Up until this point, Rihanna and her beauty empire could do not wrong. They have been flawless and untouchable since day one.
But mistakes are inevitable, and people pointed this one out at lightning speed.
If you’re a little bit in the dark on what Fenty is, and what it has to do with Rihanna, allow me to fill you in:
We already knew that Rihanna is an international super star who has given us hits like, SOS , Umbrella , Work , and many others.
But at one point, Rihanna decided it was time for her to start dabbling in other things.
Since she already had an incredibly successful brand name to build off of, the possibilities were endless.
She teamed up with LVMH and created a makeup line that has turned our world’s upside down.
Naturally, when Fenty was first released, people didn’t hesitate to jump on the bandwagon.
If Rihanna is giving us her stamp of approval, you just know it’s gonna be good. We trust her.
The rest is history. Fenty has been the greatest thing since sliced bread. People can’t get enough of it.
More specifically, people can’t get enough of her highlighters .
The other products are great as well, but the highlighters have been the highlight (pun intended) of her makeup business endeavors.
On Saturday, Fenty launched three brand new highlighters, apart of the Killawatt collection.
While the colors and quality look stunning, fans noticed a small detail that was not sitting well with them.
Up until this point, Fenty Beauty has managed to steer clear of major scandals and controversy.
But this grave error has tarnished their unsullied reputation.
Doubtfully, this will actually impact the integrity of the company or their sales — but surely, it was still something they would have liked to avoid if possible.
Two of the three new shades were named “Afternoon Snack” and “Penny 4 u Thots”.
Naturally, they ” got by scot-free, but the third shade’s name wasn’t welcomed so kindly by fans.
The highlighter named “Geisha Chic” raised a few eyebrows.
“I’m really excited for this launch, however this shade name ‘Geisha Chic’ is not great because it ignores the history, full weight, and overall experience of being a geisha,” one user wrote .
“I’ve been waiting for colour like this, but I don’t want to question my judgement if I purchase this product with the current name. Please change the name so I can shine this summer with this heat” the user added.
There were several more comments from fans that followed, criticizing the name .
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“TF id this shade name? Being a geisha isnt ‘chic’ it’s not an aesthetic to be worn??? I thought Fenty knew better,” another fan commented.
This fan explained that there isn’t anything chic about being a geisha .
“Yeah speaking on behalf of East Asians: nice color, but the name? Really?,” another fan commented, adding:
“This is a brand that wants to be inclusive, and yet… lol I put faith that RiRi learned from her ‘princess of China’ days but I guess not,” referencing Rihanna’s past collaboration with Coldplay.
One fan targeted Rihanna, asking her why racism towards Asians get glossed over so easily.
“As an asian (not necessarily one with roots in geisha culture), I hate this. fenty is a brand that people look towards for inclusivity, so this is really disappointing,” one fan wrote .
Another user wrote how glad they were that Fenty Beauty owned up to their error and removed the product right away.
But they also pointed out how strange it is that not a single person on the Fenty team was able to catch that before launching it.
Fenty DM’d one of the commenters, apologizing for their mistake and revealing that they’ve pulled the product until it can be re-named.
As soon as Fenty caught wind of the criticism, they didn’t just sit on their hands and wait for it to blow over.
They removed the product from their Instagram and website until further notice.
Thankfully, Fenty Beauty responded extremely well to the situation — trying to correct their mistake, and apologizing to those they’ve offended.
Do you think that the complaints fans had about the shade name were warranted?
