Sexy Eye Shadow Color Names Controversy
A Palette Was Pulled From Shelves Over Complaints About Its "Crude" Shade Names
What do the phrases "Sugar Daddy," "Foreplay," and "MILF" have in common? Other than the fact that they might make you look over your shoulder to see if your boss is nearby (sorry!), the words are in the middle of a controversy surrounding one of the biggest retailers in the UK.
According to The Telegraph, a mother from Leicestershire was pretty upset when her 17-year-old daughter came home from Boots with the new Obsession Obsessive Eye Shadow Palette. Since this bundle has 24 pans of colour for only £12, it may seem like your standard drugstore beauty haul. However, Angela Fitzsimons became alarmed when she noticed what she calls its "gratuitous and crude" shade names.
Perhaps taking a page out of Kylie Jenner's book (the makeup mogul has been called out for her own raunchy titles), Obsession dubbed its hues after the phrases above, along with "Safeword," "Chauvinist," "Dealer," "Wasted," "Vape," "Blackmail," "Homewrecker," and the more inexplicably subdued "Housewife."
Since the palette was so affordable, Fitzsimons became angry that young girls who might be drawn to cheaper makeup would be wearing such scandalous colours. "It's completely unnecessary . . . I think they did it for the shock value," she told the newspaper.
Fitzsimons went on to say, "It's over-sexualising children and its completely demeaning. It's makeup and it's there to make you feel better about yourself, but it's like saying you should be proud to be a homewrecker or dealer."
Boots listened and quickly pulled the product from both its store and virtual shelves. A spokeswoman for Obsession said, "Obsession is a new brand. While we were experimenting with our personality, we know we haven't always got things quite right and some of our shade names need work."
