Boots has admitted that it made a mistake when displaying a recent skin chart to its customers.
A sun cream section of its UK branch had put up a list of skin types and the SPF that should be worn in correlation.
The chart listed six different options; sensitive, fair, normal, olive, brown, and black.
Over the weekend one Twitter user, called Simran, posted a photo of the chart, asking: ‘Just wondering what constitutes as a ‘normal’ skin colour and why brown and black is implied to be abnormal?’.
And his observation subsequently prompted a strong reaction on social.
.@BootsUK not acceptable. White isn’t the default/”normal” skin colour! Also dark skin can be sensitive too?! #WhiteWashing #racism #boots pic.twitter.com/X5AsBezjWG
— Maisie Ferne-Evans (@maisiefe) June 24, 2017
Hey @BootsUK, wanna tell us what a “normal” skin tone is??? ? pic.twitter.com/afScBQwlZP
— yas (@yiasxo) June 25, 2017
In response to the controversy Boots took to Twitter to address the issue; the statement in full reads:
‘We’d like to thank our customers for bringing this isolated incident to our attention.We can confirm the content featured was not official Boots show material and we have removed the chart immediately.We apologise for any offence this has caused,’
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We can confirm it was an isolated incident in only one Boots store & that 1/3
— Boots Help (@BootsHelp) June 26, 2017
the content featured was not official Boots show material. We’ve removed the chart immediately from this store 2/3
— Boots Help (@BootsHelp) June 26, 2017
& apologise for any offence this may have caused. Thanks, Holly 3/3
— Boots Help (@BootsHelp) June 26, 2017