Discussion: Huda Beauty
In light of my previous post, I have to admit, I've never bought from Huda Beauty before or had any real interest in her products.
Partially due to the fact that there is a huge backlash against Huda as a person and also her brand, partially that all of her products don't seem amazing.
While she isn't the only brand with a lot of controversy surrounding her, I can really only think of a handful of brands that don't have some sort of negative brand backlash with recent backlogging of all the opinions being broadcasted and immortalized on the internet.
As they say, the internet is forever....
In regards to buying her products, it's possible that reviewing a contentious brand can also give an insight into how they run their business, especially one which is as strongly focused on Huda as the face and owner of the entire company.
There is a theory that some brands like to start drama/controversy just to bring attention to their brand and new releases, which also is possible.
In the wide world of PR, fake news and dubious media, it's hard to know who to trust, what to trust, and gives you a real hard time to make nuanced decisions in the face on increasing radicalization.
So, whether or not you think me giving a bit of money to Huda for the sake of this review and a few looks makes me a worse person or not, that's up to you to decide.
You need to look no further than to google "Huda beauty controversial" before about 264,000 results come up.
An overview of these are :
- Huda advocating for 'vagina bleaching' ; "Why your Vagina gets Dark and How to Lighten It" (5, 6)
- Huda Beauty's IG not catering towards darker skin colors
(around 15 darker skinned people for every 250 posts) (2)
- Huda stealing the ideas of smaller WOC owned brand Beauty Bakerie
for her 'easy bake' powder. (2, 4)
- Huda using a skin positive KOL, Em Ford in a tone deaf Facebook promotion regarding acne scarring. (3)
- Huda having a strong history of promoting and encouraging colorism (2, 8)
- Huda Beauty not featuring males in makeup on her page. (9)
-Rose Gold palette controversy (12, 13)
I've compiled the sources/links respectively here:
We can safely state:
Huda is an American born Iraqi, who lives in Dubai, and markets her beauty products predominantly to Middle East and North African (MENA) women. She is also a self established, WOC with her own brand, and arguably very successful.
However, she is in line with a lot of Middle Eastern ideas, like colorism regarding skin tones, refusal to support queer/gender non-conforming ideas about makeup. This stems into further issues such as lack of representation, and also promoting negative and conservative ideas about beauty in as far as Western values go.
What do I think?
I think I can applaud Huda for being a self made woman (much more than Kylie Jenner ever will be). I think her ability to hustle is incredible, she certainly does an amazing job of promoting her (not exceptional) products, and she's created a whole cult of personality around her face, her products and her beauty line. I don't think I could ever achieve that level of success, and for that, congratulations to her.
That being said, she is on the level of a lot of WOC beauty influencers, and a lot of the more Western demographic, especially coming out of an American/Western orientation, will expect her to fall in line with more progressive ideas of skin color diversity and queer/LGBT promotion in terms of allowing make up to be a gender-free expression of creativity/beauty/art etc.
Personally, I feel like a lot of the discussion on r/BGC (9) already raised provides a good scope of the conversation we can have. It's a difficult concept to accept that homosexuality is still ruled as a criminal offence in the UAE.
In order to make revenue, Huda has no choice but to acquiesce to the government in regards to not featuring anyone who deviates from the image of cis-women wearing glamorous makeup.
It's true that we should be more aware that not every country has the same progressive values and drive towards more varied representation,
In the end, I believe that not only is Huda the face of the brand, but also of a company with a lot of employees, the primary goal meaning: making money.
As I've said before, the drive towards trying to make companies 'human' with moral codes and to advocate for things that aren't in the interest of earning money, is counter-intuitive and in my opinion, a little naive.
To ask her to be the champion of WOC rights is a difficult and hefty request, as it is clear that she also doesn't want to rock the boat and cut off her income from MENA areas, which are unlikely to change overnight.
I think that to also expect any KOL/BG to suddenly become passionate about social justice issues that they previously weren't aware of or interested in before is a futile request. If she previously had been interested in supporting LGBT culture and promoting diversity, she would have picked to establish her company differently, along the lines of indie brands like Sugarpill (Amy Doan a WOC, who regularly promote drag queens on the company's IG page and even through collaborations), or Beauty Bakerie/Juvia's Place which are made by African American WOC, for WOC.
Regarding colorism, I also think this subtle and subconscious preference for lighter skin color in interesting. It's very prevalent still in East Asian countries, such as Korea, and regular BGs on Youtube and IG will still promote lighter foundations, and neutralizing darker skin colors. It reminds me a bit of the white chalk paint foundation that Elizabeth the First had, just a reflective white face paint and stark red lips.
My little thought aside, I think this might be something that she's personally ingrained and wants to promote rather than taking an alternative path like Fenty does. That's also her own choice.
Regarding the Beauty Bakerie setting powder debacle though, I don't have much of an opnion on that. It doesn't look too similar at all to me, and the concept of 'baking' doesn't primarily belong to Beauty Bakerie (although give them a shout out for being an amazing brand and having the cutest concept/packaging for all of their products!)
I don't think any ideas are particularly original or unique, and there is really no innovation (the post-modernist in me speaking). To really claim that one brand comes out with something blatantly ripping off another feels a little too common in this day and age, and much like OP in (12) states, it's not a huge reach to go from 'baking', to 'baking in a kitchen'. It is interesting that she promoted this one in more of a pastel like fashion, not unlike Beauty Bakerie's usual promotion tactics (11), but honestly it doesn't seem like blatant plagarism to me.
For me, unless she was on the line of Kuckian and his overpriced Ebay goods, I don't have too much of a problem with her taking a pretty popular idea and selling her own items with ideas that easily could have been thought up from the name of the make up technique, 'baking'.
Regarding the rest of her products, it doesn't get easier.
Like how you can't get most of the product out of her foundation, but mostly her weird practices with the Rose Gold remastered publicity stunt. By asking your followers to invest in something you were going to 'fix' later, feels like poor form to me to get everyone to buy the remaining stock and then trying to cover up that she didn't fully put time into establishing the first palette anyway with the 'lack of money she had' (12, 13). I personally would have just discontinued that and created a new one (plus they all look the same anyway, just various warm pink and red tones).
To basically sum all this up, there is a lot of stuff you can read on Huda Beauty. So much drama, and she's not even the biggest shitstirrer BG on these high seas.
For me, I am not the biggest fan of Huda as a person, nor am I a fan of how she runs her company.
No, I don't think I should actively support her either, but that being said, I feel that as long as my spending bracket runs between under the $100 mark, and I still get a palette out of it, it isn't necessarily worse than giving money to a fake charity in which the majority of proceeds go to hypocritical people who do wilfully take money intended for people in need.
That's as far as I feel though, and the rest of it: that's your own opinion to make.
There is a theory that some brands like to start drama/controversy just to bring attention to their brand and new releases, which also is possible.
In the wide world of PR, fake news and dubious media, it's hard to know who to trust, what to trust, and gives you a real hard time to make nuanced decisions in the face on increasing radicalization.
So, whether or not you think me giving a bit of money to Huda for the sake of this review and a few looks makes me a worse person or not, that's up to you to decide.
You need to look no further than to google "Huda beauty controversial" before about 264,000 results come up.
An overview of these are :
- Huda advocating for 'vagina bleaching' ; "Why your Vagina gets Dark and How to Lighten It" (5, 6)
- Huda Beauty's IG not catering towards darker skin colors
(around 15 darker skinned people for every 250 posts) (2)
- Huda stealing the ideas of smaller WOC owned brand Beauty Bakerie
for her 'easy bake' powder. (2, 4)
- Huda using a skin positive KOL, Em Ford in a tone deaf Facebook promotion regarding acne scarring. (3)
- Huda having a strong history of promoting and encouraging colorism (2, 8)
- Huda Beauty not featuring males in makeup on her page. (9)
-Rose Gold palette controversy (12, 13)
I've compiled the sources/links respectively here:
- https://www.google.com/search?q=huda+beauty+controversial&oq=huda+beauty+contr&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l5.6654j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
- https://www.readunwritten.com/2018/07/13/internet-trashing-huda-beauty-why/
- https://www.allure.com/story/huda-kattan-em-ford-acne-scars-post-controversy
- https://me.popsugar.com/beauty/Huda-Beauty-Easy-Bake-Accused-Ripping-Off-Beauty-Bakerie-44983015
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/8gfdbt/huda_beauty_promotes_a_facebook_post_about/
- https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/05/198373/huda-beauty-vagina-lightening
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/7z8avy/huda_beauty_reposts_this_image_of_someone_using_a/
- https://www.revelist.com/bloggers/jackie-aina-huda-racism/10393
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/7ccxxc/jesse_arreola_twitter_mua_exposes_hudabeauty_for/
- https://thebrownperfection.com/2018/07/25/did-huda-beauty-steal-from-beautybakerie/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/9vhou1/huda_beauty_and_beauty_bakerie_drama_displayed_so/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/8j5dkx/huda_beauty_announces_her_next_palette_which_is/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/8ns4lt/rose_gold_remastered/
We can safely state:
Huda is an American born Iraqi, who lives in Dubai, and markets her beauty products predominantly to Middle East and North African (MENA) women. She is also a self established, WOC with her own brand, and arguably very successful.
However, she is in line with a lot of Middle Eastern ideas, like colorism regarding skin tones, refusal to support queer/gender non-conforming ideas about makeup. This stems into further issues such as lack of representation, and also promoting negative and conservative ideas about beauty in as far as Western values go.
What do I think?
I think I can applaud Huda for being a self made woman (much more than Kylie Jenner ever will be). I think her ability to hustle is incredible, she certainly does an amazing job of promoting her (not exceptional) products, and she's created a whole cult of personality around her face, her products and her beauty line. I don't think I could ever achieve that level of success, and for that, congratulations to her.
That being said, she is on the level of a lot of WOC beauty influencers, and a lot of the more Western demographic, especially coming out of an American/Western orientation, will expect her to fall in line with more progressive ideas of skin color diversity and queer/LGBT promotion in terms of allowing make up to be a gender-free expression of creativity/beauty/art etc.
Personally, I feel like a lot of the discussion on r/BGC (9) already raised provides a good scope of the conversation we can have. It's a difficult concept to accept that homosexuality is still ruled as a criminal offence in the UAE.
In order to make revenue, Huda has no choice but to acquiesce to the government in regards to not featuring anyone who deviates from the image of cis-women wearing glamorous makeup.
It's true that we should be more aware that not every country has the same progressive values and drive towards more varied representation,
In the end, I believe that not only is Huda the face of the brand, but also of a company with a lot of employees, the primary goal meaning: making money.
As I've said before, the drive towards trying to make companies 'human' with moral codes and to advocate for things that aren't in the interest of earning money, is counter-intuitive and in my opinion, a little naive.
To ask her to be the champion of WOC rights is a difficult and hefty request, as it is clear that she also doesn't want to rock the boat and cut off her income from MENA areas, which are unlikely to change overnight.
I think that to also expect any KOL/BG to suddenly become passionate about social justice issues that they previously weren't aware of or interested in before is a futile request. If she previously had been interested in supporting LGBT culture and promoting diversity, she would have picked to establish her company differently, along the lines of indie brands like Sugarpill (Amy Doan a WOC, who regularly promote drag queens on the company's IG page and even through collaborations), or Beauty Bakerie/Juvia's Place which are made by African American WOC, for WOC.
Regarding colorism, I also think this subtle and subconscious preference for lighter skin color in interesting. It's very prevalent still in East Asian countries, such as Korea, and regular BGs on Youtube and IG will still promote lighter foundations, and neutralizing darker skin colors. It reminds me a bit of the white chalk paint foundation that Elizabeth the First had, just a reflective white face paint and stark red lips.
My little thought aside, I think this might be something that she's personally ingrained and wants to promote rather than taking an alternative path like Fenty does. That's also her own choice.
Regarding the Beauty Bakerie setting powder debacle though, I don't have much of an opnion on that. It doesn't look too similar at all to me, and the concept of 'baking' doesn't primarily belong to Beauty Bakerie (although give them a shout out for being an amazing brand and having the cutest concept/packaging for all of their products!)
I don't think any ideas are particularly original or unique, and there is really no innovation (the post-modernist in me speaking). To really claim that one brand comes out with something blatantly ripping off another feels a little too common in this day and age, and much like OP in (12) states, it's not a huge reach to go from 'baking', to 'baking in a kitchen'. It is interesting that she promoted this one in more of a pastel like fashion, not unlike Beauty Bakerie's usual promotion tactics (11), but honestly it doesn't seem like blatant plagarism to me.
For me, unless she was on the line of Kuckian and his overpriced Ebay goods, I don't have too much of a problem with her taking a pretty popular idea and selling her own items with ideas that easily could have been thought up from the name of the make up technique, 'baking'.
Regarding the rest of her products, it doesn't get easier.
Like how you can't get most of the product out of her foundation, but mostly her weird practices with the Rose Gold remastered publicity stunt. By asking your followers to invest in something you were going to 'fix' later, feels like poor form to me to get everyone to buy the remaining stock and then trying to cover up that she didn't fully put time into establishing the first palette anyway with the 'lack of money she had' (12, 13). I personally would have just discontinued that and created a new one (plus they all look the same anyway, just various warm pink and red tones).
To basically sum all this up, there is a lot of stuff you can read on Huda Beauty. So much drama, and she's not even the biggest shitstirrer BG on these high seas.
For me, I am not the biggest fan of Huda as a person, nor am I a fan of how she runs her company.
No, I don't think I should actively support her either, but that being said, I feel that as long as my spending bracket runs between under the $100 mark, and I still get a palette out of it, it isn't necessarily worse than giving money to a fake charity in which the majority of proceeds go to hypocritical people who do wilfully take money intended for people in need.
That's as far as I feel though, and the rest of it: that's your own opinion to make.
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