Ok, Wait, Is the Beauty Industry Capitalizing on Pride Month?
June is Pride Month a month that commemorates the Stonewall riots that occurred in 1969 but also, a month that the LGBT+ community celebrates their sexuality proudly, loudly, and colorfully. I am forever, always a strong supporter, advocate, and friend to the LGBT+ community. My best friend is gay and he is as close to my heart as any blood relative. I have always found the LGBT+ community welcoming, never judgemental and have always found a home in it even though I am straight.
Now, of course, I have to start a controversial topic of conversation 🙂 I do wonder how everyone feels about all the Pride Makeup Collections as of late? I have had a very strong dislike for the boys in makeup campaigns in the past from a variety of brands just because I felt like brands weren’t actually interested in showcasing men that wear makeup and enjoy it but more about how they could profit over being more edgy in some way. I’m feeling a little bit the same way about the Pride Collections coming out at the moment.
Urban Decay has a Pride Collection they launched called Sparkle Out Loud which does donate funds of a certain shade to a LGBT+ organization but one of my readers brought out a valid point and said, “Why only one shade?” I appreciate UD for making an effort though as so far everyone else that has launched a “rainbow” packaged or themed line of products haven’t actually made the same efforts. “Look at us we have a Pride Collection!” Ok, so you popped some lipgloss in a rainbow box and called it a Pride Collection but how is helping or bringing attention to the LGBT+ community? Marc Jacobs, sorry, I’m looking at you. It just feels like capitalizing on a month that should have important meaning.
The Jessie Paege x Tarte Rainbow Eyeshadow Palette is another great example of this. I think it’s great that Tarte made Jessie the face of the palette as she is in fact bisexual. But again, it does seem like the idea is to gain more of a following versus wanting to bring good attention to the LGBT+ community.
I guess what I’m trying to say is if you’re going to do a Pride Makeup Collection maybe have it benefit the community in some way or bring attention to it in a positive way versus just saying, “Hey here’s some limited edition rainbow packaging!”
What do you think?
Is the makeup industry capitalizing on the Pride Month or do you feel they generally want to bring positive attention to it?
Update: Since writing this post Christine (Temptalia) brought to my attention that 10% Of the proceeds from Marc Jacobs new lipgloss will be donated to Sage. This was not available information yesterday so I don’t know if it was overlooked or if the brand changed their mind about donations later on.