How is the beauty industry affected by racism?

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research is to analyze the constant racism present in the cosmetics industry. The study looks over how the European beauty standards dominated the cosmetics world. Discussions are made on how products like skin bleaching have become a multi-million dollar market in the beauty world. The design of the research stems from interviews with executives from the makeup side of the beauty industry and how they feel about the research topic. Then, by analyzing scholarly journals, we come to the conclusion that the cosmetics industry is influenced and affected by racism in many ways. A couple of findings that were found are that racism affected how people felt about themselves and created massive insecurities that people believed they could fix by skin bleaching. Countries around the world are still affected by the ideal that lighter skin and straighter hair will make you more beautiful. The Great Depression and the Civil Rights movement created huge racial barriers for black businesses to the point where corporations were pitting them into each other. Brands today like Fenty Beauty by Rihanna have created the standard of what makeup brands should follow. They should know how to properly include all women of color including their specific undertone. To conclude, the beauty industry has a lot of work to do starting from taking responsibility and going forward to create a constant world of diversity for their consumers.