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White Faced Blunder For Body Shop

Are ethics just as important as corporate growth and adding to consumer choice? Given that there is a huge market for skin bleaching products in India, and many other countries, Body Shop in India have launched a skin bleaching range.

The Body Shop claim that one of their core values is to be beautiful naturally but acknowledged that most skin bleaching products are harmful as they contain chemicals and damage skin. We debated skin colour here at The Chatterjis a while back in a post called Nice Tan Lines and heard of reader experiences.  I think it’s sad that even The Body Shop has joined in this segment of the market.

Bubbly

Posted on May 5, 2011 at 8:25 am in Daily Musings & Ponderings   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

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8 Comments to “White Faced Blunder For Body Shop”

    
  1. beauty queen
    May 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    That is sad indeed. I used to go to the body shop as a kid and would probably have been persuaded to buy bleaching products if I saw them in a shop I trusted, especially as I was insecure enough in my teens. There is nothing wrong with being darker skinned and it’s a pity that the body shop’s ethics stop at animal welfare.

    Reply
  2. Bunty
    May 5, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    I think Body Shop’s ethic stopped when Anita Roddick sold the business to L’Oreal. She must be turning in her grave to see her beloved brand’s trusted image be so violated.

    Reply
  3. Mysterious Pinkie
    May 6, 2011 at 9:12 am

    Your story has put me off buying Body Shop products ever again. That is the most hypcritical thing I have heard about a company providing beauty products. Why is it OK to be ethical about animanl welfare, but completely prejudiced about the colour of someone’s skin? I know companies like Loreal have skin bleaching these products, but they don’t claim to be holier than thou.

    I think we should start a petition to get these products off Body Shop’s shelves. When I work out how to do it, I will re-post with details.

    Reply
  4. Vakeel Bibi
    May 6, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    I am also now going to boycott Bodyshop – how disgusting – it really angers me that having dark skin is still considered a “problem” to be corrected.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous
    May 9, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    I find it disgusting that BodyShop sell these products – is there anything we can do? Should we write to someone? I feel so compelled to do something about this, shouldn’t everyone know? I am dark skinned and have hassle about it all my life, including my mum getting annoyed if I played outside in the sunshine for too long.

    Reply
    • thechatterjis
      May 10, 2011 at 10:13 am

      I understand how you feel. My brother and I are dark skinned too and my gran would give us soap to scrub ourselves as if we could scrub away our colour of skin. She would always say that no-one will want to marry us with dark skin!!!

      Bubbly and I have been talking about this and we will start off a petition here on The Chatterjis. I will draft a letter this week and post it by the end of the week for you to sign and get your loved ones and friends, male or female.

      Bubbly, as these products are in India, do you know what the opinion is there? Can we get them on board there too? We would need to get over 100 signatures.

      Bunty

      Reply
  6. Bubbly
    May 12, 2011 at 6:20 am

    Hi Bunty,

    I heard this brand of the body shop is available internationally. The brand is shiso, anyone heard of it in London?

    Reply
  7. Bunty
    May 16, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Ok, I have been doing some research behind this Shiso brand. Interesting blog http://www.bellasugar.com/Beauty-Byte-Skin-Lightening-Market-Booms-India-283771
    Comments are really interesting as they want the product on their shelves.
    Reviews of Shiso are that it is a poor product. It doesn’t do the job and doesn’t have a bleaching agent in their product. Are they then misleading their customers????
    However, by selling this product they are going against there own ethos which on their website states “there is only one way to be beautiful, nature’s way”.
    Any petition would focus on the Body Shop going against there own brand values. I will carry on with this on this basis.

    Reply
    

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