If you have suggestions for future Nail Talk posts, please leave a comment or email me: willpaintnailsforfood@gmail.com.
The question: What do you think of Julep's decision to photoshop skin tones? Is it practical or does it go too far? Does photoshopping swatch photographs effect your decision to buy (or not buy) products from a particular company?
Context: Julep recently admitted on their blog that they photograph the skin tones in their swatch photographs. These are the photographs that they release each month when the Maven window opens. For those of you not familiar with the Maven program - it's a monthly subscription box. Subscribers have the option to switch boxes, upgrade and add more polishes, or skip the box altogether. The swatch photographs are provided to help customers decide what box they want, or whether they should skip.
Their justification for photoshopping skin tones? Basically, it allows customers to see how a polish looks on a variety of skin tones, but it saves time and money. They only need to only use one employee (they don't hire hand models, but rather use their employees). And they have too many polishes to swatch and time is of the essence.
My response: In the past I've weighed in here, but I'm going to wait to hear from you first. And I'll add my thoughts in the comments. :)
So tell me - is Julep's decision to photoshop skin tones practical, or does it go too far?
All comments are greatly appreciated, but comments with blog links will be deleted - this is always the case but I wanted to post a reminder.
*I want to thank Kelli from The Nail Polish Challenge for telling me about this article.
Thank you for publicizing this matter! Personally, I take offense at this issue. Julep went out of their way to let their subscribers know that they are Photoshopping their photos - after many subscribers complained - and made it into a racial matter. It is not at all a matter of race and diversity (although it brings up that issue, which I will address in a minute.) It is a matter of this - can we trust a brand that admits to Photoshopping like this? Not only that, but darkening their photos to look like darker skin alters the color of the polish as well. As someone who is extremely well seasoned in Photoshop, I can tell that some of their "swatches" are completely manufactured - not painted with their polish at all!
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as race is concerned - are we supposed to believe that they don't have a single pair of darker or medium colored hands in their offices? Not to mention their lack of partnership with bloggers, many of whom have a variety of skin tones and often swatch for brands for free, complete with professionally produced photos.
So they raise the prices on their Maven boxes, limit the number of times they'll allow someone to skip, won't offer refunds, and ask an outrageous amount of crowdfunding money for that plie wand but can't be bothered to hire a real hand model? This company's practices just get better and better.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to elaborate-- I don't know the CEO from Eve but all signs point to a superfluous amount of greed. Some of my Juleps are amongst my very favorite polishes but I just cannot abide the way that company is run. I cancelled my Maven membership for good a couple months ago and sadly cannot bring myself to promote or wear their polishes anymore :( Thanks for the article and for bringing yet another issue to further light.
DeleteI agree. They are way too expensive if you think about how small the bottles are. I used to love them. But the customer service is too horrible. I'm canceling my soon after I use up all my points.
DeleteI agree with the post above. I'm sure they can afford hand models, but have gotten greedy with the bottom line. They have plenty of employees at their corporate office and nail salons that they could use to show their colors on different skin tones. I've been a Maven for 2 yrs, and I'm thinking of canceling now, because who knows what else they're going to skimp on.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind photoshopping photos to correct colour of polish captured by camera. I don't mind artificially changing skin tone in order to show how a shade looks on wide selection of skin tones, but to only show three, I do mind that. They should be able to get money and time to get three models, studio, photographers and other people to do those shoots or offer a wider variety of photoshopped skin tones and undertones.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if they photoshop the model's skin tone. What I *would* like is accurate swatches of their polishes, which they never seem to have.
ReplyDeleteOr, they could utilize the blogging community and send out a collection to 2-3 bloggers all with different skin tones and have THEM swatch it. I know they stated in their blog that plan wasn't feasible because of the tight turnaround, but I'm more than certain they already have the polishes lined up for the September box so I just don't get it. I
I think Julep accidentally makes things way harder on themselves than they need to.
Does Julep really want me to believe that they cant afford to hire hand models? Because that's kinda insulting. How about instead of using photoshop to change skin tones, they hire hand models of different races? Or employees of different races, if they're insistent on using employees. And are they really telling me Julep doesn't have any interns with fingernails?
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is them trying to cover up being cheap
They make more than enough money to hire models. And I also have to agree with Anne. You damn well know they have the colors picked out I would say easily till September/October. I'm a chandler and make body care products for a small company and I already have my fall AND Christmas scents picked out. You can't tell me a multi million dollar company doesn't do the same. And if they don't know what they are doing month to month, then there is a SERIOUS problem with how they are run. I personally have never subscribed to them but I have friends that did for over a year, great polishes, but we all agreed that what they are doing is a bit of false advertising and they all canceled. This is something the company could have avoided if they weren't being greedy and actually gave a shit.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't bother me at all. I think that if they were the horrible money grubbing company that people are making them out to be, they wouldn't have bothered saying anything about it. Seems efficient and practical to me.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd add my two cents to the conversation. While I do think that the decision to photoshop skin tones is practical - practical is not always the best solution. For me it raises issues of truth - if they are photoshopping skin tones, what else are they photoshopping? Swatches are supposed to provide an honest view of what a polish will look like. Other companies will send their products out to bloggers so that you can see it on a variety of skin tones, and under different lighting/camera setups. But with Julep you only see their images, what they want you to see. That doesn't sit well with me.
ReplyDeleteLike Maris pointed out above, companies usually have their colours done one or two seasons in advance, so if they were organized, they could send them out to bloggers to swatch. But unfortunately so many bloggers are turned off by the company because Julep is known for taking advantage of them - not properly crediting work, and things like that.
If it was any other company perhaps they could get away with it, but Julep has so many issues with customer service to begin with. And like others pointed out, they are being greedy and thinking about expanding over retaining customers. I think this is another example of that.
I work in Marketing, so I'm coming at this from a 'practical' and 'budget' standpoint. Julep is far, far from the only company that photoshops their images to save time and money. Almost every single image you see on a daily basis, in EVERY form of advertising, has been photoshopped. The skin tone, the features, the colors, the lighting....it's par for the course. Julep is a small company still. And models, even hand models, cost several thousand dollars per day- each. I don't know what prompted their admission, but I'm neither shocked nor outraged. I'm glad they have the wherewithal to show different skin tones with their colors, as the world is embodied by different skin tones. And I think their decision to photoshop instead of hiring hand models is a sound one, financially.
ReplyDelete(I'd also like to point out that Julep is still a small company, Their approach is clearly quantity over quality, so they could throttle back on their releases and still make a profit. And if they re-considered their marketing strategy they might be able to afford one hand model, of any race, to work with regularly. But at their current pace, I just don't think they can afford it. Not without raising prices or lowering quality.
DeleteOf course, option C) would be to continue to use employees as hand models and hire non-white gals for valid jobs they're qualified for.)
Their prices for regularly priced items are already ridiculous for the amount of product you get and their quality has always been below other mainstream polish brands in my experience. I've heard the drama and constant problems that others have had with their Maven program and this whole situation is the final nail in the coffin for me. I won't be buying, mentioning or using Julep products any longer. It's no so much the fact they are photoshopping, but the excuse that they're doing it to save money is really laughable. Small time independent and large companies alike have solved this problem long ago, by utilizing bloggers of different skin tones to showcase their product for little to no cost. I heard something in the vein of Julep being the fast growing beauty brand in the world right now and I guess we know why, they're saving a few bucks where they shouldn't and gouging with their prices.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other commenters. Photoshopping for color correction is fine, and changing skintones could be seen and accepted as practical, however it also has that creepy, is-there-really-no-one-ethnic-there? vibe. As well as it being hard to believe that they are on that big of a time crunch. That they don't want to work with bloggers strikes me as odd, too. From day 1 I have had nothing to do with the company and I will continue *not* buying their products unless I feel there are some major changes.
ReplyDelete