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    ColourPop Apologises Over Its Product Names For Dark Skin

    The US beauty brand has apologised for using names like "Yikes" and "Typo" and says it is reviewing its naming process.

    ColourPop's Sculpting Stix were released in June and are available in 12 different shades, which is pretty cool.

    But the brand has come under fire because the darkest shades in the range have names like "Typo", "Dume", and "Yikes", which some people feel have negative connotations.

    the naming of colourpop's lighter contouring sticks vs their darker ones

    colourpop.com

    Critics took to social media to call out the brand, asking why the company had chosen those particular names.

    if you don't see anything wrong with the names of colourpop's darker shades, unfollow lol

    Other makeup fans said they would now boycott the popular beauty brand.

    This is so distasteful, and to think Colour Pop is one of my favorite makeup brands. They will no longer receive an… https://t.co/i8wzfaKUKn

    hey colourpop you know that the English language has a million words/terms yet for some reason you chose these 4 https://t.co/s7A0Sc3Ers

    Han, 17, from Buckinghamshire was one of those who shared her concerns about the names on Twitter. She told BuzzFeed News they made her feel "uncomfortable".

    She said: "I feel like ColourPop needs a better marketing/PR team as they've also messed up when they named their liquid lipstick Gypsy, which is a derogatory term used against Romani people. To name darker shades Typo and Yikes made me feel uncomfortable due to it being similar to my own skin tone."

    Han said she had noticed that people with lighter skin did not seem to understand why some people were upset by the names. "Many people with lighter skin didn't understand and I think that's due to them not having a lack of products that match their tone," she added. "I find it hard to get foundation/concealer, etc, because everything is either too dark or way too light. There are an infinite amount of names to have called those products so I don't understand why they would pick those two."

    ColourPop issued a swift response to the backlash.

    In a statement to BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson said: "On behalf of ColourPop, 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."

    British beauty blogger Tiss, 20, told Buzzfeed News that "until a brand strives to employ with racial equity in mind, they will continue to miss the mark where people of colour are concerned".

    "It's extremely telling that the only negative names of the bunch were the three darkest. What's even more telling is the fact that not a soul involved in production was able to spot that, call it out, and change it," she said.

    "The shade Dume was named after a place — but the most basic of research, a simple Google search, reveals that it is also a vile racist and ableist insult. If enough people of colour were involved in the naming of these products, I highly doubt that this would have been overlooked."

    Tiss said that while brands like ColourPop were reaching out to people of colour by broadening their range of shades, there was still a lack of understanding about the customer base.

    "My feelings on ColourPop right now are the same as my feelings on the vast majority of 'mainstream' makeup brands," she said. "They have discovered, through the growing impact of social media on the cosmetics industry, that we (people of colour) have money to spend on their products. They don't understand the fact that in order to cater to us, and earn our money, they need to include us properly. They need to hire us. They need to understand us. They cannot shove us in, last-minute. And until they get that, they'll continue to embarrass themselves. Love their liquid lipsticks though."