Salon charged with racism offering ‘dark chocolate’ tans

A Swedish salon owner is facing backlash from women of colour calling her “black face” and “racist,” she says, for offering spray-tan hues that appear to make Caucasian customers look black.

“Th-that’s that’s my skin colour in a bottle. Wh-why…I don’t know whether to cry or rage,“ one commenter wrote on a Tumblr about the Stockholm tanning salon Emmaatan’s Instagram photos, which flaunt the superdark skin some of its customers are getting.

The blog Black Girl With Long Hair called out the controversy on Thursday, sharing Emmaatan’s images in a post that’s sparked an important conversation about race and beauty.

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“Shaming dark skin is a foundational tenet of many beauty norms, not just in the United States, but worldwide,” the author writes. “So it is quite bizarre to see dark skin being bottled up and sold like this.”

Her readers are thrown by the tans too, with reactions running the gamut from outrage,“They tell you dark skin is ugly then turn around and do this,” blasted one commenter, to amusement. “Good to see a company dedicated to how gorgeous our complexions are, to the point where they will try to bottle it,” remarked another.