“Colour correcting” people is big business

Let’s face it, world over, many people want “colour correction”. Pale Westerners get a tan to become browner. Brown Indians use whitening creams to become paler.

The Chinese, pale compared with Indians, are big consumers of products that promise a “lighter” skin. For the Chinese rich, though, a Western-style tan is sometimes a better option — it shows you can afford a holiday in an exotic place and/or an American-style tanning salon.

Naturally, “colour correcting” people is big business. And why not, provided health issues are adequately addressed? Your “colour” is your business, not anyone else’s. But this business can get bigger, certainly in India. It’s simple. A cream or a lotion or whatever that “colour corrects” the whole body, and not just the face.

We acknowledge that products aiming for bits of body other than the face are in the market. But they, too, lack ambition. The market’s primed for a product that offers Indians “whole body fairness”. If you want to be fair, it’s only fair that you get the option of slathering that cream all over.

Americans came up with tanning salons, which browns the whole body, 40 years ago. Now, the salon industry earns $5 billion a year in the US. That, for Indian entrepreneurs in the “fairness” business, is a body of evidence.