Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 12, 2026

L'Oréal is the latest beauty company to remove words like 'fair,' 'light,' and 'whitening' from marketing skin-tone products

L'Oréal is the latest beauty company to remove words like 'fair,' 'light,' and 'whitening' from marketing skin-tone products

L'Oréal is the latest beauty company to remove words like 'fair,' 'light,' and 'whitening' from marketing skin-tone products

* L'Oréal said Saturday that it "has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products," according to the Associated Press.

* L'Oréal Group owns beauty brands including Garnier, Maybelline New York, La Roche Posay, SkinCeuticals, and L'Oréal Paris, among others.

* The company's announcement to stop labeling products with "whitening," "fair," and "lightening" follows similar moves from other large cosmetics companies.

* For example, Johnson & Johnson recently stopped selling skin-lightening products that were available in Asia and the Middle East; and Nivea said it would change the name of its "Fair & Lovely" line to be more inclusive.

L'Oréal is the latest major beauty and personal care company to reconsider wording for products used or marketed as skin-lighteners.

In a statement released on Saturday, the company said that it "has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products," according to the Associated Press.

France-based L'Oréal Group owns beauty brands sold worldwide, including Garnier, Maybelline New York, La Roche Posay, SkinCeuticals, and L'Oréal Paris, among other lines of products sold to everyday consumers and beauty professionals alike.

L'Oréal's statement did not immediately specify products in particular that it plans to rename.

Other global companies have made similar changes to their products and messaging in recent weeks


Brand and creative leaders of all industries, from skincare to food to entertainment, are facing a modern reckoning that has sparked reconsiderations of deeply rooted racist origins of logos and messaging.

The announcement from L'Oréal follows moves made by other personal care corporations to give thought as to how products with skin-evening or lightening abilities are marketed, and whether or not they should be sold at all.

For example, Johnson & Johnson announced earlier in June that it discontinued two lines products that could be used for skin-lightening purposes: Neutrogena Fine Fairness, sold in Asia and the Middle East; and Clean & Clear's Clear Fairness, sold in India.

"Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our dark spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. "This was never our intention – healthy skin is beautiful skin."

A Johnson & Johnson spokesperson previously told AdAge that the name of the Neutrogena Fine Fairness products "may be perceived in an unintended way."

Additionally, Unilever — which owns Dove, Suave, St. Ives, and Vaseline, among hundreds of other household-name brands — said in a statement on Thursday that it will remove words that denote skin-lightening from its products.

"The evolution to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates and cares for all skin tones, and no longer uses the words 'white/whitening', 'light/lightening or 'fair/fairness', will be a policy for all Unilever's Beauty & Personal Care brands," Unilever's announcement read.

"We're committed to a skincare portfolio that's inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty," Unilever said in a tweet.

Unilever also said it would rename its Fair & Lovely skin cream, which is sold across Asia.

Sunny Jain, Unilever's President Beauty & Personal Care, said in the statement that the company plans to make changes to how the Fair & Lovely product is advertised.

"We will also continue to evolve our advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India and other countries," Jain said. "We want Fair & Lovely to become a brand that celebrates glowing and radiant skin, regardless of skin tone."

The statement added that Fair & Lovely "has never been, and is not, a skin bleaching product."

The Fair & Lovely product has garnered criticism for being depicted in TV advertisements as giving people a lighter complexion, and as of June 28, more than 13,000 people signed a petition calling for the company to ban the product altogether.

ABC Journalist Siobhan Heanue wrote on Twitter that despite the name change of Fair & Lovely, as long as the cream continues to be sold, its purpose will stay the same.


Representatives for L'Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Netflix Weighs Always-On Channels, Bundles and Short-Form Video
Passenger Is Pulled Partly Outside Ryanair Jet After Window Fails Mid-Flight
The AI Invoice Shock: Layoffs Didn't Save Managers Money — They Cost Them More
Concern: Sexually Transmitted Bacterium Among Men Develops Antibiotic Resistance
Following Massive Investor Demand: SK Hynix Raises 26.5 Billion Dollars on Nasdaq
Passenger Partially Pulled Out of Ryanair Jet After Cabin Window Fails Mid-Flight
After Four Years, and Under a Heavy Veil of Secrecy: King Charles Meets His Grandchildren, Harry and Meghan's Children
Severe Heatwave Drives Dangerous Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Across Two Thirds of European Union
Westminster in Freefall as Farage's By-Election Gamble Triggers Broader Systemic Crises
Institutional Fractures and Political Volatility Reshape Britain's Domestic Landscape
Deadly Fire, Health Emergencies and Political Upheaval Shape a Volatile Global News Cycle
Flight Instructor Jumped to His Death — Student Landed the Plane: "You Know What You Need to Do"
The Physical and Electronic Barriers Disrupting Domestic Wireless Networks
France and Morocco Open World Cup Quarter-Finals as Collina Defends Refereeing
Prince Harry Suffers Major Court Defeat in Legal Battle Against Daily Mail Publisher
Bonnie Tyler, Welsh Singer Behind Total Eclipse of the Heart, Dies at 75
Tech Pulse: The Future of AI and Screen Culture
Global News Briefing: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions and Corporate Shakeups
Global News Brief: Escalating Conflicts, Public Health Crises, and World Cup Drama
Federal Financial Framework Shifts as Treasury Launches Universal Savings Program for Minors
French Court Allows Le Pen to Run for Presidency, but with an Electronic Tag: "I Will Appeal, and I Will Run"
$1.4 Trillion: The Lawsuit That Could Crush Meta
Europe's Growing Struggle with Extreme Heat and Air Conditioning
UK Daily Briefing: Legal Developments and Social Issues
Political Turmoil and Rising Costs
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Logic Flaw in Windows 11 Permission Architecture Silently Consumes Hundreds of Gigabytes of Local Storage
Apple Advances Late-Stage Operating Systems with Fourth Beta Deployments
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Deep Purple Has Released Its Best Album in Decades
Microsoft Lays Off 4,800 Employees and Xbox Suffers the Hardest Blow
Morocco and France Advance as 2026 FIFA World Cup Enters Quarterfinals.
Historic 2026 Tour de France Opens in Barcelona With Revamped Team Time Trial.
Global Mergers and Acquisitions Approach $4 Trillion Defying Geopolitical Tumult.
Negotiators Advance 20-Point Framework for Gaza Ceasefire and Demilitarization.
OECD Warns Middle East Conflict Will Depress Global Economic Growth.
Ukrainian Drones Strike Major Oil Terminal in St. Petersburg.
World Meteorological Organization Issues Urgent Alert Over Rapidly Intensifying El Niño.
United States Commemorates 250th Anniversary With Diplomatic Summits and Global Flotilla.
Iran Begins Days-Long Funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei Amid Strait of Hormuz Standoff.
Technology giant reports surging carbon emissions driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure demands.
Artificial intelligence adoption accelerates workforce reductions across the technology and financial sectors.
Global technology and financial conglomerates collaborate to launch a new stablecoin standard.
United States regulators lift export restrictions on a major frontier artificial intelligence model.
Luxury bags take over the World Cup: style, status symbol, or just showing off?
×