All that glitters isn’t gold. The beauty industry continues to struggle with issues of inclusivity, copyright violations, and authenticity. This raises the question: Does the beauty industry prioritize profits over its clients or are people just pawns in this multi-billion dollar business?
The Influencer Sell Out
Beauty influencers have become as important to the success of brands as celebrities. Influencers who publish sponsored content without revealing that it’s a paid advertisement are causing concern. This brings into question the legitimacy of beauty influencers, and their authenticity. Beauty influencers have younger followers, which makes them more likely to buy into what their favorite influencer recommends. A lack of transparency can erode trust among an influencer’s followers and undermine the credibility of their recommendations. As a result of seeing their favourite influencers on YouTube and TikTok, the British Association for Dermatologists issued a warning that the growing trend of children (as young as eight) using skincare products could leave them with irreversible skin problems with many exfoliating acids and active ingredients intended for adults could potentially provoke allergies or eczema.
Read more: Does Black Friday cause a beauty blackhole?
Questions were raised surrounding Sunday Riley’s ethical practices in 2018 when a former employee went to Reddit to comment on the company’s operations. CNN reported on October 19, 2019, that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), after receiving a false complaint by a former Sunday Riley employee, launched an investigation. In its investigation, the FTC learned that not only was the allegation true, but it also involved Sunday Riley’s CEO and founder. According to the report, employees wrote positive fake reviews on beauty store Sephora’s website to boost sales between November 2015 and August 2017. Sunday Riley eventually settled the FTC charges with neither the company nor Sunday Riley, its namesake chief executive, admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
Lack of inclusion
Since years (or decades), the beauty industry has been criticized for its lack diversity and inclusiveness, especially in terms of representation, including race, ethnicity and gender. Many influencers feature a narrow set of beauty standards which excludes marginalised people and perpetuates conventional beauty stereotypes. Putting aside the tokenism, everything from the foundation shades used to the faces featured in advertising campaigns shows that there is still a long way to come in promoting diversity. This is especially true since 70 percent of Black women, according to Forbes, feel underserved in the beauty industry. According to a study by P&G, only 4 percent of beauty personal care products directly address the needs of those with physical disabilities. “This includes thought-through packing like including braille on products or easy-to-open lids,” read a statement from Cosmopolitan. Now, consumers are driving change. Consumers are tired of superficial diversity nods. They want real connections, and a diverse range of faces that truly represent the public.
Trademark infringements
The beauty community is plagued with plagiarism. Large companies steal ideas from smaller, independent brands that cannot afford to take legal action. Case in point, in 2018 Huda Beauty’s Easy Bake Setting Powder (below) product campaign came under fire for what fans perceived to be a striking resemblance to Beauty Bakerie’s Flour Setting Powder advertising campaign (above).
Next, billionaire mogul Kylie Jenner’s own cosmetics line was not spared. Jenner is accused of stealing ideas and copying visuals from lesser-known artist Vlada Haggerty, a makeup artist based in Los Angeles.
According to Refinery29, Vlada expressed her dismay about the theft of her work, which Lip Kit By Kylie later added “inspo by @vladamua” within the caption before it was swiftly deleted. Vlada Haggerty then sued Kylie Jenner in 2016 for copyright infringement before Jenner’s legal team eventually settled the lawsuit in January 2017. “It breaks my heart to see how large brands take independent, unprotected artists’ work and use them to multiply their wealth,” wrote the photographer of the red-and-gold image, Julia Kuzmenko McKim.
Sustainability that is less than savoury
Influencers in the beauty sector are increasingly expected to share their values and support ethical and sustainable business practices. This is not always true. The beauty industry is plagued by concerns over ethical practices due to unsafe working conditions and lack of transparency regarding questionable practices such as animal testing or environmental pollution.
UN Environment Programme statistics state that more than 120 billion cosmetic packages were produced in the United States in 2012. Of these, 79 percent ended up in landfills and as pollutants within our natural ecosystems. It is the complexity of packaging that causes the problem, not only the volume but also the designs made of small pieces of mixed materials, which are notoriously hard to recycle.
Today, as LVMH-owned beauty brand Sephora aims to ride the “lipstick effect” wave as it sees more growth amid the continuing economic downturn more fashion brands turn to beauty to amass profits. It will take time to see if the beauty industry will grow or not.
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