L'Oreal To Remove Word "Whitening" & More From Its Products

BYCole Blake1.7K Views
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L'Oreal, Whitening, Racism
L'Oreal is removing the words "whitening" and "fair" and "lightening" from its product labels.

Cosmetic and beauty brand L'Oreal, is removing descriptive words such as "whitening" and "fair" from its product lines. The company cites a mission to celebrate a "greater diversity of beauty."

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“We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skincare brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty,” Sunny Jain, the head of Unilever’s Beauty & Personal Care said. “We recognize that the use of the ‘fair,’ ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this.”

The brand recently wrote on Twitter that they "stand in solidarity with the Black community, and injustice of any kind."

“In 2019, we reflected this evolution on the Fair & Lovely pack in India, removing before-and-after impressions and shade guides that could indicate a transformation; and we have progressed all communication of product benefits toward glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance,” the company added.

In 2017, L'Oreal received public scrutiny for dropping British model Munroe Bergdorf from its brand. Bergdorf was let go after calling out systemic racism. She was also L'Oreal's first transgender model. 

Johnson & Johnson also announced they would be canceling two skincare product lines that include the word "fairness." 

[Via


About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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