it was full of pots. The supervisor then explained that there’s a ‘two-sample rule’ but Ateh didn’t believe that. Clearly, the experience was upsetting and frustrating.

View this post on Instagram

New Year/ Same old Bullshit. I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal compared to all the major events happening in the world but this happens to me and many people who look like me on a daily basis and I wanted to share it with you. I love my beauty industry and I love my products, which is why I always hit beauty halls when I’m in London, it’s my theatre, church and safe space all rolled into one. I just walked into one of my favourite spaces and after having a play asked where the darker shades of the new Nars highlighters were. I was told there wasn’t space for the dark shade (heard that before), I pointed out there was literally 2 spaces there, they said Nars didn’t send them the shades (hmmmm) when I pushed the point New Year deliveries were to blame (lies). It’s so frustrating shopping as a black beauty consumer. As I was about to leave I asked for 3 samples of some foundation I was told they had run out of sample pots (lies) and I could only have 2. A supervisor came up to me (black woman) to ask if I needed anything else. I told her I was a beauty journalist and was a bit disappointed I couldn’t try the 3rd sample. She ran downstairs to get extra pots, then opened the sample draw and it was full of pots. The supervisor tried to appease the situation by saying there’s only a 2 sample rule and I pointed out that next time if this was explained rather than being lied too, it would be better customer service and more respectful. Please call out all this behaviour you have been subjected to for years, because I’m a Black woman that consultant thought she could treat me like this, I called her out and her supervisor rightly “had a word” as I was leaving. Please call it out every time so people who think they can treat me, my daughters, your sons, friends like this will think twice, so hopefully one day in the future there won’t be a next time. #stopracism #casualracism #beauty #equality #celebration #darkskinbeauty

A post shared by Dr Ateh Jewel (@atehjewel) on

Dark-skinned women as beauty consumers

As a black woman who loves beauty and enjoys exploring beauty halls and trying different products, it’s disappointing to hear that despite entering 2020 and a new decade, the same old story continues. Even though Black women are some of the biggest spenders in the beauty space, the service we sometimes receive is not always up to par and we’re still treated as though we don’t exist as consumers. It’s kind of alienating.

Quite frankly, it is absolutely unacceptable and like Ateh said, it’s time to call this out. In my opinion there’s no reason why a big brand can’t make the space to cater to dark-skinned women. It’s not hard. It’s disgraceful that a black woman can walk into a beauty store, see empty spaces for darker shades, ask for sample pots and yet receive a range of excuses when the whole time, the shades were available but hidden away!

It also seems as though there’s a lack of initiative. I’ve worked in retail in the past and one of the things I learned to do was to literally go out of my way to help my customers. These days, brands cannot afford to alienate their consumers and miss out on money. Make an effort to provide the products in the first instance, not because a customer asked you to.

I noticed another post by Ateh where she called out Laura Mercier for providing ‘a sea of beige shades,’ once again proving that some of these brands seem to conveniently forget that people like us exist. Where are the brown shades?

As a consumer it’s not my job to prove to a brand that people like me exist. Wake up and stop alienating us. I know a lot of these collections offer darker shades, yet if I were to walk into a store in central London right now I’d struggle to find them, which totally ruins the beauty experience. Beauty should be fun and joyous, not a battlefield. It’s ridiculous. It’s time for things to change - pronto.

Beauty brands, stop making excuses and do better. Please.

Here are some products for darker skin tones

What are your opinions on this?

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