L’Oréal drops ‘extra light’ and ‘morena maisna’ in sunscreen names

The cosmetics and makeup multinational L’Oréal decided to abolish definitions such as “extra light”, “light”, “brunette” and “morena morena” in its sunscreens, names that usually have racist connotations. Other nomenclatures that are no longer used are “light to medium light skin” and “medium to black skin”.

The products now display a numerical scale of colors, ranging from 1.0 to 6.0. In addition, the company has just developed 11 new color sun protection formulas, which expand the range of shades for Brazilian skin from 32 to 43.

The novelty comes to the Anthelios (La Roche-Posay brand), Solar Expertise (L’Oréal Paris) and Capital Soleil (Vichy) lines, all brands of the L’Oréal group – a French multinational that had a turnover of 18.3 billion euros (R $94 billion) in the first half of this year, up 21% year-on-year. In Brazil, sales advanced 15% in the period.

A campaign with actresses Taís Araújo and Larissa Manoela, which should debut soon, will announce the news for the Solar Expertise line. Investments are not disclosed.

“It caused me some discomfort, as a black consumer, to see the denomination by skin tones”, she told Sheet scientist Lívia Ferreira, from L’Oréal Brasil’s Solar Protection Laboratory and leader of the AfroSou affinity network, who is leading the project for the new nomenclature of color protectors.

AfroSou is one of four affinity networks created between L’Oréal Brasil employees (the others are gender, people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+). Founded in 2020, today it has more than one hundred members and actively participates in business and marketing discussions through advisory councils – groups of employees who bring the company’s consumer perspective.

“With the launches, we started to better serve the skin color range of Brazilian women”, says Humberto Martins, director of the Cosmetic division at L’Oréal Brasil, emphasizing that the objective is to represent the local society, in which 56% declare themselves black. or brown.

To help the consumer at the time of purchase, an indicative scale was created on the packaging to indicate the shade that the product covers and the level of coverage of the formula. Prices range from R$39.90 (Solar Expertise Anti Oil, from L’Oréal Paris) to R$99.90 (Capital Soleil UV-Age Daily Fluid SPF50+, from Vichy).

“There is a great myth around black skin, that it would be more resistant to the sun and, therefore, would dispense with the use of sun protection”, says Lívia. “Actually, on white skin the effects of ultraviolet radiation are much more visible, that’s the difference.” In addition, according to Lívia, darker skin types also suffer from spots and photoaging without adequate protection.

“The product with a high SPF and that controls oiliness can leave the skin whitish – hence the challenge of manufacturing a product with a color that meets the different skin tones of Brazilian women”, says Martins.

The motivation for the new nomenclature came from a study carried out by Estúdio Nina (a specialized agency for black consumers), which consulted dermatologists, makeup artists, consumers and other black specialists, in partnership with AfroSou. The research sought to understand how the old names adopted in color protectors were perceived and what were the proposals for a new nomenclature.

Brazil is the 3rd largest world market for sunscreen, behind China and the USA

The color scale, by the way, is already used in L’Oréal Brasil makeup. The country is the fourth largest beauty market in the world and where one of the company’s seven global research and innovation centers is located.

Among makeup, cosmetics and beauty products, the French group works with 21 brands in the country, including L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Garnier, Niely, Colorama, Kérastase, L’Oréal Professionnel, RedKen, La Roche-Posay, Vichy and SkinCeuticals.

L’Oréal is one of the leaders in the sunscreen market in Brazil, dominating the colored sunscreen segment.

According to consultancy Euromonitor, Brazil is the third largest world market for sunscreens (with or without color), only behind China and the United States. The difference in size for Brazil, however, is large: in dollars, sales of sunscreens last year totaled US$ 2.4 billion (R$ 12.3 billion) in China, US$ 2, 1 billion (R$ 10.8 billion) in the United States and US$ 641 million (R$ 3.3 billion) in Brazil.

In the past, the brands that sold the most in Brazil were Sundown (from Johnson & Johnson), with a 20.3% share; Nivea Sun (from Beiersdorf), with 14.3%, and La Roche-Posay (L’Oréal), with 13.7%.

Black skin has been the focus of attention by beauty multinationals, in response to criticism for treatments that respect and value different body types. That’s how the German beauty multinational Beiersdorf, owner of Nivea, launched, in August, the Radiant Beauty line, of moisturizers aimed at black skin.

According to Nivea, the line was developed from research carried out with more than 500 black women in different countries, such as Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria. Some of the main complaints from this audience were dry skin, discomfort with stretch marks and uneven skin tone.