【英语语言学习】化妆品的多样性

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Women of color have long been ignored by major cosmetic¹ firms, which meant there wasn't a whole lot of choice if you weren't white. That has changed. Karen Grigsby Bates from NPR's Code Switch team takes a look at why companies now see many shades of women.

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE²: Cosmetics³ mogul Bobbi Brown remembers when she began working as a freelance makeup⁴ artist in the fashion industry in the 1980s, there were challenges to making up black and brown women.

BOBBI BROWN: As a freelance makeup artist, I worked with models from all over the globe and women of many different skin colors, from alabaster⁵, the whitest of white, to the darkest of dark. And often, I would have a bag full of foundations - as a young makeup artist - and nothing worked.

BATES: There just wasn't a lot out there for women of color, especially women with darker skin. Eventually, Brown would find a remedy. But we'll get back to that in a minute. Karen Grant is the global beauty industry analyst⁶ for NPD, a market research group. Grant, who is African-American, says she remembers the workaround many black women used when there was no deep-hued foundation.

KAREN GRANT: Most times I think what women of color did was you'd put on powder. You know, and you might blot⁷ in. You might try to not put on too much so that it didn't make the skin look chalky.

BATES: It was a partial solution. But it didn't work for everyone. For the most part, there just wasn't a wide range of colors for women of color - with one notable exception. In 1973, Fashion Fair cosmetics appeared. Born from the makeup worn by Ebony Fashion Fair models as they walked the runway, Fashion Fair came in hues⁸ that actually worked for brown skin. It engendered⁹ a fierce loyalty¹⁰ among its customers, like beauty blogger Lily Seymour.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

LILY SEYMOUR: These are my three face foundations that I love to use, that match my complexion¹¹ exactly, to the T, by Fashion Fair.

BATES: Another option appeared in 1983, when Prescriptives introduced its custom-blended foundation. As the country's demographics began to change, the cosmetics industry slowly began to realize it needed to wake up and smell the cafe au lait if it wanted to remain relevant and profitable.

JANET PARDO: Skin tones and attitudes and lifestyle and personal relationships, everything changes. And as a result of that, it affects how we do product development here, especially in foundation.

BATES: That's Janet Pardo, Senior VP of product development for Clinique cosmetics, ticking off just some of the factors that affect how her company develops its foundation palette. And, says Pardo...

PARDO: Pallets have to constantly be reevaluated.

BATES: Analyst Karen Grant says as America and Europe become browner through migration¹² and intermarriage, cosmetics companies need to broaden their thinking as well as their palates.

GRANT: This is an opportunity that they can market. And I think the success of brands like Bobbi Brown, like MAC, has made brands take note.

BATES: In fact, MAC is the number one department store brand. Almost half its customer base is women of color. But the mass market's been affected¹³ too. Big companies like Revlon, L'Oreal and Maybelline now feature a wider range of skin tones and celebrity¹⁴ representatives like Halle Berry and Eva Longoria. Cover Girl has the Queen Collection, an entire line devoted¹⁵ to deeper hues, named for singer-actress Queen Latifah.

(SOUNDBITE OF AD)

QUEEN LATIFAH: If you want your makeup to look fresh even at the end of a long day...

SAM FINE: Queen Collection All Day Flawless Foundation.

BATES: A black spokeswoman for a company as dominant¹⁶ as Cover Girl is huge. Remember makeup artist Bobbi Brown? In 1991, she partnered with a chemist to develop makeup that would work for a wider range of skin tones. Today, the line has 24 foundation colors, from very pale to very deep, that are sold around the globe. The brand remains¹⁷ a favorite for ethnic¹⁸ women because Brown insists that her shades must work for everyone.

BROWN: Not just colors for women of color, but it's the right colors.

BATES: Beauty analyst Karen Grant concurs¹⁹.

GRANT: People are having friends of all different races, nationalities. And people like to shop together and discuss together. And so we do need and look for brands that appeal to all of us.

BATES: And, Grant predicts, the cosmetics companies that will do best in the mosaic²⁰ that is the global market will have products and sales staff that look like the consumers they're hoping to capture. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

分享到：