PSA: When gifted with a PR mailer from a beauty brand, one is not supposed to sell it. And while this rule isn't really anything new, some influencers can't help but to break the unspoken laws of the beauty community. So one very unlucky influencer is being removed from the Anastasia Beverly Hills PR list for selling the brand's latest mailer online after they got caught red-handed by one loyal ABH fan.
ABH president Norvina isn't having it, and she took to social media to make that very clear. We're on her side with this one, and we're sure you'll be too.
In case you didn't know, selling PR mailers is a serious beauty faux pas.
And in many cases it's even illegal. So red flags were raised earlier this week when an Anastasia Beverly Hills fan tweeted Norvina to alert her of some suspicious activity.
"Does anyone know the email address @norvina1 gave us to report people that are selling their pr? I don’t want to make it public so," they asked.
Hours later, after tweeting her email, Norvina followed up with a discouraged tweet.
"So let down by some people selling the Alyssa Pr Box and/or the entire Pr Kit. It's just makes me upset with myself for adding them," she said. The tweet led to thousands of comments from fans offering their encouragement to Norvina, and many smaller aspiring MUA's assured her that they would make much better use of the recent launch.
The Alyssa PR Box that Norvina was referring to was from an exciting collab that dropped two weeks ago.
The Extra with a capital E pairing between ABH and drag queen extraordinaire Alyssa Edwards resulted in a colorful 14-shade eye shadow palette. However, for influencers and editors, the palette came in a glamorous, curated PR mailing that also featured a jeweled mirror and a massive "Beast" fan. People were tuned into Instagram stories everywhere to see the unboxing from some of their favorite influencers.
And while people would do anything to get their hands on the special-edition box, the prospect of selling it is something that everyone agrees is unacceptable.
Especially those who want to be on the PR list themselves and would appreciate the giftings.
"I’ll never understand the mindset of selling PR, it’s disgusting," someone said on Twitter. "Like I’ve worked so hard and would die to get on the list, and for people to just take it for granted and try and make some coin off of it?? It’s truly awful and I’m so sorry people do it."
The much more noble thing to do would have been donating to an up-and-coming artist.
But of course greed has gotten to a certain few influencers. Instead of graciously spreading the wealth, some are simply more concerned with increasing their own.
"This makes me so disappointed. There are so many talented artists out there who would give an arm and a leg to be on that PR list and who would appreciate the products so much.. and then there’s people out there just selling it," another ABH fan wrote.
One said that selling PR is "ungrateful and immoral."
And to be honest, we have to agree. With so many charities out there that accept beauty products, and makeup lovers who could put the items to great use, selling should never be a consideration.
"I honestly can’t stop thinking about this. I’m honestly really mad, I don’t get why they even bothered. I try so hard, & PR is so crucial for us smaller artists, so to see these people having the balls & audacity to really go there, is beyond me, it’s ungrateful & immoral," another Norvina supporter tweeted.
Norvina then went ghost on Twitter for a few days, leading people to believe that more was wrong.
But she returned, saying she's been taking some much-needed alone time.
"Sorry I’ve been MIA, nothing bad to report. I just retreated into myself as everything was starting to feel repetitious and that makes me numb. I’m chasing my imagination, descovering concepts that I want to explore (shoot on friday)& fueling my creativity which makes me happy," she announced.
Anastasia Beverly Hills declined to comment on the situation, but we're sending all our love Norvina's way. Don't let the beauty trolls get you down, sis.
