From the “fox-eye” trend to the cultural appropriation of gua sha and the blatant repositioning of skin-whitening products, the beauty industry continues to perpetuate anti-Asian racism – and our call outs just aren’t being taken seriously. 

Using make-up to create a “slanted” eye look, dubbed “fox-eye”, first made an appearance in 2020. Naturally, it was met with a widespread backlash among the Asian community. But, fast forward two years and the number of YouTube and TikTok tutorials online is in the hundreds of thousands. Videos from major influencers are peppered with comments from offended viewers. 

“The make-up itself is harmless, it mimics a more almond-shaped eye, which, while very prevalent in Asians, also appears in other ethnicities – Egyptians, Slavics, and (some) Greeks, for example. The issue here is the pose a lot of these people do: pulling their eyes back in a way that mimics the “slant eye” gesture that people have used to mock Asian people for decades [sic],” commented viewer Pumpkin Patchwork on one such video. 

That comment has 1.3k likes – but the content remains live. 

Then there is the cultural appropriation of the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) practice of gua sha, which involves the use of a curved implement to “scrape away” illnesses and toxins. It followed the popularity of jade facial rollers, with Western brands accused of revamping and reselling the ancient practice for their own benefit.

Twitter user @shrcksu wrote: “White wellness culture has a problem with appropriation and white supremacy. They’ve done everything they can to divorce Yoga from its origins, decontextualized Gua Sha, and have consistently portrayed Asian foods as exotic, dirty, or unhealthy…”

Meanwhile, Twitter user @kait7 wrote: “I see way too much cultural appropriation to Gua sha from whites…if you don’t do your research to know how to use one you owe me 5 million dollars.”

The majority of brands selling gua sha tools are not ESEA-owned, nor do they make any mention of TCM, yet a simple search on Amazon brings up 374 results. 

Earlier this month, Juvia’s Place became the latest make-up brand to cause offence in an Instagram make-up tutorial that contained a racial slur that cuts deep among women and men of Asian or mixed Asian heritage.

Starring influencer Maggie Carrie, what should have been a fun and flirty social media snippet quickly turned into a culturally expositing disaster of the worst and most damaging kind. 

“I like to do my liner, instead of going up I like to bring my liner out. It gives me more of like the ch***y look,” Carrie casually said, while lining her lids.

The brand quickly issued a public apology to its 2.6 million followers, as did Carrie, posting on her Instagram. In the video apologising to her followers, however, Carrie repeated the offensive word two more times. 

“So I had a makeup gig a while back with @Juviasplace. In the video, I was describing how I like my eyeliner. I said I like my eyeliner out not up & I used the word “ch***ky”. Apparently saying “ch***y” is a racial slur to Asians. I DID NOT KNOW THAT! 

“I sincerely apologise to anyone whom I may have offended in any way. Unknowingly, I used an insulting word to describe an attribute,” she wrote further. “My fault! I ain’t know. We learn something new every day!” 

“You can show me for being uneducated but I am not racist. You honestly can tell I did not know but after learning so I apologise [sic].”

Needless to say, the post was deleted.

Both apologies were met with anger and outrage from ESEA women, who felt the statements were insensitive and didn’t go far enough to acknowledge the lived racism they know to be true. 

“This somehow got through JP’s entire team and was up for four days. They didn’t acknowledge anything until bigger creators and drag queens started calling them out,” wrote Twitter user @MissKylieSue. “JP and Maggie both issued these sad excuses for apologies. 

“For real, it’s literally never not been a slur,” wrote one Reddit user. “That she used it so casually and left it in the video tells you everything you need to know about her attitude towards Asian people.”

Sadly, blatant anti-Asian racism, like that in the Juvia’s Place post, continues to go largely unaddressed and unreprimanded in the beauty industry. Tomorrow business will continue as normal.

The reality is that less obvious yet equally triggering forms of racism are endemic in the day-to-day running of the beauty industry.

I experienced it frequently in my eight years as a trade beauty journalist and editor, a period of time in which I watched the industry flourish in so many ways, but continue to fall short when it came to genuine ESEA representation and respect. 

From brand representatives who guessed my foundation shade when sending samples, rather than asking for my selection, to being offered skin-whitening creams to review, and the relentless use of the words ‘olive’ and ‘tanned’ to incorrectly describe my mixed-race Malaysian-Chinese and English skin. 

And, that’s not to mention the predominantly whitewashed media and advertising campaigns that dominate most of our experiences of the beauty industry.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not alone in being made to feel second-rate by the industry and, for many, that’s a bitter pill to swallow because we buy into it as much as the next 30-something on the District Line reapplying her lip gloss.

We prop it up and plough our money into what was in 2020 valued to be an £8.71bn market. There are no stats to show exactly how much the ESEA community contributes to this figure.

But then again, there wouldn’t be, because no one knows exactly how many people from the ESEA diaspora live in the UK, despite the British Chinese community being the fourth-largest minority ethnic group, according to the 2011 census. 

Upali Tamang, 28, a marketing executive of Nepalese heritage, lives in Kent. She tells Stylist: “For an industry that has come so far and talks about being inclusive of all women of colour, how is it that many samples later, I still find myself having to settle with the closest thing that suits my skin?

“I believe this lack of options makes it clear that the ESEA community is still only being considered as a niche market, and not being represented enough by brands who promise inclusivity. There is definitely more work to be done.”

Imaan Petra is Malaysian (Malay), 34, and works in healthcare communications in London. She believes the key to better representation lies in advertising.

“Showcase the diverse beauty of women from one of the most culturally rich and interesting parts of the world,” she says.

“I get that this may make the industry uncomfortable as it’s not representing the majority-white consumer, but what a statement that would make for British beauty brands to say to ESEA communities: ‘We see you and you’re beautiful just the way you are’.” 

But the hard truth is, it might not just be the beauty industry that feels uncomfortable seeing Asian faces on billboards and screens. An Ipsos poll done in February 2020 shows that one in seven people in the UK intentionally avoid people of Chinese origin or appearance and Covid hate crimes against the ESEA community are up.

Amy Phung is a core member of besea.n, an advocacy organisation created to shine a light on Britain’s ESEA community and the group behind the UK’s first-ever ESEA heritage month, held last September. 

She says: “I’d like to see the beauty industry be more mindful with their decisions when it comes to who they hire in public-facing campaigns.  

“Recently, a white beauty influencer deliberately used a mock-Chinese accent to say the word ‘gua sha’ in one of their PR-sponsored YouTube videos advertising the product… How easy would it have been for that company to instead offer the product to someone who is an expert on the practice and could celebrate this ancient ritual in a respectful way?

“By only catering to the white gaze, marginalised communities are continually exploited and harmed.”

What might at first glance appear to simply be a misjudged video created by one individual is actually a building block that is, in its own small way, central to a wider anti-Asian movement.  

The impact of these experiences can’t be underestimated, even more so in a dangerous and volatile climate of anti-Asian hate that has spiralled around the world since the coronavirus pandemic. The Atlanta spa shootings of 2021 led to the tragic deaths of six Asian women. Since then, a change.org petition has successfully propelled the US Senate to pass a bill that stands against anti-Asian hate under the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.

According to a 2021 study by youth charity Ditch the Label, anti-Asian hate speech in the US and UK increased by 1,662% in 2020, compared to 2019. 

Meanwhile, in May 2020, Susan Williams, the Home Office minister for countering extremism, stated a 21% increase in “hate incidents” against the south-Asian and east-Asian populations. It should go without saying that the estrangement of the ESEA community reaches far deeper than the familiar problems in the beauty industry. But the cultural issues go hand in hand when we consider just how much work needs to be done in society as a whole to tackle the underlying bias and the overt aggression that’s increased very recently.

So where does all this leave the ESEA community and its place within beauty?

The industry has always been a frontrunner when it comes to innovation and I know first-hand just how talented and compassionate the majority of decision-makers are.

The good news is that for every misstep or dose of cultural appropriation, a new ESEA ambassador, brand owner or foundation shade takes the community one step closer to the day when we won’t need to talk about fair representation anymore. A few of my favourites include ESEA-owned Tropic, Glow Recipe and Peach & Lily.

Until that day arrives, continue to support the brands doing things right  and keep the call-outs coming. 

Main image: Getty