Though we'd like to think that no one intends to be offensive, sometimes a thoughtless choice can impact many. It's a lesson indie makeup brand AmyLee Cosmetics is learning the hard way.
Recently, the brand announced that in honor of their PR person Amanda Roussin, they launched a Survivors Palette, which would contain various shades recognizing a myriad of diseases. The original product description, which has since been updated, revealed that a portion of the palette's proceeds would go to her, not giving any detail as to why.
Which in theory is pretty sweet.
In reality, it didn't go over quite as well as expected.
On the subreddit r/BeautyGuruChatter, one user called out the brand for the names of the shades, which the Redditor labeled as "insensitive and triggering."
While the outer packages is relatively unassuming, when the palette opens up, the story changes.
Shades like a vibrant pink called "breast cancer" and a glittery brown called "childhood cancer" are just two of the 15 questionable monikers.
There's a glittery green are called "Lymphoma," and there is even a deep blue shade called "child abuse."
Though the brand hasn't publicly confirmed this, it appears that the shades are reflective of the awareness ribbons each disease or issue represents.
People were beyond confused and a little dumbfounded at the glaring insensitivity.
"If you had to do a 'survivors' palette, which no I don't think is a good idea to begin with, couldn't you have named the shades things like overcome or growth or something," wondered one Reddit user. "This palette has something in it for everyone in that there's something for everyone to be hurt by here. Everyone has been impacted by these things personally or through friend's or family. Everyone has something to be upset about in this palette – in fact, I'm not yet sure which shade name offends me most."
Though there were a few folks who liked the idea of the intention behind the palette, they couldn't forgive the shade name choices.
"Or just not named shades at all," suggested another user. "They could have just called it the survivor palette, and had some spiel in tbe back about how people shoukd be proud about surviving through hardship, whether it was emotional, mental health or smth else. And that this palette was dedicated to people currently going through serious illnesses. So x% of the proceeds would go to a foundation for… ONE thing."
And a few users couldn't help but find some comedy in it.
"Can you imagine 'I’m putting heart disease in my crease and I’ll put breast cancer to deepen up the outer corner…lymphoma all over the lid,'” joked one user.
“'That’s so pretty, what are you wearing on your lids,'” quipped another. "Child abuse."
It's obviously not that these issues and medical conditions are funny, but the association with a eye shadow color is what has everyone flabbergasted.
Since the criticism arose, AmyLee Cosmetics put a description addendum on the product:
"The Survivors Palette is featuring our PR girl the talented Amanda Roussin who suffers with chiari malformation, has survived cervical cancer, and has had many other health issues, including depression due to the loss of her late husband to suicide. AmyLee suffers with Anxiety, Depression, OCD, Bipolar Disorder and PTSD from the death of her son who had Cerebral Palsy. This palette was made to hopefully empower and shed light on some very serious issues. This was not intended to be hurtful. AmyLee sincerely apologizes if this is offensive or triggering to anyone. Proceeds of every palette ordered will be donated towards two organizations parkinson.org and rarediseases.org."
And while many people expressed concern over the shade names, ultimately it doesn't appear to have impacted sales.
The 15 pan palette is currently out of stock. It is currently unclear if AmyLee pulled the product or if it sold out
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
