Bethenny Frankel Called Out for Gifting Used Makeup

As you may know, Bethenny Frankel is an unofficial makeup guru on Tiktok. I’ve been following her for a while now and at the start of her “makeup career” I found her very humble and funny. As time went on she became a touch annoying with her everything is a dupe for everything mentality. It drove me crazy when she would promote some product from Makeup Revolution being exactly the same thing as something from Charlotte Tilbury or Tom Ford. I’m anal about dupes and they enrage me for no good reason but I just hate the comparing apples to oranges mentality. That being said, I still follow her but she’s become increasingly annoying as time has gone by. I’m sincerely not hating on her she’s just a really weird dislike watch for me sometimes. She’s very misinformed about what she’s talking about. She’ll pick up stuff at the drugstore and promote it as something she never saw in her life before and how it is brand new and dude, it’s not. It’s been around forever and a day. But that isn’t new behavior as I see quite a few beauty Tiktokers do this and it’s sort of confusing to me because the audience completely goes along with it. Does no one know a newly released product from something that’s been on the market for a while?

But anyway, the thing with Bethenny is she wants to be a woman of the people but it can be hard achieving that as a millionaire. She proved that recently when she went to TJMaxx to gift “her friends” some used makeup.

Okay, so I have a personal hang-up about makeup and this opinion will vary from person to person. What’s the hang-up? I don’t gift gently used or opened makeup nor do I want it. I started Musings of a Muse in 2007 and about 5 years into doing it PR started happening. I got a lot of fun samples from a lot of different brands. But PR wasn’t as excessive as it is now where you’re getting an entire round of 33 shades of foundation. Back then, they’d give you one or two shades of an item. Anyway, over the years I’ve gotten quite a bit of PR, and a lot of it I reviewed but some of it I gifted. I’d never gifted anything I opened, swatched, or used.

Just last week I went to dinner with some friends and I made them some bags of items I had either purchased or was gifted. All of it was brand new, untouched. Some people DO not have an issue with used makeup and if they say, “Sure I’ll take that swatched lipstick off your hands thanks so much!” you have permission from them they are cool with it. I personally, don’t offer it nor would I give it to them without them realizing it was used, touched, opened, or swatched. I just find it a bit gross to give someone a lipgloss I swatched on my hand or even opened just to smell. Again, this will differ from person to person but it’s just not my thing.

Bethenny decided she “knew” her “friends” at TJMaxx so well that they’d be ok with getting makeup she opened and swatched. In her video she explains how she has all this makeup from brands that she swatched or opened and she puts it in a donate pile. This is where she and I differ as I only gift or donate brand new items. Secondly, I do not assume anything about anyone. Bethenny makes the wild assumption that the ladies that work at TJMaxx can’t afford to access this makeup she has lying around and since they were so nice to her when she shopped there that made her “friends” with them and she felt like she wanted to gift them these “luxury goods”. As per her Tiktok she filmed herself gifting these items she says they “compliment her purchases and are always so nice to her”. I dunno who needs to tell Bethenny this but when I go to Trader Joe’s and TJMaxx or Marshall’s they always do this to me. I believe it’s part of their job and they have good customer service skills. But Bethenny took it as being she had new besties. The problem is when she gets to TJMaxx with her haul of goodies she planned on gifting she goes up to the lady that’s “her friend” and proceeds to tell her “What’s your name?” It was a little tone deaf to call someone your friend in one sentence but not know their name in the second.

The Tiktok gets worse and worse because when she approaches the employee and explains she has all these gifts to give her the employee explains with a worried look on her that she can’t accept it because it’s against the store’s policy to accept gifts. Bethenny forces it on her anyway and tells her she’ll contact TJMaxx’s cooperate page via Instagram and they’ll “make an exception”. There are rumors going around that TJMaxx made her pick the stuff up but I’m not sure if that’s true or not.

Bethenny is going through it at the moment for this Tiktok she created. People are canceling her for it, calling her a “white savior” and just generally saying if you want to do something nice why create a whole Tiktok about it (which I agree with! Do we really need to shove a camera in the face of this TJ employee as you gift her your used makeup).

Personally, I think Bethenny has a very aggressive personality. If she wanted to gift these items maybe tell them it was open and swatched and see if they want it. Secondly, stop acting like a celeb. The whole “I’ll dm TJ and they’ll make an exception for me” just reeks privileged behavior. And thirdly, don’t assume things about people. There are older people that work at Disney or Walmart and it’s not because they are a stereotype of “I can’t make ends meet”. They choose to be there because they want to remain active. The moral of the story is don’t assume the ladies at TJ can’t afford makeup.

Bethenny deleted her Tiktok and replied with a “I’m getting canceled one” recently. and another where she discusses being a “white savior”. Sadly, I think she’s a little out of touch with the real world but just me.

How would you feel about getting gently used or swatched makeup? Does the idea gross you out? What if it’s from a random celeb? Personally, I wouldn’t want it. The idea of someone swatching something on their hand and giving it to me just squeaks me out but I realize not everyone is as strange as I am regarding makeup.

Do share your thoughts! Heck, share your thoughts on Bethenny’s interesting drama too!