Just days after Fenty Beauty announced three new Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter shades, Rihanna‘s beauty line recalled one of the items after complaints from some users that the name was offensive.
The three highlighter shades announced on Saturday included Afternoon Snack/Mo’ Hunny, #PENNY4UTHOTS and a third named Geisha Chic Hunny.
According to a Reddit post, a user said that Fenty sent her a direct message “about Geisha Chic after I left a comment on her post.” Asked about the comment, a Fenty Beauty spokesperson tells Billboard, “the following message was sent by Fenty Beauty to commenters on Instagram in relation to the product in question — We hear you, we have pulled the product until it can be renamed. We wanted to personally apologize. Thank you so much for educating us.”
At press time, it appeared the blush shade had been removed from the Fenty Beauty site and it is no longer being promoted on the line’s Instagram feed. Fans have continued debating the issue on Twitter.
Exactly. Like I previously mentioned, the highlighter is called geisha chic (sans honey) and the color pays homage to traditional geisha and Meiko makeup. That’s why I’m finding this whole situation people getting worked up over nothing to be fake woke.
— Suffering™? —— (@Hibantina) March 30, 2019
As a Asian person, I don’t see the problem in @fentybeauty naming one of their highlighter/blush ‘Geisha Chic’.
— pizzaz (@Honeybuttergal) April 1, 2019
. @fentybeauty has a new highlighter named “geisha chic…” ummmm? Rihanna… explain why Asian targeted racism gets glossed over, it feels even worse when it’s from another marginalized group —
— Jessica (@lyjessicat) March 30, 2019
Okay, but what the hell is “Geisha Chic Hunny” @fentybeauty pic.twitter.com/GML511cjWF
— The Tea (@honey614lemon) March 30, 2019
Rihanna was really about to bring out a blush called geisha chic — thank god people noticed how gross that was and fenty delayed the launch to rename it. Really weird how the entire fenty beauty team didn’t catch how inappropriate that name is from the start
— Sunny (@sun1796) April 1, 2019
For those who are wondering why this may be offensive towards Asians. “Geisha Chic Hunny” makes it sound like geishas are an aesthetic, undermining their cultural significance. They’re more than a pretty face. pic.twitter.com/29uoq8NClT
— The Tea (@honey614lemon) April 1, 2019