Beauty industry watchdog Estee Laundryan Instagram account made up of an anonymous collective, calls BS on the beauty industry – and they have the receipts.
Estee Laundry has lifted the shiny curtain on everything from copycat packaging and racial appropriation to employee bullying and abuse, bringing transparency to a traditionally opaque industry.
“There was no specific event that prompted us to form the collective,” an Estee Laundry representative who wished to remain anonymous told HuffPost in an email. “Over time, we observed a trend of shady and unethical business practices in the beauty industry, but we also noticed that there was no independent and objective entity to hold these responsible brands.”
Estee Laundry’s content is powered by emails and direct messages, about 100 a day, from their more than 172,000 Instagram followers. “Once we have reviewed all the submissions, we collectively decide as a group which ones to post. We review them as necessary through the appropriate channels and resources before publication. We are careful to only post submissions that have merit,” the rep said. Estee Laundry does not accept advertisements or sponsorships, but it does have a Patreon page for subscribers wishing to support their cause.
When Estee Laundry started in May 2018, its audience was mostly people who worked in the beauty industry. Then, in October of that year, the account job a leaked email from a former employee of skincare brand Sunday Riley, saying the company asked employees to write fake product reviews on Sephora. The post went viral and Estee Laundry’s audience quickly grew as the mainstream media began following its movements and citing the collective as a beauty industry watchdog. The Sunday Riley Fake Review Scandal Has Been Investigated by the FTC and settlement in 2019.
“Their rise was meteoric because it was necessary,” said Claire McCormack, editor of Independent Beauty who has covered Estee Laundry in the past. “Some brands treat their employees terribly, come out with four shades of foundation and think they’re inclusive and so many other questionable behaviors. It’s a very crowded market with a lot of brands selling crap. It could use a highlight.
Estee Laundry said her most satisfying posts invite constructive conversation and/or invoke change. “A great example of this is Fenty Beauty’s ‘Geisha Chic’ highlighter. We published articles about how consumers found the name offensive and Fenty Beauty was quick to contact us saying they had heard and agreed. They immediately pulled the highlighter from the shelves and planned to rename it.
The collective recognizes that there are two sides to every story and that they have not always understood correctly. “Although we always try to do the right thing, there have been several times when we had to delete a post after hearing the other party’s point of view,” the group told The Guardian Last year.
Kelly Kovack, beauty industry expert and founder of matter of beauty, thinks watchdogs like Estee Laundry are a good thing because they hold brands accountable. “Twenty or thirty years ago, the beauty industry had a moral compass. At some point, that mentality shifted to the bottom line, profit at all costs. [Estee Laundry] I hope brands will think twice about bad behavior. »
If Estee Laundry wasn’t enough to send shivers down the spines of beauty executives in their corner offices, beauty journalist Jessica DeFino is urging female readers to ditch all their beauty regimens on the pages of national magazines and has launched a newsletter titled The unpublishable“a place for surveys, op-eds, and reviews that mainstream beauty publications can’t, won’t, or won’t cover. So far the titles have read “Where are all the brown hands?” and “You don’t wear makeup for yourself.” The newsletter is free, but DeFino has a Patreon page.
DeFino’s provocative posts like “Are sheet masks the new plastic straws?” and “The COVID-19 pandemic is changing what I consider ‘essential’ in beauty” as seen in vogue and Seduce, respectively, are the antithesis of the traditional “Buy!” To buy! Buy!” messaging and basically give the middle finger to the entire beauty industry.
There has always been a devious symbiotic relationship between advertisers and print editorials. Brands spend a lot on ads and their new products magically end up on editor’s pick pages. That’s why DeFino was surprised when Harper’s Bazaar accepted her pitch exposing hyaluronic acid, an ingredient touted as a miracle moisturizer found in thousands of skincare products, as a potential irritant.
The story “Hyaluronic acid could actually dehydrate your skin”, was published on March 4 online and was removed without explanation within a day. DeFino cannot comment on why the story was taken down, and Hearst, the parent company of Harper’s Bazaar, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from HuffPost.
So how does DeFino find her information? “I start with expert sources and try to use a variety: dermatologists, estheticians, product formulators, cosmetic chemists, functional medicine doctors, naturopaths,” she said. “I always ask for studies to back up what they tell me, and then I immerse myself in those studies. Often that’s what gives me the angle or the break in the story.
Through it all, DeFino constantly challenges the idea that you can buy hope in a jar.
“The message we’ve been given for 100 years is that we need to be better, leaner, more beautiful,” she said. “Now that message has been reframed as empowerment. “I make up for myself. I’m taking Botox for me.’ But we have to go further and ask, why does it feel good to me? Personally, I feel absolutely crushed by the standards of beauty that have been imposed on me. I don’t feel confident without makeup. I don’t feel good about my wrinkles. But for some reason, I don’t have to change those things. I’m more obligated to change society’s thoughts about these things.
Since the nationwide protests began following the death of George Floyd, Estee Laundry and DeFino have dedicated their social media feeds to amplifying “Pull up for change,“an initiative that requires companies to share the number of black people they employ at the corporate level, exposes “Karens” in the beauty industry and acts as a resource for readers to find black-owned beauty brands.
DeFino and Estee Laundry are clear allies in pulling consumers out of the matrix created by the beauty industry, hoping they will ask questions and make purchasing decisions based on facts.
“We are gaining momentum and still have work to do, but we are excited and optimistic about the future of the beauty industry,” the Estee Laundry rep concluded. “We must continue to challenge the status quo and change the narrative. Our goal is to bring the beauty industry to a place where inclusivity, transparency and sustainability are no longer an afterthought, but are mandatory and the norm.
