EP154. Why is the beauty industry so arrogant?

When I started blogging about the beauty industry 12 years ago, one of the first articles I ever wrote was titled why Is the Beauty Industry so Arrogant? Because at the time I was utterly perplexed at the way that the beauty industry would respond to consumers genuine concerns around the safety of certain synthetic chemicals. It wasn't so much the safety aspect that I was interested in, as I agree that much of the fear around synthetics was hyped up by social media, but rather it was the industry's angry, indignant and self righteous response that I found so fascinating. Now I understand that much of that anger stems from being vilified by pseudoscience. I get that. But as every person who's ever tried to win an argument knows, you don't win that argument by shouting down the opposition. You don't win that argument by being intensely negative about everything. Instead, you win that argument slowly, by listening, by using logic, and by engaging in conversation. So you can imagine my horror as I interviewed my guest on the podcast last week, Ekwi Chukwudji Nene of Ekwi Botanics, and she told me how one of the world's biggest cosmetics brands told her as she showed them the natural hair care formulations that she'd made, which work for textured hair when nothing else would for Equi, and they said black women will buy whatever we sell them. Let that statement just sink in for a minute. The sheer breathtaking arrogance of telling a black woman who's created a hair care range that works that she and other black women will simply buy whatever they're told to buy is enough to stop all of us in our tracks. If that big brand didn't want to work with Equi, they could have simply and politely said no. But they chose not to. Instead, they chose to make the point to Equi that they know better in the most condescending, rude and yes, racist way possible. So today I am getting back on my soapbox to ask why on earth the beauty industry is so damn arrogant. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, Chartered environmentalist, Biologist and CEO of award winning online Organic Cosmetic Formulation School Founder, Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my Green Beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview that we released last week and set you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So obviously this episode is my Green Beauty opinion in which I reflect back on last week's interview on the podcast. And when reflecting back on that interview with Ekwi, there is simply no way that I couldn't not talk about that bombshell, because to me, it summarizes everything that's wrong with the mainstream beauty industry in one little sentence. Not only does telling Equi that black women will buy whatever they sell to them horribly devalue the lived experiences of people with textured or Afro hair or black or brown skin tones, but it also underpins the marketing strategy behind every large cosmetics brand. And that marketing strategy is very simple. They tell their customers that means all of us that we're not good enough, and then they think that we'll buy whatever they tell us to because apparently they're the experts and they know best. And they take that one step further for people of color who apparently have no say at all in how products are made for them. And Equi further cemented this by relaying the conversation she had with a chemist who worked for the big beauty firms who said, I don't know what you think you've designed, but nothing works for textured hair. And I should know because I designed all the products being sold by the big brand. Again, breathtaking arrogance. Now, the great thing about all of this BS is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. Every advert, every billboard, every product claim, it is right there in front of our eyes for all of us to see. The message is constant. You're too wrinkly. You're aging. Your hair isn't shiny enough. You're not smooth enough. Why are you not white as snow? Why isn't your hair straight? Are those stretch marks? And once you have the ability to step out of this madness, there are a multitude of ways that you too can reject the mainstream beauty industry. The most important one, of course, is that you can learn to formulate for yourself and make your own beauty products. Equi demonstrated this perfectly with her story. And look at where she is now with a successful beauty brand five years down the line. Because once you've made your own formulations, the drive to start selling them and creating something that you know will help people will quickly overtake every other ambition you have. Believe me, I say this as having watched tens of thousands of people do exactly this. So as they say, knowledge is power. Our knowledge of the stinky, condescending and racist attitude held by the mainstream PC industry means that we can take back the power of our beauty products by making them ourselves, or by supporting small brands such as Equies and doing this will make a profound difference. So my challenge to you for this week is simple. For goodness sake, please stop buying from big beauty brands. They don't deserve our custom. They don't deserve our respect. They certainly don't respect us. Buy from an indie beauty brand or learn how to formulate yourself. But please just just stop giving your cash to these big cosmetic companies. Thank you for listening to my Green beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations. I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode. Sam.