The TikTok beauty community has a new controversy surrounding the trip to Dubai by Tarte Cosmetics with TikTok’s most prominent beauty influencers like Alix Earle, Monet McMichael and Meredith Duxbury. The purpose of this trip was to market the Maracuja Juicy Glow Foundation ($40).
The all-inclusive trip was paid for by Tarte, including the business-class tickets on Emirates Airlines and accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, where all young women received their villas estimated to cost $1,500 a night for their three-day stay. The extravagance continued with the villas splashed with makeup, clothes and handbags as gifts. Over the course of a few days, the girls were treated to sightseeing around Dubai and a dune buggy tour around the desert dunes. However, the guests still had to post content and show off the luxurious trip paid for by Tarte.
For the marketing aspect of this trip, these women were gifted with extravagant amounts of makeup and clothing in their gift bags.
It would be assumed all the beauty products were Tarte, but while filming their infamous Get Ready With Me (GRWM) vlogs, Tarte products were used, but only some of the makeup the influencers used while filming. One would think the Tarte representatives would ensure these girls are using their products when posting, considering they’re paying the bill for this lavish trip.
These girls should have had a conversation off-camera with the Tarte representatives that they constantly need to talk about Tarte and give positive reviews of their makeup in posts. Maureen Kelly, founder and CEO of Tarte Cosmetics, explained their strategy, “we’ve never done traditional advertising, and instead, we invest in building lasting relationships and building up communities.”
This isn’t Tarte’s first controversy; in 2018, the brand’s “Tape Shape” foundation only had two shades for women of color. The brand released an apology stating, “It may be too little too late, but we can assure you this was not meant in any kind of malicious way. We all just got so caught up in #shapetapenation and seeing your tweets asking for it… We wanted to get the product out as fast as possible, & we made the decision to move forward before all the shades were ready to go. We know there is no excuse, & we take full responsibility for launching this way. We lost sight of what’s really important in this industry, & for those who feel alienated in our community, we want to personally apologize. We’re doing everything in our power to bring those unfinished shades to market as fast as we can, at any cost. We CAN and WILL DO BETTER.”
A representative from Tarte said this is only the beginning of what they plan to do regarding future marketing trips. However, they declined to comment on precisely what those plans are. Tarte hasn’t increased sales due to this marketing idea but instead has started a public relations nightmare.
The problem is the looming recession in the US economy. According to NBC, inflation is exceptionally high, with a carton of eggs costing $12 and gas nearly $5 a gallon. Average Americans are starving right now and companies like Google and Twitter are doing major layoffs to cut costs. TikTok users are openly talking about their struggles right now, and having to see these privileged women flaunt their luxuries in a complete content overload is not stress-relieving.
Another impropriety is that this trip was held in a country with old-fashioned and strict rules for women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and Americans. The only reason these women are allowed to wear bikinis while on this trip is because they are at a high-end resort that is safe and is a tourist destination. This influencer trip reassured the public that companies are still tone-deaf, no matter how much they publicly announce they will revamp. The question is, will Tarte take in its customer’s opinions and improve… or ignore them and keep making mistakes?