Behind the scenes 5th April 2018 by Valerie Loftus

Fans Of The Ordinary Skincare Are Boycotting The Brand Over The Founder’s Instagram Drama

Let's get a handle on what the hell is going on in the company.

In practically no time at all, budget-friendly brand The Ordinary has become an essential part of our skincare routines. But all is not exactly rosy over at DECIEM, its parent company.

Over the past few months, anyone following DECIEM on Instagram will probably have seen a flow of… well, erratic posts from its founder, Brandon Truaxe. If you haven’t, we’ll try our best to describe what’s been going on.

Note: That’s his caption, not ours 😉

Truaxe has been using the app as a kind of personal diary – announcing that he was dropping the title of CEO, posting pictures of rubbish (and a dead animal) to declare that DECIEM would no longer use plastic, picking fights with rival skincare brands, and issuing instructions to his employees.

While at first it just seemed like Truaxe enjoyed stirring a bit of social media drama, it quickly emerged that there was chaos behind the scenes at the company.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BexU4wMgZpp/

In February, three former employees told Racked that DECIEM was not the best place to work:

In the beginning, they really sell this idea of this big family. It was good in theory, I’ll say that. But it’s not how it actually is. It’s just incredibly disorganised.

They claim that management yelled at staff, and that they witnessed and experienced inappropriate behaviour (including open discussion of people’s bodies) from their seniors.

Weeks after this story came out, Truaxe fired several members of his executive team – and after a quiet few weeks, today Very Good Light reports that he has fired all of his US staff, saying he “didn’t need them any longer”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhIzQ92AOj6/

He’s also back on the Instagram diary train, posting a picture of a homeless person outside The Ordinary’s New York store and haranguing people who criticised him for it (though he has since apologised).

So what does all of this drama mean for The Ordinary, and the rest of the DECIEM brands? Well, while many fans are wondering if they should be stocking up in case of a skincare emergency and others are outright boycotting the company, not much is happening for now.

https://twitter.com/Cahoova/status/981472506077999104

https://twitter.com/nonicekitty/status/981501304101982208

DECIEM is still expanding, opening new stores and factories and making plans for a fragrance range. However in March, UK retailer Victoria Health sent an email to customers saying that they would no longer be selling DECIEM products. Founder Gill Sinclair wrote:

I do not wish to extrapolate any further than to say that we will no longer be stocking any of the DECIEM products… At this point I will just say that I am so very sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Could the drama surrounding the company be its downfall? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Tags: