Comments on: L’Oreal/Beyoncé Controversy Just History Repeating

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:35:41 +0000

@ Bald Tires- what’s going on is the usual photoshopping at least as far as the fuller lips, laugh lines etc are concerned, I’d assume. There’s no way this thing wasn’t subjected to the usual retouching, even if they didn’t use the old digital makeup to change her actual skin tone.

Regardless of whether it’s race motivated or not, everybody has to remember that they don’t click a photo and print out the ad. These things go through more time and retouching than I want to think about. From choosing the makeup and setup, to setting the lights, to actually taking the photo and then some, this is a meticulous process. The final image they get is very, very controlled. Regardless of why they want to get a certain “look”, they are definitely in control of what they get. Why they made her look different is a mystery to me, but anybody who thinks that they weren’t in complete control of the final result hasn’t spent any time in advertising. They know how to do this, folks.

Incidentally, I asked a professional photog about the “flash washed her out” theory and…no go on that one. If the flash washed her out to that degree, you’d notice that her eyebrows, the dark parts of her eyes, the dress, etc, would all look unnaturally lightened. Not that L’Oreal would have let a flash error show in a final ad, but just an FYI on how this works.

By: Tristan

Tristan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:18:40 +0000

a natural blonde white girl:

You’re an idiot…

By: Bald Tires

Bald Tires — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:32:46 +0000

There appears to be more going on there than just the shading. The “laugh lines” around her cheeks have been completely smoothed out and her lower lip is much fuller in the retouched (?) photo. What’s with that?

By: Hi Heels Lo Life

Hi Heels Lo Life — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:42:28 +0000

@”A natural blonde white girl”:
Your closing statement, “Beyonce you aint no white California girl.” is ridiculous. Show us where she claimed to be. Go on, I’m waiting for it, horrible grammar and spelling and all.

By: GlossLip » Over The Weekend…

GlossLip » Over The Weekend… — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:42:42 +0000

[...] Is Beyonce turning into Michael Jackson? - Deceiver [...]

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:20:58 +0000

HighJive-

Yeah, your slightly different take sounds pretty much like what a lot of us actually were saying. That is wasn’t racism, that it was stupidly failing to realize that they made her look completely unlike herself.

By the way, you can’t pull a “if I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to get on your boycott bandwagon” if nobody ever said anything about boycotting. Defensive, much?

I read your blog post, and it seems your on the same page on the whole “failing to compensate for lights” thing as has been drifting on these comments, although from my set experience I can still say that you can and SHOULD use on-site makeup to compensate for light blow-out. That this wasn’t done and wasn’t touched up in photoshop later is odd, considering we’re still dealing with professional photogs here and amateurs know better than that.

That’s the part that makes this weird- there’s no way they don’t know how to compensate for the most common of all glamor shot problems. Why they didn’t do what’s pretty dang basic to the business remains to be determined, but I still don’t buy the idea that this was an “oops.” Maybe you’re right on one thing- they’re used to dealing with a “whiter” idea of beauty, and didn’t even recognize this as an issue because she’s still pretty, just really not looking like herself. But that still sounds odd to me.

By: HighJive

HighJive — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:57:52 +0000

Hello. I have a slightly different take on this. I don’t think L’Oréal lightened Beyoncé via Photoshop. If I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to get on your boycott bandwagon. You’re cordially invited to read my perspective and comment. Thank you.

By: Denise

Denise — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:59:43 +0000

I’m confused here…99.9% of all the hair we see on Beyonce have been WEAVES and WIGS.

By: A natural blonde white girl

A natural blonde white girl — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:31:10 +0000

Black girls,black girls what cha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they bust your truth?He,he,he,he,he! Ya, Beyonce is light-skin but she still has afro hair, not white-texture curlz or even tiny black peoplez texture curlz.Her motherz hair is still kinda nappy even thu her mother not Beyonce iz half white! So who iz this Beyonce trying to fool, this fake, this front. Also, as i said earlier,Beyonce iz light skin but not as light skin as she is shown to be. Put all this sh.. together, Beyonce is trying to look wjite.Lightening skin, fake white hair texture, blonde hair.Beyonce you aint no white California girl.

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:10:30 +0000

There’s also the more obvious argument- if the pale makeup is to make her look “right” with such blond hair, perhaps the blond hair was a mistake. Again, it’s a style choice, and a dumb one. I would die laughing if a L’oreal exec actually said “let’s hire a celeb to endorse this, give her totally different hair…oh, wait, her skin looks odds with that hair, fix her skin color so she doesn’t look mismatched. Excellent, she looks like a completely different person. Glad we hired a celebrity for that.” It’s like a L’oreal extreme makeover for people who didn’t need it.

But it’s definitely not an “oops, lighting was too harsh” mistake.