Unilever to change name of Fair & Lovely skin lightening cream

HUL announced today the next step in the evolution of its skin care portfolio, with the rebranding of its flagship brand Fair & Lovely. Taking forward the brand’s journey towards a more inclusive vision of beauty, the company will stop using the word ‘Fair’ in the brand name ‘Fair & Lovely’. The new name is awaiting regulatory approvals and we expect to change the name in the next few months.

Over the last decade, Fair & Lovely’s advertising has evolved to communicate a message of women’s empowerment. The brand’s vision is to adopt a holistic approach to beauty that cares for people, that must be inclusive and diverse – for everyone, everywhere. The brand is committed to celebrating all skin tones.

In early 2019, the brand’s communication moved away from the benefits of fairness, whitening and skin lightening, towards glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance, which are holistic measures of healthy skin. HUL also removed from Fair & Lovely’s packaging, words such as ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightening’ that could indicate a fairness-led transformation. The cameo with two faces showing shade transformation, as well as the shade guides were removed from the packs. The Company will continue to evolve its advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India.

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, HUL said, “We are making our skin care portfolio more inclusive and want to lead the celebration of a more diverse portrayal of beauty. In 2019, we removed the cameo with two faces as well as the shade guides from the packaging of Fair & Lovely and the brand communication progressed from fairness to glow which is a more holistic and inclusive measure of healthy skin. These changes were very well received by our consumers. We now announce that we will remove the word ‘Fair’ from our brand name Fair & Lovely. The new name is awaiting regulatory approvals, and the pack with the revised name will be available in the market in the next few months.”

Fair & Lovely is based on pioneering technology that has made multiple skin health benefits available to millions of consumers at an affordable price. The brand has been progressively changing its formulation, and includes other vitamins like B6, C & E, allantoin, known to improve skin health and protect the skin from external aggressors, UV rays and environmental pollution. The product is designed to improve skin barrier function, improve skin firmness and smoothen skin texture – all of which help enhance radiance and glow holistically. The brand has never been and is not a bleaching product.

In addition to the changes to Fair & Lovely, the rest of our skin care portfolio will also reflect the new vision of positive beauty.

Additional information about Fair and Lovely Foundation

Connecting women to opportunity:

Career guidance. High-quality education. They are vital elements to building a career and essential to empowering women. That’s especially true where socio-cultural, infrastructural or economic barriers stand in women’s way – barriers such as gender stereotyping, safety concerns about studying outside the home, or misplaced norms about household responsibilities.

Impact at Scale :

The Foundation was set up in 2003 to offer women scholarships to pursue their education. In 2017, it launched a mobile-friendly career and education platform www.fairandlovelyfoundation.in as a holistic solution. This mobile platform offers career guidance as well as a curated selection of courses. The courses are chosen from well-regarded, high-quality digital education partners such as edX.org (founded by Harvard and MIT), the IT skills training firm, NIIT Limited, and English Edge, an English language training specialist.

By the end of 2019, over one million people had registered to access skills and training through the platform, with 350,000 career tests already completed.

As with the rebrand of Fair & Lovely, we will be also announcing the new name for the Fair & Lovely Foundation.

About Hindustan Unilever Limited

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India’s largest Fast-Moving Consumer Goods company with its products touching the lives of nine out of ten households in the country. HUL works to create a better future every day.