http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/06/loreal-beyon...7673x1200364591

Sorry about that, posting before the heading was correct. I have no idea how that happened.

It should read: L'Oreal lightened Beyonce's skin



Personally, I feel she looks a lot better before she was photo shopped (or more photo shopped as the case may be.)

She has such beautiful coffee cream-colored skin, why would they want to lighten it. She is a gorgeous black woman, be proud of that!

I fixed the title for you, Karin!

Re the pic--good heavens. That's not some tiny touch-up--that's a huge difference.

Thanks for fixing it!

I'm not surprised, but then I'm not "fair" enough of skin to have been able to fool myself into thinking this sort of thing doesn't matter.

I don't understand why they did this? The girl has georgous skin color...naturally.
Somebody 'splain why?

That's DISGRACEFUL. Just one of many reminders lately that stupid racial prejudice is not a thing of the past. Does anybody else recall that a little more than a year ago L'Oreal in France got caught in an official coporate prejudice incident in which they discriminated against Arabic or Middle Eastern appearing women by instructing their product sample representatives to avois giving 'those women' free samples which were offered to white "French Women?"

L'Oreal has a corporate policy which sanctions racism. What do WE do about it, girls and boys? I think we know.

http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/modular.jsp...p;template=1098

I was surprised 42% thought whitewashing Beyonce wasn't a slap to ordinary black women, not to mention Beyonce, who looks much better not blonde!

Couldn't it have been just strong studio lights that make her skin look like that? In the first picture she looks darker than she usually does, too.

Accolon, as an artist I know what you mean. Looking closely the studio lighting was so glaring to knock out texture and 'imperfections' that the photo was digitally 'painted to give shadow definituin around her nose, for instance.

I genuinely don't understand Beyonce's 'high yellow' look, including the blonde hair. She looked so much more attractive before she blonded and lost a whole lot of weight. She was actually hot as Foxy Cleopatra in the Austin Powers "Goldmember" movie.

What the heck is the obsession with blonding which many white women and quite a few black women buy into? I look at dark beauties of the past such as Lena Horne or Merle Oberon, or dark beauties of the present such as Salma Hayek or Jennifer Lopez and think darker is more luscious, smouldering and better altogether.

What they did to Beyonce is just WRONG.

She's gorgeous even with no makeup, lighting etc. The person who approved that ad should be fired.

two words: the Hispanic market.


There must be a huge Hispanic market for this product if they were to do that.

Also, from the time I've spent with my many black friends all over America, the UK, the Caribbean and South Africa, I know that sometimes very mean-spirited "intra-racial" prejudices can arise... Dark-skinned people can be mean about "High Yaller" people, and I've heard medium-toned people call very dark-skinned people "Shaka Zulu". It's so not fair, but there ya go, it happens all the time. It used to be said that a "half-caste" or "mulatto" child had a rough go of it in life, because neither "the Black community" nor "the White community" wanted to claim the kid. Similarly, it has been noted that the Creole "Quadroons" and "Octaroons" are simply some of the most beautiful women who walk the face of the earth...

What I'm trying to say is: people of the African Diaspora are not a monolith, and gone are the days when commercial product marketing could trade on there being a simple dichotomy of Black to White. (and a good thing, too, I'd say). Not to put too fine a point on it: L'Oreal is trying to "cover all their bases".

Myself, I adore very dark women... those who are thoroughly "African" looking, with nearly blue-black skin and traditional African-features... Like walking Yoruba or Dogon statues...

I don't understand about the Hispanic Market.
Since I was a little one, and I'm 45 now so we're talking the late '60s early '70s, I've noticed (as has my mother before me and her mother before her) than women could not afford to look "too" black if they wanted to be seen as, or presented as pretty in the American market.

I myself have noticed, as has one Hispanic actress (I can't remember her name but it was about a year ago), who actually mentioned it in an interview, that Hollywood does NOT like to take the risk of presenting black women who look like the majority of black women as love interests in big budget movies. To hedge their bets they would hire HER to partner black men maintaining the appropriate melanin level, while still presenting a more "mainstream" (read CAUCASIAN FEATURED) look to attract white audiences.

It really doesn't take that much of a stretch of the imagination to see why, taking into consideration the indoctrination that most Americans---of ANY race---have received since birth, about whiteness equalling elegance, beauty, femininity, class, success and all the rest of that good stuff, that some graphic designer, art director, or stylist, in attempting to appeal to the widest possible audience would request Beyonce be made attractive to that audience.

Like it or not, we all know what that audience has been raised on, and raised to find beautiful.

Yes, it appears to me that her skin in the photo was definitely purposely lightened.

I'm really puzzled about all this fuss. Her true skin tone is closer to the lighter picture. She is no where near as dark as the other picture shows. She is a very light skinned woman so I'm having trouble with all the controversy.

That's messed up. They gave her a new nose too!

I think Starr's on to something. Unless Beyonce's record company is lightening her up on her album cover. I'm thinking maybe Beyonce's staying out of the sun these days.

That picture doesn't look at all like the L'oreal ad.

Surely in real life she is not as "yellow" as they've made her?


But must add: I'm a graphic artist, a published one, a paid one. And I'll let ya'll know that, in the world of print media today, there is SO-O-O much "phony baloney" going on vis-a-vis appearances. Reality is simply whatever the graphic artist asserts it shall be...

I don't want to burst anyone's balloon here... but, hey, we're the elite of the cosmetics world, are we not? Even the gorgeous album cover shown above is not "natural" by any means... it's been tweaked extensively, too. (It's got subliminal words brushed in GALORE!) Only if Beyonce' were standing right in front of you (like, when she first wakes up, sans makeup!!) would you know what tone her skin is/was.

but, you best believe, the new photo on the L'OREAL box was not just a fluke. An emntire committee--- from President to Art Director to Photoshoppist to photographer knows EXACTLY what they're doing. Exactly. Exactly. At this level of megabusiness, these kiddos have done their extensive marketing and consumer response research before this photo was even snapped. There is no room for error at this level of megabusiness.

I still maintain: America is becoming very multiracial. There are girls (and guys) of every shade of brown, pink, gold, red, yellow who are the targets for this product; L'OREAL is shrewdly covering their bases.

Miss Beyonce' may consider herself lucky that she has been deemed the "median" beauty for America's new beauty tastes. I might be, let us say, a female Vietnamese immigrant to America... I want to fit in... I want to look and feel as "American" as possible. I go to the store, and look at this L'OREAL box. I start thinking, "Gee... She's so beautiful... and whaddya know? Her skintone is not TOO far away from my own... Won't I look swell with my hair bleached gold like the girl on the box?"

No doubt some of you will think I'm being condescending here. But, truth is, most young targets for this product will not be as sophisticated as we are here on POL, nor nearly as politically correct.

I think it looks closer to the ad pic than it did to the comparison picture on TMZ. Either way, if you google Beyonce and go to images, you'll notice that she doesn't appear to be the same 'shade' in any of them. Which is why I think she may have been 'tanned' in the comparison picture on TMZ. My son gets more than several shades darker in the summer, and lightens back up to his regular skintone in the winter. I used to tease him about having a coppertone butt.

Having said that, I'm sure there's a lot of tampering going on in all ads/mag pics.

Very good post, that what I thought as well, because in our era of air brushing its meaningless to guess what her skin color really is. What is " Real " in beauty business anyway, for example - her been African American I'm sure her natural hair color is black, not brown with golden highlights, but no one pays attention to it that, what is the difference?

Please , ignore that in the last .

This is a whole other topic, but hair color boxes made me crazy. Black hair will not lift to that color on the box without bleach. My hair, which is light brown, will not lift to that color. I would say on me it would turn carrot red.

Bingo.
When all of this first came out I googled images of Beyonce and I was suprised at how her skin tone seemed different in almost each photo, or set of photos, I saw.
I've not heard any comments put forth by Beyonce or anyone representing her, and L'Oreal swears up and down they didn't alter her coloring.
*sigh*
I admit that I saw other photos which were NOT for L'Oreal, in which her hair and skin were the same color as in the advertisement.
Frankly...I with all that is now done in ads...I can't even speculate on any of this.
If her skin was lightened because some people thought it would sell more products, and it can be proven that was done, then I'd say it was a sin and a crime.

I also said that in the era of the air brushing the whole concept of " natural " lost any meaning.