Boots apologises for selling ‘sexualised’ eyeshadow palette

Published: 3-May-2018

With shade names including ‘milf’, ‘homewrecker’ and ‘foreplay’, the high street beauty retailer has pulled the Obsession Obsessive Eyes palette from its shelves

Boots, the UK high street retailer, has pulled an eyeshadow palette from its shelves after complaints of ‘sexualised’ shade names.

The Obsession Obsessive Eyes palette featured shade names including ‘milf’, ‘homewrecker’ and ‘foreplay’ as well as ‘chauvinist’ and ‘safeword’.

Consumer Angela Fitzimons told The Sun about her shock when her 17-year-old daughter returned home with the palette and described the words as “gross”.

After complaining to Boots, which sold the product in stores and on its website, the retailer agreed to remove the offending items.

Boots UK told Cosmetics Business: “At Boots UK, customer feedback is incredibly important to us and we strive to ensure that the products we sell resonate with our diverse range of customers.

“We apologise sincerely for any offence that this product may have caused and have removed it from our website and in store.”

The palette was also sold through the Revolution website and appears to have been removed from this retailer too.

An Obsession spokesperson added: “Obsession is a new brand. While we were experimenting with our personality, we know we haven’t always got things quite right and some of our shade names need work.

“This is something we’re addressing and fixing as a priority as new products launch and we will not repeat these shades names, or genre of shade names, in future.

“However, we also want to act now. We are committed to listening to our customers and reacting to feedback at speed.

“This complaint has made us accelerate our plan and we will remove this product, Obsessive Eyes, from stores and online with immediate effect.”

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