Friday, December 01, 2006

[Body] Skin Voice, Vaseline, and Cocoa Butter



I'm not sure what I think about this. I don't know one black person that is unaware of the wonder that is Vaseline. I consider it a close personal friend, but I have always found their lotions to be much too watery. I've been seeing these Skin Voice ads on the trains here in Chicago and as I sit here typing this I honestly don't remember Vaseline products mentioned or pictured. The ads feature close-ups of light to dark brown skin and ask "What does your skin mean to you?" There is a web address on the pics inviting you to visit the site and tell your "skin story".

I was a little shocked today to discover in my inbox an email from them about their new Cocoa Butter Deep Conditioning Lotion and a chance to win a exclusive all expense paid trip to the 38th annual NAACP Image Awards. Huh?

I click on the link which takes me to a lovely flash happy web site that features the "skin stories" of everyday and famous African-Americans. There is beautiful, close-up, artsy photography of nude African-American models of various skin tones. I did notice that very light skin wasn't featured, light brown to dark brown (a LOT of dark brown) models were used. Being a chocolate sister myself, this was very refreshing.

I guess I was shocked because I feel like this product as being marketed as "The Vaseline Lotion for Black People". I didn't understand this because the site features only a tiny blurb about why cocoa butter is what African-American skin needs on the product page for the lotion. As I surfed the site I expected to find TONS of info on why I should buy this. There was a great section on skin health, why skin has color and skin, the sun and aging. The only mention of cocoa butter and how it relates to dark skin was not explained well at all.

Yes, most black people use cocoa butter, but...I don't know. If this was a new product from Palmer's, which has had distinct "African-American" focused and "Caucasian" focused ad campaigns for years, I don't think I would have given this a second thought.

Check out the site for yourself here, and make up your own mind. I'll try the lotion next week and let you know what I think.

What are your thoughts?

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Posted by The Home Spa Goddess to Body at 11/30/2006 10:08:00 PM

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