- What's up everyone.
This has been a topic that
I've touched on quite a bit
in my Buzzfeed career
but I want to just keep talking about it
because it's really important.
But I want to know,
when you walk into a store
and you're looking to try
to find a nude color bra,
what color are the nude
color bras coming to you?
Okay, when you ask the
person who works there,
like I'm looking for a nude color bra,
what color do they usually bring you?
Is it usually like,
your skin tone or is it peach?
I'm going to call up my friend Jazz,
and we're going to talk about the history
of the color nude.
Hey Jazz!
- Hello friend!
- How are you?
- I'm okay.
You look good.
- Do I?
- Yes!
We out here in our neon!
- Okay, so this is my question.
Have you ever bought
like a nude color bra?
- I mean, nude being as close
to my skin tone as possible,
but that's only been within
the past three years.
But before that, no.
And that's even me being a very
light skinned, like person.
- So for me,
I remember in college,
a strapless bra that I
needed to be skin tone
so that it wouldn't show through
my white tee shirts or things like that.
A friend of mine gave it to
me 'cause I was in a pitch,
and she's darker than me.
And the bra that she gave me
was probably the color of my coffee.
And I was like, wow.
Yeah, I guess this is what we have.
- Yeah, no, that's just a shade of brown.
- It's almost just like beige, yeah.
And then I did a Buzzfeed video
that Daysha produced.
And we were just discussing,
you know, the term nude,
and she introduced us to a bunch of brands
that catered to different types of nudes,
like different skin tones of nudes,
specifically for black women.
And that's when I got my strapless bra
that was actually my skin tone.
- Yeah.
Truly, do not let that go.
- No. (laughs)
- In the past six years
we've seen like lingerie,
like even jumpsuits and
stuff, being that nude color.
Black women and women of color
have had to have been
tired of this for a while.
But then especially when
it jumps off as a trend,
we're out here being like, oh really?
Like, there's nothing.
- So Jazz.
We are gonna go back to
the school a little bit
and go a little back in history
and talk about the history
of this term, nude.
(upbeat music)
The adjective, nude, is Latin in origin.
Derived from the word nudus,
meaning naked, bare, unclothed, stripped.
I see no lie there.
The term meaning something closer to
mere, plain, simple,
when referring to nude
comes from the 1550's.
- I'm already pissed.
- One of those things
where it's almost like...
- 'Cause I can see where this going.
- Sort of like a blank slate term.
- Well, it would be one thing
if the definition was
mere, plain and simple,
and I automatically thought
of no specific race.
(laughing)
But... (laughs)
- Nude of course also
relates to items or products
which supposedly matched the
wearer's skin tone and color,
or giving the appearance of nudity,
according to Merriam Webster.
But according to HuffPost,
Merriam Webster's original
definition of nude
was having the color of
a white person's skin.
In fact, this is still
Merriam Webster's definition
of the term, flesh-colored.
It was still the singular
definition of nude
for the dictionary up until 2015,
when Ithaca College student, Louise,
tweeted at Merriam Webster asking,
@MerriamWebster, why are
you the only dictionary
describing nude as white?
Can we get with the times?
#NudeAwakening
- It's a tweet heard around the world.
- Right!
Over 800 people participated
in the #NudeAwakening campaign,
flooding the comments section
of the word's definition
on Merriam Webster's website.
The campaign ended up working
and the dictionary
changed their definition
to having a color
that matches the wearer's skin tones.
And they keep it vague.
- Okay.
- So that makes me feel
a little bit better.
- That's fine!
Keep it vague!
- The beauty and fashion industries
have been slowly
transitioning to nude shades
away from pale pinks and beiges
throughout about the last decade,
responding to more diverse populations,
making certain products in a nude
that matched their skin tone.
Yeah.
As they should be.
- Before, it was just wild
because these companies
have 12, 15, shade ranges
and the first eight
would all be different shades of white,
and porcelain, and...
- Sand.
- Transparent.
- Sand, seashell.
- Grit.
Then like, four medium and a dark.
- Yeah.
Literally one dark shade.
(upbeat music)
Jessica Cruel of Glamour
writes a brief history
highlighting milestones
for the color nude
and inclusivity in the beauty industry.
In the early 1900's,
Anthony Overton creates
High Brown Face Powder,
made specifically for women of color.
He was a country judge and
the son of former slaves.
1973.
Fashion Fair.
The first cosmetics
line for women of color
sold in department stores debuts.
1986, Prescriptives
adds a liquid foundation
to their foundation collection.
It includes a formula using
micronized titanium dioxide,
which was used to reduce ashy casts
on deeper skin tones.
- Literally no one's just
ashy right damn here.
- I've had to like do my
fair share of searching
for actual powders that are brown
so that, you know,
it can still give me
that photo finish look,
but I'm not looking crazy in photos.
1994, supermodel Yvonne, loved her,
launched a makeup brand
specifically geared
towards women of color.
She was supposedly inspired after 18 years
of having to mix her own
foundation shades at photo shoots.
- Could you imagine showing up for work?
I mean, nevermind.
We all have done this.
(laughing)
At that time, to even
be like a black model,
and to be respected,
and then to have to do your own makeup,
and that be your responsibility.
- Like that is not her job.
She's supposed to show up and be fine.
- It's that little stress
that I feel like is put on black women
to take care of that (beep),
that other people are too privileged
and don't like, think
about that type of (beep).
- In 2005,
Queen Latifah works with Covergirl
to launch the Queen collection,
inclusive to many skin shades.
I remember this rollout.
Do you remember this rollout?
- Yeah!
Girl, I've wanted to marry Queen Latifah
since I saw that bitch in "Set It Off".
- 2010, Michelle Obama
wore a Naeem Khan gown
that many outlets describe
the color of as nude or flesh,
which invoked responses from some
as the dress Obama done
was clearly not the
same color as her skin.
- Okay.
If a white person is
claiming that color, honey.
- Are they dead?
It's like a little yellow, yeah.
- [Jazz] Yeah!
- In 2012, Sephora and
Pantone Color IQ launches.
The program does color matching,
photographing people's skin
and matching it to one or more
of a thousand foundation shades.
- I was there when it rolled out.
It was pretty cool though.
You took like two pictures of
the forehead, of the cheek.
They would put 'em all together
and then color match you
to all the brands that they carried
inside of Sephora.
- 2015, Louis Vuitton
releases a collection
of heels and flats
in seven shades of nude.
In the same year,
Apple released multi-ethnic emojis,
including five more skin tones.
2017, Rihanna's Fenty Beauty launches
with a 40 color foundation range
with deeper shades selling out quickly,
both in stores and online.
Makeup stores, especially
stores like Sephora and stuff,
those are much easier to shop in
because you're able to swatch.
If you can't necessarily afford Sephora,
you need to go to a drug store.
- Exactly.
- Like it's really hard
'cause you can't swatch
and test things out.
(upbeat music)
So I actually was able to
locate my strapless bra,
and this is her.
- Yes!
- Not only is it a great color,
but it also is like really great quality,
it fits really nice,
and the brand is Nubian Skin.
So the brand was started
in 2014 by Ade Hassan.
She started the company out of frustration
after not being able to find something
as simple as tights to
match her skin tone.
I will say when it comes to finding,
you know, skin tone tights,
it's hard.
Like you can't just walk
into CVS or Rite Aid
or something like that
and easily locate like,
a skin tone stocking.
It's just not a thing.
She has a lot of different shades.
She has ccafe au lait,
caramel, cinnamon, berry.
- Yeah, this is gorgeous.
I'm like trying to buy some.
- What about bandaids?
Like have you ever seen a
bandaid in your skin tone?
- Never.
They were always very pink.
To be honest, I don't
even think that I knew
that bandaids were flesh colored.
- Yeah.
- I don't know if that's a
good thing or a bad thing.
- Totally, I totally hear you.
Cause it's almost like it's so pink
that it's like,
it's clearly supposed to be pink.
In June 2020, Bandaid, the brand,
announced it would release bandages
that match a more diverse skin tone range.
Their announcement was met with
some disappointment online,
pointing out that it's taken this long
for them to release bandages
in more than one nude color.
However, Bandaid does state
that they've been selling
clear bandages since 1950.
(laughing)
- Who the (beep) is clear?
- Casper.
They said that they tried to launch
a more inclusive color line back in 2005,
but discontinued it
after a lack of interest.
- Oh, bull (beep).
If you are in the year 2020
doing something you should
have done a long time ago,
and you're being called out for it,
put your head down and just say,
yeah, we (beep) up.
- Other companies have focused on
creating inclusive
bandages, like TruColor,
which sells bandages and kinesiology tape
in a wide variety of shades since 2014.
- I used that tape when I played sports.
That's (beep) dope.
- Another company, is called Browndages.
Browndages is a black-owned
company created in 2018
by a husband-and-wife team
that makes bandages
specifically for brown skin.
- This is pretty cute.
- Oh, cute little website.
- Oh, also I really love their packaging.
- Even with all of the
changes and transitions
of what the word nude actually means
in beauty and fashion,
I still feel like people
are using the word
and talking about peach or white skin.
Because the word nude
has been around so long,
and like it's just always
meant one particular thing,
it always takes a while
for meanings to change
and transition with the times.
You guys, thank you for watching.
- Yes.
- Comment below,
like when was the first time you saw
your skin tone in like a bandage,
or a swimsuit,
or a foundation color,
or even translucent powders?
Like, let's talk about it.
Let's get the conversation going
'cause I feel like we could
all benefit from your answers.
