People Are Pissed Over This Makeup Brand's F*cked Up Naming Mistake
23 September 2016, 16:09 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
People can't believe they chose this name for their product.
Colourpop have made quite the splash on the makeup scene this year.
The affordable makeup brand has earned the love of influencers and makeup lovers everywhere but they've been getting some attention lately that is less than positive.
The brand was forced to issue an apology this week after people noticed something strange about the names the brand had chosen for some of their darker colours.
Colourpop's highlight and contour "stix" all had perfectly normal names, that is, until you had a closer look at the last three shades in the collection.
The darkest shades were strangely named "Yikes" "Dume" and "Typo". (Why you would even name your makeup "yikes" in the first place is a whole nother question in itself.)
Naturally, people were not pleased.
Please don't buy from Colourpop if you're black. Apparently your skin color is a "Typo" in their eyes
— Nappy-Headed Gyal (@Flawsomee) September 19, 2016
if you don't see anything wrong with the names of colourpop's darker shades, unfollow lol pic.twitter.com/XaS5fQ9iCg
— (@FFSMADELAINE) September 19, 2016
colourpop is YIKES for naming their darker shades what they did so sorry my brown skin is a "typo" & "yikes" we all can't be "gummy bears"
— SPOOKY HOLO (@theholomoon) September 21, 2016
so first colourpop wanna name a lippie "gypsy" and now their darker color contour sticks are named "yikes" and "typo"? colourpop: cancelled
— baby sweet like coco (@OSAMABINHAD) September 19, 2016
One twitter user pointed out that she had contacted Colourpop 3 months ago regarding the product names but that they never responded. Now that the controversy has reached fever pitch, the brand have issued an apology and changed the product names.
"We are sorry and are extremely grateful for our customers’ feedback. We have taken immediate action to change the shade names and review our naming process to ensure this does not happen again," the brand wrote in a statement.
It very well may be a huge and unintentional mishap but words matter. The fact that a huge brand like Colourpop couldn't see that it's a problem naming makeup for darker shades "typo" and "yikes" is beyond odd.
Darker skinned women are taught nearly all their lives to hate their blackness and to admire the eurocentric features in others. That's why it's so problematic that the lighter colours get names like "Dove" and the darker colours get names like "Yikes."
It's why we don't use words like "gypsy" and why The Washington R*dsk*ns football team need to change their name. Because words matter.
Colourpop have since changed the name of the three darkest shades to "Bloom", "Point Dume", and "Platonic". Hopefully this is a lesson for the young makeup brand.
