Popular online brand ColourPop has renamed three shades of its Sculpting Stix product after mounting controversy.
Last week, several beauty bloggers questioned the name of three shades, all designed for darker skin tones. The shades “Typo”, “Dume” and “Yikes” were all criticised for their negative connotations.
The names were particularly criticised for their contrast to the lighter shades, called names such as “Gummy Bear” and “Castle”.
Notably, blogger Moyo Ajepe wrote an open letter to the brand on website Affinity Magazine in a post titled: “Dear ColourPop, my skin color is not a typo”.
Ajepe wrote: “Buying a product calling my skin tone “Dume” does not help girls that look like me use makeup to enhance and love the God-given skin that they’re in.”
the naming of colourpop's lighter contouring sticks vs their darker ones pic.twitter.com/U7nREkQSsK
— Pax Jones (@misspaxjones) September 16, 2016
so first colourpop wanna name a lippie "gypsy" and now their darker color contour sticks are named "yikes" and "typo"? colourpop: cancelled
— baby sweet like coco (@OSAMABINHAD) September 19, 2016
Really disappointed in ColourPop cosmetics. Calling a darker-pigmented product "yikes" and "typo" is disgusting, tasteless, and racist.
— Haley Weatherford (@hnweatherford) September 21, 2016
if you don't see anything wrong with the names of colourpop's darker shades, unfollow lol pic.twitter.com/XaS5fQ9iCg
— ✨ (@FFSMADELAINE) September 19, 2016
As the story gained traction online, ColourPop renamed the three shades and issued a response saying that it would review its naming process.
The offending shades have now been renamed: “Point Dume”, “Bloom” and “Platonic”.
ColourPop told Buzzfeed News: “We are sorry and extremely grateful for our customers’ feedback. We have taken immediate action to change the shade names and review our naming process to ensure this does not happen again.”
This is not the first time that ColourPop’s shade names have attracted controversy. Earlier this year, ColourPop released a lipstick shade called “Gypsy” which was later renamed “Calypso” after similar backlash online.
ColourPop was developed by Seed Beauty and launched in 2014. The company sells its products exclusively online and is known for fashionable shades at budget prices.
ColourPop did not respond to Cosmetics Business’ request for comment on this matter.
