International Women’s Day has got beauty content creator world divided. On the one hand, brands are falling over themselves to get us to spread the message and help to empower other women across the globe who perhaps don’t have the advantages that most of us do. However, there is nothing empowering about asking us to promote products (for free) that add more to the coffers of the brand than to the plight of disadvantaged women. There are some major ethical questions about how genuine calls to action for good are turned into marketing campaigns for beauty brands. It’s a funny thing – asking women to work for free on their behalf with the carrot of helping women less able than us seems an odd way to go about things. Basically, we’re profit making volunteers on this one. And, I’ll also say that beauty brands are super keen to ’empower’ women until someone who actually does feel empowered calls them out, and then they don’t like the look of that empowerment at all (I’ll keep you updated with repercussions if there are any). It’s perhaps a bit unfortunate that Elemis are the example because they’re by no means alone in turning International Women’s Day into a sales event and they have pledged £35K to Women for Women International who could very well do with the money and help from the sales of this.
They’ve worked with young British accessories designer, Karen Mabon, to create an absolute beauty of a limited edition – there’s nothing about the actual product I don’t like here. It’s stunning – bright, exciting and energetic – and it’s the classic Pro Collagen Marine Cream that everyone loves. Last year, Elemis raised £39K for the same organization, which sponsored a class of 35 women in Afghanistan, so it’s not that the money isn’t significant and valued – I’m questioning what empowerment looks like commercially and whether we’d be better off not buying into this kind of product and just making straight donations with nothing in it for us other than a receipt and the knowledge that you can make a difference to someone as far away as Kabul simply because you want to. Let me know what you think!
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