Article content

In 2015, beauty retailer Sephora made its brand tagline “Let’s Beauty Together,” switching away from a prior mantra, “The Beauty Authority.” Its senior vice president for marketing and brand, Deborah Yeh, explained the tagline several years later: “Beauty is diverse and has many voices and faces,” she said. “We believe it’s for our clients to define and for us to celebrate.”

In late April, R&B star SZA, who is black (and has said she worked at Sephora before she made it as a musician), reported that a Sephora employee in Calabasas, California, had “called security to make sure I wasn’t stealing.” The news threatened to upset that carefully honed, diversity-focused image, which has resonated with the brand’s young American customers.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Sephora will shut down its stores for an hour today for diversity training Back to video

On Wednesday, Sephora will close all its stores to host a “one-hour inclusivity workshop” for employees at retail locations, distribution centres and corporate offices in the United States. The brand announced these plans in the caption of a Facebook video several weeks ago. Separately, the brand apologized to SZA and said it was “working with our teams to address the situation immediately.”