Beauty Demands

The current COVID 19 crisis has had a serious effect on society in the UK and elsewhere with the threat to life of a contagious disease.  It has led to individuals having their movements and habits severely curtailed by ‘Lockdown’ and orders to stay at home.  As a result, businesses have closed down, schools have shut, and many employees have been furloughed. Relative to the loss of life and livelihoods, some might argue that the impact this has had on individual appearance and the beauty industry in general is a much more “trivial” side of COVID-19.  This “Keeping up Appearances” might be seen as a necessity in professional life, but lockdown has challenged what could be seen as standard and necessary “maintenance”.  Are cosmetic procedures such as hairdressing, eyebrow plucking and Botox injections really trivial, or are they, rather, more akin to “essential services” or “moral imperatives”?  [1]   The lack of access to hairdressers, for example, has been seen by many during this c

Following recent reports that some cosmetic companies are removing the word "whitening" from their skin products, we republish Nadia Craddock's excellent 2017 critique of this market. Skin whitening is a global phenomenon and according to market research, is one of the fastest growing segments of the global beauty industry, expected to be worth $31.2 billion by 2024 . Notably, the practice of skin whitening is most prevalent across the Global South in places where slavery, colonialism, racism and colourism are deeply imbedded in societal values and beliefs. For example, in India, Japan, and Thailand, skin whitening products account for more than 60% of each country’s respective skin care market. According to the World Health Organisation, more than one-quarter (and up to 77%) of women in Japan, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, China, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India report to regularly using skin whitening products. Skin whitening products and their associated