Whitewashed?

Filed under: Beyonce

beyonce.jpg

Looks like Michael Jackson just found himself a new photo retoucher!

The people at L'Oréal are denying that Beyonce's photo was purposely retouched to make her look "whiter."

Seriously.

The new print ad for L'Oréal Paris' Feria hair color was officially released this week. It featured a "paler" than normal Beyonce.

However, the cosmetics company is denying any wrongdoing.

A rep for the company says, "Beyoncé Knowles has been a spokesperson for the L'Oréal Paris brand since 2001. 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."

As for Beyonce, her rep has yet to comment.

What do U think?

[Image via WENN and L'Oréal.]

    Posted: Aug 7, 2008 at 6:45 pm / Email this  »

    153 comments to “Whitewashed?”

    More comments: « 1 [2]

    1. beana says – reply to this


      101

      they kinda fixed her face structure to look like hilary duff in some of her promo shots for her last actual album



    2. 102

      THATS TOTALLY RETOUCHED THERES NO WAY SHE CAN GET THAT PALE EVEN iF SHE DiD STAY iN THE HOUSE FOR A WHOLE SEASON WiTH NO TANS



    3. 103

      It's not even just her skin, her facial structure looks completely different. Stronger jaw, more prominent cheekbones, etc.



    4. 104

      that's probably just beyonce normally…cuz in the left pic she looks super tanned. and the colour does nothing for her but wash her out…



    5. 105

      white girl

    6. skid says – reply to this


      106

      maybe she shes anemic, def needs some iron, poor lad



    7. 107

      What's wrong with wanting to be lighter anyway? I want to be darker….
      .
      I think Beyonce's gorgeous, whatever skin tone she is.



    8. 108

      well, it does look quite a bit paler…i guess they were trying to appeal to white women as well by using makeup lighter than her real skin tone. the picture on the left also appears to be different than her natural skin color. look at how different the color under her eyes and in between her boobs is than the rest of her. she should embrace her natural skin color! (whatever that may be).



    9. 109

      she look extra white period. YEs they retouched this shit



    10. 110

      Re: HAMphetamine
      That's right baby!!!



    11. 111

      YES. They retouched it. Bastards. I am a white woman, and I say black is beautiful and there is no need to re-touch or lighten anything.



    12. 112

      At some point B lose me as a fan… really i used to love her and find her soo cool but lately she yells and screams in all of her songs to the point that they are pretty annoying!
      About the pic, straight hair is definetely not the look for her if she is going to represent an african american woman, she has curls, she needs to show them, I would love to have curly hair… anyways she looks kinda bleached and her face looks sort of different… photoshop works?



    13. 113

      FYI- TIME MAGAZINE 1994 darkened OJ Simpson's picture!

      Now adays do They lighten?



    14. 114

      beyonce's full of shit!
      she's been lightening her skin from her Destiny Child days…
      m.



    15. 115

      DOES LOREAL REALLY THINK ITS CUSTOMER'S AND PEOPLE IN GENERAL ARE IDIOTS ??!! IT IS QUITE CLEAR THAT MS "GET ME BODIED" HAS BEEN AIRBRUSHED TO APPEAR "WHITE-ISH" !!!!! AN AGE OLD TRADITION IN RACIST AMERICA



    16. 116

      idk im half african and sometime pictures i take i look way lighter skined than i really am…sometimes i take ones darker than i am…i think its just lighting and the camera



    17. 117

      It's called professional photography. With proper lights, her skin is definitely going to look different.
      The picture on the left is from a carpet event where tons of flashes are going off from random angles.

      It's all about the lighting..



    18. 118

      Beyonce probably wanted them to make her look like that!



    19. 119

      WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS HOW SHE CAN BE THE FACE OF FERIA / HAIR COLOR WHEN ALL SHE WEARS IS A WIG???



    20. 120

      WHO CARES ABOUT HER SKIN TONE? LOOK AT THAT HELMUT SHE'S WEARING IN BOTH PICS??? SHE SHOULDN'T BE REPRESENTING HAIR COLOR PRODUCTS WHEN SHE ALWAYS WEARS A WIG! LOL



    21. 121

      The one on the right looks better!



    22. 122

      Re: HAMphetamine

      How Macho… And probably you havn't fucked a Mexican or African American woman either… So keep on touching yourself bro!



    23. 123

      I think this was obvious since 2001 when she joined them… what has she been doing all this time, dying her weave? LMAO has she ever shown her own hair in a feria ad? Why would she not have them touch the photos up? Besides, Feria looks great for about 3 days, then washes out to look like you used a bingo dabber (sadly, popular in the 90's). She would know that if she used it on her real hair, and didn't braid in a horse's tail to cover it. Really tho, who ever listens to celebrities trying to convince us they dye their own hair?



    24. 124

      It's all in the lighting people. Photographers change the lighting for black people to make their skin stand out and there's nothing wrong with that. Look at any pictures or commercials with Queen Latifah her skin looks amazing and she looks lighter. Even Oprah has lighting for her skin tone and she looks amazing!



    25. 125

      Her hair is lighter. That's going to make her skin appear lighter. It's called basic color theory.



    26. 126

      It's all in the lighting. This isn't a new image of her. She's looked like this before. Sheesh, people. Stop playing the race card EVERYTIME something like this happens. And no. Don't skewer me for it: I'm Asian. It's not like I'm racist. I know what racism is. And THIS IS NOT IT.



    27. 127

      wow you chose the darkest picture with the worst lighting to compare it to…way to go douche..its lighting,globs of makeup and airbrushing



    28. 128

      A little extra tan, a little extra hair, a little extra booty…that's how we do.
      A little extra 'lighter'… is in someone else's hands! RETOUCH!



    29. 129

      I've seen her that pale before but never as dark as the other photo you used. It will just be the lighting.

    30. Eva says – reply to this


      130

      She's orange in the picture on the left



    31. 131

      They retouched the pic!!
      I'm lucky that im a very white nort-russian…

    32. JET says – reply to this


      132

      L'Oréal Paris' used the software ADOBE LIGHTROOM to create that image. We have been using it for a year now and it's remarkable what it can do with darker skin tones prior to final post-production in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3.
      .
      However, if you are not careful, and the mid-range tone of the face is similar to the mid-range tone of the hair, they both end up with a similar color balance and tint.
      .
      In the case of L'Oréal Paris', that's most likely the exact effect that they were looking for.

    33. Paty says – reply to this


      133

      Just make up. I don´t think they would do that….she´s knonw EVERYWHERE. Why would they do that when people know how she looks like?
      It´s just dumb.

      (But that hair is totally fake).



    34. 134

      I HAVE SEEN HER LOOK THAT PALE IN VIDEOS AND THAT DARK IN OTHERS! MAKEUP AND LIGHTING i THINK!



    35. 135

      Geez. It's a make-up company. They just used foundations and stuff to compliment the color of her hair, etc. It's a good pic. If they photoshopped her skin tone, it was only to make her face blend with the color of her arm. I'm sure it wasn't to make her look white.



    36. 136

      Re: cassidy7192
      Then you don't really know what she looks like that well. She is totally recognizable. BTW….EVERY photograph in magazines now-a-days is retouched. Every single one. It's standard to photoshop each picture just like it's standard to edit the text of a magazine. They are just saying that they didn't intentionally photoshop the pic to make her look white.



    37. 137

      Doesn't she wear a wig? If so, that's kinda stupid for her to be a spokesperson for hair color when she doesn't even have real hair. And, think about it, does any celebrity actually use home hair color? I know I don't. I go to the salon.



    38. 138

      First of all, WHY is this even a topic? Would this be discussed if it were a white woman looker whiter/darker? Second, celebrities such as she would have input into the photos being printed for the campaign, so she obviously gave it the thumbs up. Third,has anyone ever Googled Beyonce? There are pictures of her much lighter than that ad! Also, I don't understand how somebody who WEARS A WIG EVERYDAY OF HER LIFE is even a candidate for a HAIR DYE product!



    39. 139

      Well, if they did, it's their loss : she looks better darker. She just looks sick on the ad.



    40. 140

      It doesn't matter if it is retouched or not. What does matter is that she looks TERRIBLE.



    41. 141

      Umm.. black ppl who are mixed - and *don't* have a dark complexion - DO tan.. and lose the tan; can happen over & over thorugh the years. It's no big deal.



    42. 142

      I honestly think that they lightened her skin in the picture because the color of her hair clashed with her darker skin… doesnt that make sense?

    43. Aven says – reply to this


      143

      Why is everybody talking about Byonce's colour, here's a point, WHY IS SHE ADVERTISING L'OREAL HAIR COLOUR WHEN SHE HAS NO HAIR? Isn't that false advertising?



    44. 144

      IT DOESN'T LOOK OBVIOUS.
      .
      HOWEVER THEY PROBABLY RETOUCHED THE HAIR COLOR FOR SURE, SINCE IT MUST BE TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT FOR A HAIR COLOR PRODUCT TO HAVE THE HAIR 'COLOR' THEY SPECIFY.
      .
      MAYBE HER CARAMEL SKIN COLORING (I MEAN THAT VERY COMPLIMENTARY BECAUSE HER SKIN IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL) WAS A BIT CLOSE TO THE HAIR COLOR AND THEY WENT FOR SOME CONTRAST.
      .
      BUT I DOUBT THEY WANTED HER 'WHITER' FOR RACIST OR MARKET REASONS.
      .
      LETS HOPE BEYONCE'S PEOPLE HAVE ENOUGH CLASS NOT TO EVEN INSINUATE OR SLYLY HINT THAT IS EVEN A POSSIBILITY.
      .
      ALL THIS HYPERSENSITIVITY HAS LONG GOTTEN TIRING!
      .



    45. 145

      This is old news! I BEEN knew AD companies were doing this. They ALWAYS get a fairly brown-skinned actress and make them 2 to 3 shades lighter! What kind of message are they sending to dark skinned black girls? Making us feel like being dark wouldn't be good enough so they have to take a model or in this case, singer, and make her a white woman. I am not surprised at all. This is old news. And that is just a bad picture of her to the left, not because she's darker or anything but because that shit is plain ugly, and we all know she is not that light skinned in the pic on the "right" side…the "white" side. if you know what I mean.



    46. 146

      Ew she looks so fucking old and disgusting on the right! They're using that garbage as the ad!? Gross!



    47. 147

      It's not the first time won't be the last. If it has been going on this long why bother about it now she obviously has been allowing this to happen. She wants to make more money and this is the way she knows how to make money



    48. 148

      she kinda looks like madonna……….strange……
      or is it the pot?

    49. joan says – reply to this


      149

      it's probably the lighting, as well as the fact that they blatantly retouch every girl on every hair colour package in the world - have you seen the hairlines on some of those girls? they're fictional hair lines.
      and i thought her hair used to be black? it's now ginger. connnngratulations, beyonce. you made it.



    50. 150

      it's obvious they altered the pic but b don't look white and she never will also i don't know what the big deal is if the person who is being painted over is not offended no one else should be.



    51. 151

      Well beyond the fact that she looks like she just came out of the freezer at the morgue, her nose is long as well as her face and thinner. I mean come on look at the wig someone obviously got Photoshop happy. Now I love Photoshop but you still want to look like yourself.



    52. 152

      Who cares its a photo, why do people make such a big deal of things that don't even matter. When we first saw Beyonce she was a little on the light saide, now it just looks like she tans!



    53. 153

      i think she lightens her skin and may want to look more "spanish" than black. example her video with shakira. . kinda sad if she does lighten her skin though. *-).

    More comments: « 1 [2]