L'Oreal denies allegations of lightening it for their ad campaign

The French cosmetic brand L'Oreal is in the news for the wrong reasons again - it has been accused of altering Freida Pinto's skin tone in its latest campaign, but the brand has denied the allegations.

"This is with reference to certain incorrect reports on the internet about L'Oreal Paris lightening Freida Pinto's skin-tone in the campaign 'Colors Take Flight Project Runway'. L'Oreal Paris strongly reiterates that Freida Pinto's skin-tone in the campaign has not been altered in any way," said a statement from the company today (September 29).

"This campaign was meant to highlight Freida Pinto's make-up colors applied on her eyes and lips. Thus, some powerful studio lights with ring-flash have been used for this purpose to create a runway effect on the picture. There has been no whitening retouching process whatsoever on her face," it added.

The 'Slumdog Millionaire' actress has been L'Oreal Paris spokesperson since 2009.

This is not the first time the cosmetics brand has been accused of lightening the skin tones of its models. Recently, the brand was accused for using airbrushed pictures of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for one of their campaigns.(Masala.com)