Skin-lightening products in the spotlight amid BLM protests

The Indian unit of Unilever said it will drop the word “fair” from its “Fair & Lovely” range of products, which have long been criticised for promoting negative stereotypes against people with darker skin.

Yesterday’s move comes as cosmetics companies have seen an increasing amount of backlash on social media in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We are making our skincare portfolio more inclusive ... a more diverse portrayal of beauty,” Hindustan Unilever chairman Sanjiv Mehta said in a statement.

The company also sells the popular Dove and Knorr range of products.

Sources had said earlier that the company was considering such changes.

Products marketed as skin lightening have a huge market in South Asia due to a societal obsession with fairer skin tones, but those notions are being questioned more frequently.

“We recognise that the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this,” Sunny Jain, Unilever’s president of its beauty and personal care division, said in a separate statement.

We recognise that the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this.

Sunny Jain

Similar skin-lightening products are also sold by L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble.

Separately, a source within L’Oréal in India said the company was also having discussions in view of the backlash.

“Words such as skin brightening, whitening, lightening could soon become a thing of the past on all labels and product sales pitches,” the source said.

L’Oréal India declined to comment. Johnson & Johnson said this month it would stop selling skin-whitening creams.