This Black Beauty Blogger Started Major Beef With Kylie Cosmetics Over A Negative Review Of New Concealer
With recent upticks in celeb-linked beauty brands, beauty experts may find themselves in a bind.
Back in the olden days (Read: 5 years ago), high-end cosmetics lines such as that of Chanel, Dior, and the like were not getting into spats over spoolies. Maybe it's the internet (and the speed with which you can compare items), maybe it's because the lack of personal brands led to less pointed and ferocious commentary, but one thing's for certain — the times they are a-changing.
That's why we're all the more happy when we see beauty vloggers giving objective feedback. Enter Jackie Aina. Aina, a popular beauty vlogger, first entered the KarJenner 24-Hour News Cycle Orbit™ when Aina's fans alleged she had been shaded by way of not receiving a tag on Kim Kardashian's Instagram post from her KKW Beauty launch.
It's water under the bridge for Jackie, who was unbothered by what the internet perceived as shade. Jackie's come to be known for delivering honest, thorough, and entertaining reviews — all of which applied to her most recent offering: a review of Kylie Jenner's new concealer shades.
Now, with so many celeb-affiliated brands which bear their names on product, beauty reviews may risk entering tricky territory. After all, it doesn't take much to ignite an army of stans to come for one's life. Giving feedback on a product is not congruent to a personal attack — but stars' branding autonomy may make the lines more blurry (to the fan hives, at least!).
This is why it's all the more important for informed, objective, and balanced reviews in this day and age. Luckily, Jackie is not scared to go there. She smartly compared Colourpop's $6 concealer to Kylie's $20 vial. Since they are both manufactured by the same company, Seed Beauty, Jackie wanted to put the product to the test to see what differences, if any, the two concealers had between them.
Whether Kylie kopycatted Fenty Beauty is up for your interpretation. As Jackie says above many times, it's good for brands to be expanding their reach to more customers. But if you don't follow through with actually making products that actually work for new potential customers, spoiler alert: no-one will buy it!
You can watch Jackie's commentary in its entirety above, but some of the takeaways are really important things to consider. Perhaps the most startling thing about the review is the lack of matching undertones. With Rihanna's now-famous 40-shade drop, RiRi specifically cited the need to include a vast array of skin tones — most especially undertones, which can severely differ between people — because she genuinely wanted to include as many people as possible.
Kylie's concealer in question, while described as having golden undertones, actually veered more pink-ish in reality, so that's...not accurate. Jackie also cited the concealer as being too liquidy for her taste, and after a night out, the side of her face with Colourpop was far less shiny than the KyCo side.
Soooooo, if undertones and oil control are your biggest beauty hang-ups, might be best to save your coin and try out the $6 option. The more you know!