Beauty call out pages are over, long live beauty call out pages!
The Instagram account @esteelaundry first appeared in the spring of 2018. Forged in the late 2010s internet wave that gave us platforms including Diet Prada, like its fashion forebearers, Estee Laundry deftly scrutinised beauty founders and companies’ commitment to diversity. It became a much needed watchdog platform that reached its height during 2020, when the industry began reckoning with social disparities, particularly when it came to race.
After years of a glaring lack of inclusivity across the fashion and beauty world, change was afoot. Alongside the anonymous beauty whistleblowers came accounts like Brown Girl Hands, Outta The Gloss and Influencer Pay Gap, all with a mission to call out inequalities and push for progressive change. Much like Estee Laundry’s dispatches, these pages became pillars of accountability and inclusivity within beauty and fashion, and for a time, marginalised communities benefited from this cultural shift. It was an era of ‘positive’ call-out culture.
For the first time ever, social media gave consumers a platform to speak directly to companies about the need for wider shade ranges, cultural appropriation, body positivity and even address toxic work culture. The crown jewel in Estee Laundry’s good fight came when they called out a meme containing a racial epithet posted by Estée Lauder Companies executive John Demsey, which resulted in his termination from the company. Then, after keeping watch for five years, in 2023 the @esteelaundry page went dark. With accounts like Influencer Pay Gap lying dormant since 2021, and other accountability platforms like Brown Girl Hands pivoting towards brand partnerships, for a time, it seemed as though the era of beauty call-out pages was over.
But now we’re experiencing a wave of cultural regression and a return to traditional beauty standards – from the shuttering of black-owned beauty brands like Ami Cole and Beauty Bakerie, to the backlash around Youthforia’s ‘jet-black’ foundation and E.L.F.’s most recent marketing misstep with Matt Rife. Last month, Demsey was hired by Gap as its executive director of beauty. It was clear that the need for Estee Laundry remains unchanged. In July, after an almost two-year hiatus, they started posting again.
“We honestly thought other accounts would keep covering the things we focused on, but that didn’t happen,” Estee Laundry tells Dazed. “By 2023, we weren’t feeling the same sense of purpose or excitement we had when we first started the account. The beauty space had changed, public sentiment around accountability culture was shifting, and we weren’t sure if what we were doing still had a place. So we decided to take a step back and only return if it ever felt right.”
Despite rumours of legal tussles behind the scenes, the watchdog of beauty says that their return came as a response to the continued need for a page like theirs. Although there has been no shortage of “TikTokers looking to spill the tea”, says Estee Laundry, “most people seem hesitant to speak openly or critically, especially as the industry becomes more corporate and cautious.” With the political climate shifting, many of the DEI promises that brands made in 2020 have disappeared, and those companies who were once loud about inclusivity have gone quiet. “With all of this happening, it felt like our voice might still add something useful,” they say. It’s a sentiment that, despite the scaling back of inclusive mandates across the industry, is shared by beauty lovers. According to McKinsey, 45 per cent of Gen Z and 50 per cent of Millennials say they would stop using a beauty brand if it failed to be inclusive or socially responsible.
Not everyone agrees that beauty watchdogs are the best way forward, however, including Lily Twelftree, a data scientist and founder of Barefaced Media. The peak of the call-out era placed beauty consumers in the power seat, which Twelftree says has made brands “increasingly conscious of the perception of their company rather than on the actual efforts of their company”. Because of this, brands are incentivised to focus on virtue signalling and socially conscious marketing rather than actually reforming internal structures. “When it comes to inclusivity, worker care and collaborations, many brands still fall short or treat these issues like checkboxes rather than ongoing commitments,” she says.
When addressing beauty consumers’ concerns, Twelftree argues that brands tend to be more reactive than proactive, waiting until something blows up before taking action – E.L.F.’s Matt Rife campaign being a perfect example. After fans criticised the brand for working with the comedian who had made distasteful jokes about domestic violence, E.L.F. issued a statement saying they “missed the mark”, although notably did not apologise for the campaign or take it down.
Some brands, however, take backlash as constructive criticism. Last year, Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand rhode was called out for its lack of inclusive shades for dark skin tones. In response to the criticism, in particular from TikToker Golloria George whose review of the range garnered more than 11.9 million views, Bieber apologised and asked for the creator’s help in extending the shades, as well as helping with the subsequent launch of lip liners. The founder compensated George for her consultation.
George is just one of the new school creators, alongside Sarah Todd Hammer, Toni Bravo and Monica Ravi-Conway, who have picked up the mantle, filling the space left behind by the first wave of ‘call out’ pages and continuing the much needed work of advocating for diversity. In an interview for the Spring 2025 issue of Dazed, George said rhode was the first time a brand had taken her criticism to heart and made a change in how they create their products. “To see it come to life is one of the most fulfilling things ever, knowing that the dark-skinned girls who want to try rhode are going to use the shades I helped to curate,” she said.
So what does the future hold for the internet’s OG beauty accountability platform? It seems a shift in focus is on the cards. In the coming months, says Estee Laundry, “you can expect more thoughtful commentary and longer-form content that goes beyond quick takes. We’re also exploring ways to connect more directly with our community, like through our weekly newsletter called Laundry Service. We want to keep providing honest insights while finding formats that allow us to dig a little deeper.”
In order to continue their unfiltered mission, the platform tells Dazed that they want to find ways to monetise without compromising their independence. “We’ll avoid traditional ads or sponsored posts. We’re focusing on Patreon and might also look at freelancing for publications, but always in a way that keeps our voice honest and impartial.”
In the midst of diversity, equity and inclusion rollbacks across companies in the US and UK, it’s clear that platforms and creators providing an unbiased and unfiltered look behind the scenes of the industry is still a vital part of the beauty space. Estee Laundry says its mission hasn’t changed. “We’ve always focused on bringing transparency to the beauty industry. That said, we try not to take things too seriously, and we will continue to have some fun while covering the issues that matter to us.”