Cosmetics company apologises for 'adjusting' the skin tone of darker skinned model

Cosmetics brand Becca has apologised after an image in their recent make-up campaign was accused of being “adjusted” to make the model’s skin darker.

When Becca Cosmetics launched their Skin Love collection last week, the beauty world was pretty stoked about it.

The range, which includes a serum, highlighter, and foundation, was hotly anticipated but that anticipation quickly turned to confusion and disapproval thanks to one of the images in the campaign raising the familiar issue of diversity within the beauty industry.

The photo in question portrays four arms of different skin tones with samples of the Skin Love Weightless Blur Foundation.

But while the top of the hands with darker skin tones looked okay, fans soon speculated that the palms didn’t look realistic.

As people on social media pointed out, palms are often lighter or a different complexion than the colour of skin on the remainder of the body, and the contrast is often more noticeable on people with darker skin.

This prompted people to speculate that the image had been adjusted or altered, or that the same hand had been used to represent all the different skin tones and just made darker each time.

“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,” one user wrote on Twitter.

“Do you think women are stupid? @BECCA_COSMETICS,” enquired another.

In response to the backlash the brand took to Twitter to acknowledge the upset over the image and announce that they had reshot the image.

“Thanks to everyone who shared feedback on our recent arm swatch image,” the tweet reads.

“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.”

The brand also took to Instagram to explain that the image had been “adjusted” and apologise to fans for “missing the mark”.

“Some insights: Truth: The image featured four models of different ethnicities,” the post read.

“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,” it continued.

The brand’s response received a varied reaction. While some were concerned that the campaign image was released in the first place, others were happy with the brand’s speedy response to the feedback which indicated the brand were both listening and reacting positively to the criticism from their fans.

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