Beyonce appears in a new ad for Loréal Feria Haircolor. Her hair is a pretty shade of auburn and her skin looks a lot lighter to match. Loréal says they didn’t do anything to lighten Beyonce’s skin though. It’s possible by some stretch of the imagination that it was the lighting. The cosmetics company could have said one of their retouching artists went too far and they regret the error, but that could be a slippery slope for them. Everyone knows their ads are all airbrushed but they have to maintain the illusion that their makeup and hair dye work that well and that we’ll achieve a kind of ageless perfection by buying it:
Yesterday, a new print ad for L’Oréal Paris’ Feria hair color surfaced, featuring a seemingly paler than usual Beyoncé Knowles. Today, the French cosmetics giant is adamantly denying that it gave its longtime spokeswoman a case of the Michael Jacksons.
“Beyoncé Knowles has been a spokesperson for the L’OréalParis brand since 2001,” the company said in a statement to E! News, after coming under withering online attacks suggesting the ad (on right, above) lightened more than just the hair color of the brand’s famous face.
“We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L’Oréal Paris altered Ms. Knowles’ features or skin-tone in the campaign for Feria’s hair color.”
A rep for the 27-year-old Knowles declined to comment beyond the L’Oréal statement.
The ad is appearing in this month’s Elle, Allure and Essence. So far the magazines have not said anything about possible Pantone issues.
[From E! Online]
Beyoncé probably doesn’t give a flip that she looks so much different in the Feria ads. She made $4.7 million for just ten days work with that contract, according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun.
This does bring up a lot of issues about whether the beauty industry is touting paler as prettier. L’Oréal has shown Beyoné with her accurate-looking skin tone in makeup ads, and maybe they outsourced these haircolor ads to another company or tried to enhance the auburn hair color with the result of changing her skin tone. It probably wasn’t a conscious decision to make Beyoncé paler. It could just have been a brightness/contrast/hue change made to the entire photo in an attempt to make the hair look prettier that resulted in lightening her skin.
At first I was pretty skeptical and believed that her skin must have been lightened, but then I found event photos where she looks almost this pale. It could be an artifact due to the bright lighting. L’Oréal is not talking so it’s not like we’re going to find out how it happened. The least they could do is acknowledge that she looks a lot different and apologize for the error. This company hasn’t stopped animal testing, though, so it’s not like we expect them to be anything but defensive about it.
I bet they did lighten her skin – but what disturbs me more is simply the extreme airbrushing.
And that auburn tint does nothing for her. Blech.
Maybe it was the camera flash made her look paler in that pic where she is in the pink dress.
She does look alot paler in the ad photos, which I am sure Loréal execs okayed before it went to print.
That shade of hair color would have not been complimentary to her natural complection.
Whether they did or not (although I’m sure they did, wouldn’t be the first time), the extreme photoshopping makes her almost unrecognisable here. She’s so much more naturally pretty than in that ad. Why didn’t they just use a cgi and be done with it?
Agghh who cares she still getting paid, I’m sure all she cares is that the money is green!
Ew. She looks gross creepy in the ad picture.
By lightening her skin, they’ve just proved how ordinary her features are.
What makes a huge difference is that they seemed to have made her a lot thinner in the face.
It is Portuguese, tried to translate it, doesn’t make sense. Is it spam?
The one below;
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will have time it to you but”
She looks SO different in the ad. I once read that nearly all black celebs lighten their skin on their own, so maybe that’s it (look at pics of H. Berry in the 90s). What ever the cause, lighting, etc., I think the company is getting off too easy here with this write up. They KNOW what they’re presenting here and how important the implications are. If she in fact lightened her own skin, then fine, that’s another debate, but if the company altered her skin after the shoot, then they should be skewered for this. JMO
I dont get all the hype and have never been able to stomach this totally un-natural looking creature.
I’m sure they did lighten her skin simply because that shade would never look good on her without it.
She looks positively ill in that ad – not good. Probably like CB said, they retouched and airbrushed it to death – went completely over board – but L’Oreal would never admit to that.
Forget her skin color…look at her nose…
Not a very flattering picture of her at all for the ad! Skin is way too light, and the angle of her nose makes it look huge. She looks better in candids!
From the pictures, I think that she and I have a similar skin color, and that hair color would look AWFUL on me.
My only other thought is that maybe the make up they used had sunscreen in it. I have some that turns all weirdly white in photographs when the flash is used. Maybe they used some sort of SPF-infused makeup all over her body to even the tone and the flash made her look weird?
Personally, I would have fixed that in photoshop, but maybe they didn’t want to get into some “un-whitening” photoshop controversy?
I don’t really think that that is the case, but I’ll throw it out there. 😀
You know, considering it’s been pretty well-established that Beyonce wears wigs all the time, I’m not sure if she’s the best spokesperson for hair dye…unless each box comes with a complimentary weave in case you don’t like how it comes out.
I’m a Black female, and I suspect that I have the same skin tone as Beyoncé. The shade her skin is in the advertisement is the same shade my skin is in the winter when I have no tan. So it’s possible they didn’t lighten it via Photoshop. *shrug*
Rio, I was thinking the same thing in regard to the irony of weave/wig-wearin’ Beyoncé having the nerve to advertise for hair color! 😆
All photos of models and actresses are photoshoppped and retouched. All of them.
her real hair is real short, so what you see there is a WIG. False advertisement from day one.
I love those Loreal lipsticks. 😀
Photoshopped to hell and back.
Rio, you took the words out of my mouth! 😀 Awful looking wig, talk about realistic ads…
Egad, she’s a reanimated Ginger corpse, minus the freckles.
Where the heck did her upper lip go? And what’s up with those eyebrows matching her wig so perfectly?
Her skin looks like Dave Chappelle when he played the white news caster or Chappelle’s Show. I can’t wait till someone leaks the untouched photo.
I’m with boobaloob — my kids (biracial and almost the dictionary entry for “yellow gals”) are completely different colors in summer and winter.
Makeup, lighting, exposure, color saturation, etc. can also make skin tone vary widely in pictures. Photos of the some person on the same day with and without a flash can make them look totally different!
In the meantime, it does seem like the total look (hair color, hair texture, photoshopping etc) for this is. . . FAKE!
I agree they must have upped the contrast/brightness to try and make that colour work with her skin tone. But it doesnt.
That’s odd, I thought advertising executives considered Beyonce just black enough to be marketable to the urban audience share, without threatening the white mainstream market- and yes, marketing people do think like that.
I have a question and I ask this in all seriousness…what’s up with black women and fake hair? Does their real hair not grow or is totally unmanageable or what?? This is a serious question.
black women get extensions the same reason as any other group of women do, it’s to change up our looks and play with styles. Our hair is not “totally unmanageable” elvis, in fact many black women if their is long enough can just press their hair (like me) without having to perm it and it looks long and straight. I found it easier to wear extensions ,if you are a person who likes to wear long and straight hair, than having to flat iron my hair every morning.
I like black hair, it is TOTALLY manageable, with special attention to keeping it from tangling. I grew up white and could never get my hair to do anything. My daughters’ hair is totally African. I can’t press it to get a long look, but that’s pretty much the only thing I haven’t figured out how to do. Twists, braids, afro-puffs, we love it all, and never in a million years could I get my own hair to do any of that. My white friends ask me how we have time to do hairstyles, but black hair stays where you put it — I only have to style it once a week!
Also, if you look at all the fashion/glamor shots, I don’t think that many WHITE women have real hair! I mean, really, how many adult women do you see in day to day life with waist-length hair who twirl it around themselves like a cascade? (OK, I admit I know ONE, but remember, I live in Texas!)
It was my understanding (from my black friends) that black people get tan in the sun; the photo of her in the yellow dress is certainly showing her skin tone as darker than the others.
I agree with the hypocritical irony of her posing for hair-color ads when wearing a wig—what could L’Oreal be thinking! Of course, I don’t know what they were thinking of anyway by hiring her in the first place. I never understood her appeal—and those awful tacky clothes she wears! YUK. 😯
The funniest thing I ever saw was that YouTube video of her falling down those stairs!!
B is really mixed like the dog that I own so maybe this is why her complexion is so bright
another thing is that hair ❓ where did that come from ❓ she really looks like a HAM, aka Hot, Azz, Mess… 😆
Isn’t Feria haircolor? Why would they get someone who is known for wearing lace-front wigs to be their spokesperson?
The thing that deeply distresses me is that Beyonce would allow this kind of prejudice to happen, all for the sake of a dollar(millions).
There are so many natural beauties out there, darker skin toned such as Gabrielle Union and others, that do not have to bleach their skin. In some ways, a couple of you hit it on the nail….a lot of Black actresses, including Halle and others bleach their skin. It’s sad that Hollywood and even within the black communities (look at the rap videos) have lighter skinned women in their video’s and seem to put lighter skin or whiter skin….(Weaves/Longer hair) as being more accepted than darker skin women (with hair that is not caucaiod(white straight hair). SMDH!
The sad truth is that Halle Berry and Beyonce are more ‘marketable’ than a black woman such as Gabrielle Union.So-called ‘black’ women such as Halle Berry, Alicia Keys and Beyonce are very obviously mixed-race and over the years they have altered and anglicized their features even more. Has anyone noticed how Halle Berry and Alicia Keys have swapped their old, wider noses for the ones they currently sport? This sort of thing has been going on for years and it’s unfortunate that we haven’t moved on. It’s always surprised me that Gabrielle Union hasn’t had the career or roles she deserves, my guess is that it’s because she’s not the right ‘hue’ for the masses, but if she was more latina-looking like Halle Berry or Jessica Alba it would be a different story.
^^ I hear ya girl! There are so many beautiful black women who just don’t get a shot because they are not marketable. But we know who they are.
Angela Bassett, Gabrielle Union, N’Bushe Wright (from Blade). I could go on and on.
OK, girls, Here is another serious question, not being disresspectful, or funny, but talking about hair. What is the difference between extensions and a weave when you talk about the celebrities and what they have done?? Beyonce is so pretty, but there is a big difference in those pictures. i remember when Christie Brinkley and Jamie Lee Curtis asked NOT to be airbrushed any more for their covers. They did NOT airbrush Curtis but still airbrush Brinkley because she is still under contract, and has ” no say ” her agent has said. It leaves young girls striving to look like that perfect skin and hair, and I have to admit, at my age ( 55 ) fall for it also. So sad uh?? What we do for perfection..
Beyonce is nothing but gorgeous, that includes that wonderful honey colored skin color she has. Even in the facebook shots people make them look either lighter or darker according to the lighting of the photo. If the photo made a white model a shade or two lighter for effect no one would say anything. This is a tempest in a teapot and I guess that is what we are all here for… hysteria. Did I say Beyonce is gorgeous!
I get a big laugh out of seeing what photographers do to make magazine models look much thinner than they are. Sometimes they go overboard with cropping the bodies, and the models wind up missing elbows and kneecaps. Its hysterical. I have to wonder who they think they are fooling. Its not humanly possible to be five foot eleven and weigh 70 pounds.
Oh well, its always good for a laugh, if nothing more.
“If the photo made a white model a shade or two lighter for effect no one would say anything.”
Nobody would say anything because it’s not a big deal, unlike the case here with Beyoncé. The difference is this: to make a Black person appear to have skin lighter than she truly has is to imply that Black is *not* beautiful. White people, no matter the shade of their skin (with the exception of true albinos), do not consistently get discriminated against based on the color of their skin. Dark-skinned Black people are, for the most part, discriminated against more often that light-skinned Blacks. If it’s the case that Beyoncé’s skin was lightened here in order to appeal to a wider audience, then that is most certainly a big deal. All shades of skin should be considered equally beautiful.
I’ve always thought that white people who go to tanning beds, are saying that white skin is not beautiful.
I remember in the 1980s, when other women were indignant that I dared to go to the public pool in a swimsuit with my pale complexion; we ladies were told that unless we were baked to the color of a latte, then we were unworthy to be seen in public in a swimsuit. I was openly insulted by people because I didn’t want to waste all my free time in some stupid tanning bed.
I AM AGREE WITH HER SOFT AND LENGTH HAIR