Kim Kardashian West responds to 'blackface' accusations

Kim Kardashian West says she was surprised by the reaction on social media to images from her new makeup collection. Photo / Getty

When she released a promotional image for her new beauty range on Instagram, reality star Kim Kardashian didn't expect to be embroiled in a nasty "blackface" controversy.

A week after copping online backlash, she has addressed the racial drama in an interview with The New York Times - and offered a fairly simple excuse.

"I would obviously never want to offend anyone," the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star told the newspaper.

A teaser from the photo shoot by Ben Hasset, with make-up artistry by Mario
Dedivanovic, was uploaded to social media last week.

It showed the busy mum of two in a cream bra top and looking much darker than she really is.

You dont have to do blackface pic.twitter.com/MLcJ5Hbg9R

— Wynters (@Sacha_Wynters) June 14, 2017

A social media storm quickly brewed, with allegations of "blackface" being hurled Kardashian's way.

"I used an amazing photographer and a team of people. I was really tan when we shot the images, and it might be that the contrast was off.

"But I showed the image to many people, to many in the business. No one brought that to our attention. No one mentioned it."

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Hey

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Apr 27, 2017 at 10:14pm PDT

Other promotional images from the shoot were "changed right away", said the model, who's married to rapper Kanye West, with whom she has two children.

"Of course, I have the utmost respect for why people might feel the way they did. But we made the necessary changes to that photo and the rest of the photos.

"We saw the problem, and we adapted and changed right away. Definitely I have learned from it."

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NYC ➡️ PARIS

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 27, 2016 at 6:34pm PDT