Why Is Everyone Calling Out YSL Beauty’s ‘Lavender’ Blush?

Less than a week ago, Golloria George, a TikTok user who gained popularity for testing out various foundation and blush colors on her dark skin tone, went viral for her review of YSL’s latest range of blushes. The review sparked several other reviews, a slew of racist comments, and eventually George’s TikTok hiatus. Like many TikTok users, George typically swatches and tests out new shades and product ranges from major brands, so how did this turn into a “controversy”?

First of all, who is Golloria George?

Golloria George is a student at Texas State who built a platform advocating for Black women’s access to inclusive shade ranges by testing the darkest foundation brand shades on her skin. She has been expanding to testing other products like highlighters and blushes. In May, she went viral for calling out the now infamous darkest shade of Youthforia’s foundation, a solid jet-black shade with no undertones that drew immense criticism for not fitting any skin tones.

This is not the first time Golloria has called out a brand; she also did so with Rhode.

No, in August, George tried out Rhode’s beloved blushes. She was disappointed with the color range, which instead of giving her a flush of color, left her looking “ashy.” She posted her critique of the brand on TikTok. While she was subject to hateful comments for calling out the brand, Hailey Bieber personally reached out to her to help reformulate the blushes. “This is why I ‘complain,’” she said as she swatched the new shades of Rhode. “This is what you advocate for yourself. You see what happens when you’re not complacent?”

Why did Golloria criticize the shades of YSL’s Make Me blushes?

George shared a video of her swatching the five new shades on her cheeks. This time YSL’s blush delivered less than flattering results: “They all have a white base and none of these are going to work on skin as dark as mine,” she said. “Take it back to the lab.” A number of comments were dismissive and unsupportive, stating, “maybe it’s not meant for you.” While others questioned why the brand would send her shades not meant for her to use. “Who is this actually for?” commenters asked.

Everyone zeroed in on the pale lavender/pink shade called Lavender Lust. On Sephora’s website the shade is shown on women of color with darker skin tones as a pale pink. Yet the shades weren’t even similar on many users of similar skin tones who tried it out.

“It sucks when you want to buy something and the swatch looks completely different,” said creator Monica Ravichandran as she compared the result of the blush on her against Sephora’s site. In a follow-up video to her initial review of the blush, Ravichandran tried the shade on a lighter skin tone and a darker skin tone than hers: “I know it’s for extremely fair skin,” she explains as she swatches it on her fiancé. “The issue I have with this blush is the marketing,” she said. The Sephora swatches show it as light pink on darker skin tones, which Ravichandran called “false advertising.”

“Y’all are not gonna gaslight me into thinking this looks good,” she said, while blending the lavender shade on her skin again. “The issue is YSL did not come out with enough shades for darker skin tones.”

The YSL blush shades worked for a creator, who was much lighter in skin tone.

Oceanne Comtois, a beauty creator who often tries lighter shades of foundation and beauty products, was one of a few who the shade actually flattered. Comtois later took to TikTok to call out a slew of racist comments targeted toward George in her comments section: “I 100 percent do not support or endorse the hateful racist and bigoted comments that have been left in my comment section and are targeted at Golloria and other creators.” She said after her review was used to dismiss George’s and many other users concerns. “YSL designed these blushes to be universally flattering and they’re not universally flattering at all and they don’t work.”

A slew of racist comments started being posted about Golloria.

Just two days ago George shared the news on her TikTok account that she’d be logging off the site for a bit: “The internet has become and increasingly violent space, particularly for dark skin Black women,” she wrote. “It’s heartbreaking and harmful to constantly confront the overwhelming colorist, anti-Black and racist rhetoric that’s directed at us by the masses.” She has received support from her followers and beauty gurus like Jackie Aina.