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Am I being pedantic?

(84 Posts)
Maggierose Wed 31-Jan-24 18:09:46

Every time I buy my usual tinted moisturiser I always have the same conversation with the shop assistant. I buy Laura Mercier in the Nude shade. I point out that I am surprised that they haven’t changed the name of the shade because the shade is only suitable for white women whereas Nude could apply to any skin shade. They don’t really get my point; the last time I bought it in a Space NK shop I was assured that the product came in shades for all skin colours. The daftest response came in Selfridges where the assistant thought for a moment then said, “Well we do have it in Natural.” Am I being pedantic?

Lizhol77 Sun 04-Feb-24 11:49:39

There are more important issues to worry about than what to call a moisturiser

Fairycakes Sun 04-Feb-24 11:39:05

Yesss. I'm not sure why you care so much 😆

Cossy Sun 04-Feb-24 11:14:21

Yes 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ gringrin

Esmay Thu 01-Feb-24 15:18:29

Don't worry about it !

I once made the assistants on the cosmetic counter double up with laughter when I described my skin tone as an uncooked pork sausage .

RosiesMaw Thu 01-Feb-24 14:53:49

I always used to refer to that pinky beige colour as "old lady's knickers" anyway! grin

Primrose53 Thu 01-Feb-24 12:36:36

I think you are being pedantic.

welbeck Thu 01-Feb-24 12:07:51

seems like another goady posting.

Siope Thu 01-Feb-24 12:04:58

It’s a poor choice of name for a skin product in a single colour, or narrow range, but the correct people to take it up with are the company, not sales assistants, who can’t change it.

welbeck Thu 01-Feb-24 11:48:38

i had never heard of this word as a colour until recently.
i was rather taken aback, as to me it connotes total lack of clothes, not a colour descriptor of some underwear/hosiery.
i don't like it; it has sleazy connotations in my mind; raymonds revue bar, come in and see the nudes, etc
but whatever i thought about it, i would not make a sales asst's day more tedious than it already is.

toscalily Thu 01-Feb-24 11:37:31

I would think using the term "skin colour" would be even more problematic, whose skin colour? Nude is a mixture of brown & white but has many shades. I have enough trouble getting any foundation or tinted moisturiser in the right colour let alone analysing the actual word that is describing the product. So yes, I think you are being unnecessarily pedantic.

RosiesMaw Thu 01-Feb-24 08:41:06

Poor shop assistant! Having to maintain the requisite polite smile while being harangued by some d* o**biddy about the name of a product.

“Yes, madam”
{sigh}

JackyB Thu 01-Feb-24 08:24:55

I agree with Maggie in that I would feel uncomfortable about "nude" being a light colour. Here in Germany it's not too common, although I never buy tights or foundation so perhaps I just don't come across it. Underwear sometimes comes in "champagne" which is about equivalent.

Oh, and I've just remembered that "Hautfarbe" (skin colour) is the usual term. So it <is> the same here. I'm not sure that that is a RAL or Pantone classification, though.

Having said that, I suspect that a black woman would probably just shrug and not be bothered about it.

maddyone Thu 01-Feb-24 07:54:05

I couldn’t be bothered to converse with the shop assistant about that, especially every time I bought it.
Maybe that’s why I buy most of my shopping online grin

Marydoll Thu 01-Feb-24 07:14:40

Pedantic means "like a pedant," someone who is too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. It's a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.,

I think there are more important things to get worked up about.
If it upsets you that much, write to the manufacturer or change brands. The poor shop assistant can't do anything about it.

NotAGran55 Thu 01-Feb-24 07:06:53

Maggierose stop shooting the messenger and being an annoying customer.

Why don’t you contact Laura Mercier directly and ‘make the comment’ to them, and let us know what response you get?

welbeck Thu 01-Feb-24 00:38:36

you could order it online

welbeck Thu 01-Feb-24 00:30:49

what do you expect the sales asst to do about it ?
i'm not sure pedantic is the word i would use.
crass ?

flappergirl Wed 31-Jan-24 21:03:49

Maggie, why do you keep having this conversation? The minimum wage sales assistant can't change the name of a major brand, or any brand, can she? I would imagine she wants to hide when she sees you enter the shop.

Write to the company and explain your concerns to them.

Germanshepherdsmum Wed 31-Jan-24 20:46:34

Why do you have this same (pointless) conversation with the shop assistant every time you buy this product?

Patsy70 Wed 31-Jan-24 20:33:58

I have a Seat Mii by Mango car whose colour is ‘Nude’ - my son insists that it is ‘pink’. 😂

NotSpaghetti Wed 31-Jan-24 20:29:34

I suppose, Maggierose that what we currently call nude is the pinky beige colour but in future we may not, it may have another name. Just as a particular shade of brown is no longer known by the N word, we may find that nude isn't used in the same way one day.

At the moment, however, just like "caramel" or "chocolate" are used as colours but do have other meanings, so is "nude" is used for that pinky beige colour which one of my old colouring pencils used to call "flesh"!

TinSoldier Wed 31-Jan-24 19:17:56

Maggierose

Yes, that makes sense; of course there are many different shades of nude but my point is that Laura Mercier only recognises one.

No, no, no. There are not many different shades of nude. There are many different shades of skin colour.

Nudity or nudeness is the state of being unclothed which isn’t confined to people who are pinkish beige. It describes the state of undress not the colour of the person’s skin.

Nude is from the Latin nūdus and means open, simple, plain, naked, bare, unclothed. It was foremost a legal term. Its use in law goes back hundreds of years before it was ever used as a fashion colour.

Its first recorded written use as a colour in ladies' clothing dates only from 1922 in the Daily Mail:

Ladies' Hose... Black, white,..taupe, navy, nude, and all shades.

No doubt there was corrolation between the choice of the name as a colour and pale caucasian skin but in this context it is still just a colour and the same applies to cosmetics.

Maggierose Wed 31-Jan-24 19:01:39

I’m not arguing with shop assistants, just making a comment.

CanadianGran Wed 31-Jan-24 18:55:19

MaggieRose, perhaps you are a bit. But I did read somewhere that there was a bit of a campaign in the beauty industry to change some of these skin tone names to make them a bit more inclusive. Nude as a name for a colour derived from a description of pinky-beige Caucasian skin tone.

For instance many skin care companies now use warm and cool then numbers for shade. It just makes more sense.

But having an argument with a shop assistant isn't going to resolve anything. If you feel strongly about it, then write to the company.

Germanshepherdsmum Wed 31-Jan-24 18:45:40

So what should white women call ‘nude’? Why dump the description we all understand?