Do Cosmetic Companies Overlook Black Women?

Yes they do and it is sad to say it but its true……….

There’s a natural hair and cosmetics company started by a young black woman that has been featured on Oprah, The Big Idea, and some other television shows. The founder is named Jasmine Lawrence and her company is called Eden Body Works. You can find her on the web. Most of her customers are Black, but she has customers of all types.

I think their choices have a lot to do with who is hot at the time and who they believe will bring in the customers. I am a Loreal person and I like their makeup. I cannot see any skin lightening from the pictures provided with this story and the skin tones vary as they should based on blood lines (bi-racial, etc). As far as other women in ads go – are there any black women 50+ who look as down trotten as white women the same age? Heck no and we can thank that to our pigmentation. They are trying to sell makeup to women who are looking for a miracle when they get older. Most black women do not start to show signs of true aging until they are in their mid 60’s. Of course this varies depending on the lighter the skin tone is compared to others.

Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought Essence was bought out by a white company (Time, Inc. ) about five years ago. And that magazine is now a mess. Either we (man or woman) are having affairs or we need help in keeping our relationships going. No articles of significance to women either. They need to have a panel to figure out how to fix that magazine where it is back to issues of importance to black people. They were bought out around the same time Clairol bought out a couple of the top black hair product companies and now you don’t even see advertising for these products any more. Advertising is aimed at those who have the money to purchase. We do not buy a lot of products because we do not need all of that foundation and mineral powers. The average woman uses an eyeliner, lipstick and ocassionally masacra. Foundations come into play when there are discolorations in the skin. We are just too da-mn beautiful as black women to put all of that crap on our faces because we do not need it. That stuff is for assistance in the aging process of our fair skinned sisters (light skinned blacks, whites, latinos, asians). It is great to be a black woman.

I have no problems with cosmetics…i use lancome…i wouldnt trade it for the world! companies are getting better with the shades for sisters thought i give them that…kudoz for them and for us…also a lot of companies have black models….Px…Lancome..clinque…etc.

I think it is simply a marketing decision. I believe the cosmetics companies choose not to market as much to the black female consumer because we spend less on cosmetics than our white counterparts. Since we are not splurging on the latest anti-aging products and lipsticks and glosses designed to make our lips appear fuller,the companies choose to reach us through celebrities that we already admire rather than risking their marketing dollars on lesser known models. It seems to be more about the dollar than about a particular ethnic group. If we spent more on cosmetics – the companies would in turn invest more in targeting our dollars.

Black or darker skin women are not necessarily overlooked as it’s related to the the expectation of purchase, but when it comes to the type of representation in the marketing, I believe it is not as true as it should be. As a black woman who loves comestics products, I certainly would like to see more campaign ads using darker skin models, but even more I want to see the diversity of hair styles of black women like: afros, braids, dreads and the like because there is beauty in that and its a true representation of the African American culture. When this type of approach to sales becomes a reality, I won’t have to try to push my products so hard to black women. I know from a personal standpoint especially in poor communities black women don’t always have a regular beauty routine because they have not realized the power in using a touch of moisturizer or foundation to accent their look. I believe sales would improve if black women saw more ads with true representation of our diversity of hairstyles and skin tone.

The cosmetic companies don’t think about African-American woman when it comes to making make-up they think that were all the same shade and don’t realize that we all don’t have the same skin color, if you look at white woman they had variety of colors when it comes to foundations and make-up, these companies always forget about us.

I dont know know if it’s just where I live but Maybelline discontinued the distribution of their moisturizing makeup in the dark aka coco color and thats the only one I don’t think right because thats really good makeup. But now I use MAC but its not the same.

I’ve been working in cosmetics for almost 6 years and yes most lines do overlook us. The best lines for women of color would have to be IMAN, MAC, FASHION FAIR, PRESCRIPTIVES, BOBBI BROWN, and MAKEUP FOREVER. Prescriptives has custom blending which is great for finding a perfect color foundation.
Too many cosmetic lines single out light african american women as the only group to wear make up or the only type of beauty in the black world.
Black women Should never be scared of makeup or color. Just enhance what you have or be as creative as you want!

Me too! I do Fashion Fair ‘cuz they are the one kind company that don’t mess with black shades they even have the most blackest shade. But honestly, most companies does get better to have a lot of african-american shades but not a lot shades might just two of them in african-america shades. But I haven’t been to them for a while since I sell Avon they have complex that sell a few shades even Jennifer Hudson used it. You can see her on cover sometimes. Some makeup may not work for you, so don’t blame company it is just like sometimes hairstyle work on other girl but you want that exactly hairstyle then in end result it doesn’t look good on you…who are you to blame? Don’t blame hairstyler. It is better to just stick to what you know and used before.

what a stupid question. ofcourse they do! i’d love to be able to buy some cheap foundation that actually matched, instead i always have to get the high-end stuff, and it still isnt right (its too damn dark, or too damn light) the only stuff that matches me perfect is avon…which if i cant find an avon lady, i’m s**t outta luck. the only time white-owned companies feature dark skinned women in their ads it seems is when its for lotion. which makes sense since darker skinned ppl have much softer skin than white and light skinned ppl

The only black celebs in cosmetic ads are the light skinned women, Beyonce,,Rinhanna, and Halle.

angela was the only dark sista on there and it was for lotion not make up smh its hard for dark sistas to find the right shade cause everything is to light and i aint even that dark jus dark enough