Priyanka Chopra has teamed up with skincare gurus Obagi for an initiative called SKINCLUSION which launched in New York on the 8th May.
Speaking with PEOPLE magazine, the actress said she teamed up with Obagi because she wanted to “use this as a platform to [further] advocate for the importance of – and celebration of – diversity.’ Her relationship with Obagi first began when she was on the look for skincare products for dry and sensitive skin. She tells PEOPLE, “Right after my honeymoon, I had a big breakout. That’s when I had a [dermatological] consult and Obagi was recommended to me.”
From there the relationship evolved into this initiative and partnership. The actress saw the brand’s decades long dedication to diversity and inclusion within their own practices as aligned with her own beliefs. Obagi are known for testing their skin care products on all six Fitzpatrick skin types – a skin classification from light to dark measured by the amount of melanin in the skin.
The beauty and skincare industries have been notoriously slow to broaden the range of skin types and shades they cater for, often with start up brands and celebrities having to fill in the gaps before they take notice.
Part of Obagi’s aim with SKINCLUSION, they say on their website, is to get people to take a Skin Tone Implicit Association Test which includes questions such as “How warm or cold do you feel towards dark skinned people”. They say the goal is to encourage people to consider what biases they might be unconsciously harbouring. Skinclusion is also a social media campaign with Obagi pledging to donate $1 for every instance that #SKINCLUSION is used.
In an interview withET Canada the actress stated “I do want to create a world for my future kids where they don’t have to think about diversity, where they’re not talking about it, because it’s normal.” Priyanka also announced the partnership to the world on Twitter.
In Obagi’s 30 year history, they have supported the work of groups like the International Cultural Diversity Organization and Project Implicit. Obagi hopes that with Priyanka as their new ambassador they can encourage serious global conversation about diversity and unconscious bias in the beauty industry but also in society in general.