Pink Honey, a viral makeup brand based in the United Kingdom, is finding itself in hot water over their recent “Christmas Staycation” influencer trip which excluded some content creators.
Viral makeup brand
Pink Honey is a beauty brand founded by makeup artist Olivia Taylor with her partner Byron Entwistle in 2020.
Since the brand’s establishment, it has gained viral attention online, particularly for some of its products, such as the Original Superhold Brow Glue and the BFF Bronzing Face Frosting.
Pink Honey has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram.
‘Christmas Staycation’
Recently, the brand held a “Christmas Staycation” program for influencers, but failed to invite some content creators, such as those of color. The influencers they chose for the trip were those who are young, slim and white, and women.
Considering that the world of influencers today is so vast, TikTok users began criticizing Taylor, the brand’s founder.
Among the critics were @Tess_Daly, who said, “The main topic of discourse, I’ve seen, is around the complete lack of diversity in skin tones at this event because this is paramount… Beauty products go on the skin, so skin has to be in varying depths. [But] the one thing I am really not seeing as much is disability. To me, this is just a bit of an echo of what it really is like to be in the fashion and beauty industry. We are an afterthought to the afterthoughts.”
Olivia apologizes
Taylor has since taken to TikTok to issue a tearful apology regarding the guest list of their Christmas staycation program.
“[We] held a staycation of the past two days for 17 people. So they were asked to come on the trip because they had specifically done something that played a massive part in Pink Honey’s growth,” she began.
She added that the brand is “always, always open to working with any influencer.”
“It would never, ever cross my mind to not work with someone because of things like gender, race, size, skin type,” she stated. “I am so sorry to anybody that has seen what is going on and lost faith in what Pink Honey stands for.”
