Unfortunately, the internet houses trolls and people who love to make others feel unworthy, bombarding them with rude comments. The beauty community, a space a lot use to get away from their everyday lives, is certainly no exception. In fact, the beauty community might be one of the places where people are the nastiest to each other since preying on someone’s looks and makeup skills is easier.
I’ve known how ugly the beauty community can get since I became obsessed with watching YouTube videos. It wasn’t until a couple days ago that I realized how toxic the community can be to someone who is just being honest. Also, I found out how much people in this community live for the messy drama.
What made me realize all this is the backlash that a YouTuber, Alissa Ashley, got for giving an honest review on a new Anastasia Beverly Hills palette, Subculture. Now, Anastasia has been consistent as a brand over the years. They don’t really release bad products and they are a favorite. In fact, Modern Renaissance is a palette that so many people fell in love with. It is also the sister palette of Subculture. Because of that reason, everyone expected the formulation to be the same as Modern Renaissance.
Being one of the first to do a negative review, Alissa got a lot of backlash for her video. The eyeshadows were very powdery and did not blend well. You could clearly see that in her video. In fact, she hit pan on the eyeshadow on her first use. People attacked her and said it was fake. They said she was swirling the brush in the eyeshadow too hard and that is why she hit pan but you can clearly see in the video that was not true. Besides, Alissa has credibility in the community as she always shows her loyalty to her subscribers and not the brands.
https://twitter.com/alissa_ashleyy/status/891373268929716224
Alissa tried different techniques and redid her eyeshadow three different times just to end up with the same result: unblended and powdery shadow. Yet people were still questioning her makeup skills and credibility.
The worst part is that the face of the Anastasia company, Norvina, released a statement and was definitely being shady to Alissa. She mentioned that if you swirl your brush into a shadow many times then yes, you will hit pan. But that is just not true. The company just did not want to own up to the problem. Then, many people came to the company’s defense, posting pictures and videos showing that the palette, in fact, did work and reassuring Norvina that her palette was gorgeous. Those people, were obviously just trying to get noticed by Norvina, not taking into consideration that there was probably a production issue and a bad batch came from that. https://twitter.com/norvina1/status/891447386840510464
So, what I learned from this whole drama episode is that people will bash on the people who do not agree with the majority. Even worse, a lot will do it just to climb up socially and get recognized by a brand. Some people stan brands so much, they can’t fathom that they would ever have a mistake occur. I also learned that people will question your skills and persona. Another lesson is that brands rather be shady and sassy rather than being professional and addressing issues in a formal manner. All in all, the beauty community can be toxic and ugly, and it is important that we focus on uplifting and supporting each other while respecting different opinions.
