Problematic beauty brands, in a sea of other beauty brands, is bound to happen at some point. You hope that they don’t do something stupid or offensive, but it happens anyways.
Sometimes, the owners aren’t great people, and other times these beauty brands become problematic over the years, and that’s no fun. So what can we do if we don’t want to support these problematic beauty brands? Well, don’t support them! Don’t buy from them!
What you can do is buy from other brands that have the same kind of products that the the other brand has. That’s what this is for! Here’s some wonderful alternatives to problematic beauty brands!
Not only is Jeffree Star himself is not a good person, but some of his products have had some controversies on their own.
Jeffree Star has had a past of racism, and his most recent big drama is that he allegedly caused the whole scandal with James Charles to take place. James Charles is another beauty YouTuber, just so you’re aware. For a while, Jeffree Star, after accusing James Charles and almost ruining his career, has been dangling this audio clip of a “victim of James Charles,” in front of anyone who asks. It’s insulting, really.
It’s bad enough that he’s known to be racist and allegedly started the whole predator scandal, but he’s also snapped at fans for telling him that his products that they purchased weren’t up to par or what they were expecting.
Though his formula is nothing to mock, his products sometimes come in broken or damaged. There’s big controversy with his mystery boxes, as well; many people state that the lipsticks he includes are old and don’t work as well. In June of 2019, one customer even stated that they had yellow patches in their lipstick bullet!
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Lethal Cosmetics.
Lethal Cosmetics is not part of the problematic beauty brands list, thankfully. Their makeup is so cute!
They have everything you could ever want. They have glosses, eye shadow, eyeshadow palettes, nude lipsticks, and neon liners for much more affordable than Jeffree Star has on his website. Their single shadows go as low as $6 or $7!
Lethal Cosmetics has metallic eyeshadows, beautiful matte shadows, and even duochrome eyeshadows! And they’re all so gorgeous! You should totally check them out.
Lime Crime is one of the most infamously problematic beauty brands, aside from Jeffree Star. They’re known for an array of terrible things, from legal threats to 13 year olds, to Nazi costumes. Yeah, it’s that wild. Here’s a few in specifics.
According to Vox.com, Doe Deere, legally known as Xenia Vorotovan, new to the business, but not to fame, had already made legal threats to 13 year olds in 2008. Lime Crime launched in October of that year with no problems, however.
In 2009, Lime Crime was accused of repackaging their makeup from a wholesale manufacturing company called TKB Cosmetics because their formulas seemed so similar. This was quite the scandal, mainly because most beauty brands either don’t do this, or don’t do this sort of thing when they’re so young. Keep in mind that Lime Crime, at this time, was only a few months old. People want transparency, and it’s clear Lime Crime wasn’t doing well in that department.
Doe Deere also tried to pursue litigation against bloggers who had anything negative to say about her brand, including stating one called “Doe Deere Lies.” She sued this blog for $250,000 in damages, claiming that this blog made Lime Crime lose money, and that everything was wrong. Welp, “Doe Deere Lies” was taken down, but in its place were dozens of other blogs, spreading more information about Lime Crime.
Skip forward to 2012, and Lime Crime releases a palette called the China Doll palette. Lime Crime used a white model in Japanese clothing for a Chinese themed palette. Yikes. The description goes as follows: “Don’t let her milky skin, pouty mouth, and flushed cheeks fool you, underneath the poised facade, there lies the heart of a tigress.” They did address this controversy, at least! Though they apologized for the fact that their audience was offended by it, which as we all know, isn’t a real apology.
Did you think we forgot about the Nazi costume accusation? Nope! Doe Deere actually dressed up in a Hitler costume.
I’ll stop now, but you can imagine how many more controversies this brand had. Let’s look at a brand that you can support instead of Lime Crime.
Ka’oir Cosmetics is a brand that markets itself as a really sexy, really glitzy beauty brand with a “K” has their staple. They have many collections: Glitzstick Collection, Ka’oir Glow Collection, Kashmir Matte Liquid Lip Collection, Lip Pop Collection, and the Wet Paint Collection.
Their makeup? Gorgeous, and absolutely stunning! They sell bright single eyeshadows for about $16 a piece, and their eyeshadow palettes being a bit pricier, ranging around $60.
Their Glitzstick Collection is gorgeous, offering many shades of lipsticks that comes with cosmetic grade glitter, making your lips more gorgeous than they already are. And guess what? It’s animal cruelty-free, and US made!
There have been plenty of scandals and controversies, making Kylie Cosmetics as part of that problematic beauty brands list. Oh, well.
Here’s a few. If you can believe it, back in 2017, one customer had found actual live ants in their “Birthday” lip kit, along with particles of food. She also states that she had tried three times to reach out to the company, even including several videos showing this fact. It’s pretty gross, not gonna lie.
Once again in 2017, people had received their package, but without the product. Oh, sorry, no, I meant that there was literally no product in the compacts themselves. One customer in 2017 posted a video, stating that there was no highlighter to be found in their compact.
Kylie Cosmetics has also been accused of having sweat shop level conditions which included long hours, unclean work environment, and early days. One worker had recounted when they had inhaled a lot of makeup products, making them sick.
This is why Kylie Cosmetics is part of that group of problematic beauty brands. Let’s stop focusing on this, and move on to BH Cosmetics.
BH Cosmetics already has a big foot in the door. Many people rave about BH Cosmetics, so its only natural we highlight in some of the products that they offer.
I’m sure you’re already aware of their Bring Me Back to Brazil palette? Many people are fond of this palette, and I can totally see why. The palette comes in rainbow colors, filled with bright yellows, lime greens, beautiful mattes, and glitter shades.
There’s also their fairly new Halloween collection, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Full On Crazy, a palette that’s part of this beautiful collection, rivals that of Jeffree Star’s conspiracy palette with more creative and more neon colors that a girl could ever ask for!
All in all, BH Cosmetics has gorgeous makeup that’ll make you look more stunning than you could ever dream of.
Problematic beauty brands are bound to pop up eventually, no matter how much we wish they didn’t. Jeffree Star Cosmetics, Lime Crime, and Kylie Cosmetics is part of that group of problematic beauty brands, unfortunately. Hopefully, this also leads you to doing more and more research on the brands that you’re buying from. Happy shopping!
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