A Dirty Little Makeup Secret Update

This story is about two or three years in the making, stemming from a previously written article. Most of my information was and is based on consumer reports from various beauty box subreddits. I will link them throughout as needed. Subreddit/consumer reports are especially vital as it is often difficult to depend upon brand and company transparency. There is often very little transparency from companies. 

Two years ago, I chronicled an incident where I noticed that supposedly "different" brands featured in subscription boxes such as ipsy, were actually not indie brands and all owned by the same person, an Emanuela deFalco. At the time I called this an "Ipsy Conspiracy," and while of course that article got no attention because this is an obscure little blog on the world wide web, major developments happened that I had no idea about. 

I would be more careful to call anything a conspiracy in these times, due to the legal implication, as well as the loss of credibility one who uses the word un-ironically would face. 

While I have unsubscribed from Ipsy for about two years now, and have lost track completely of beauty box/subscription service drama, some passing quarantine boredom prompted me to check back in. 

Has anything new happened? 

At the time, I was able to verify that Emanuela DeFalco was the CEO of the following brands:

-DLS (Dirty Little Secret) Cosmetics, the mothership brand, started in 2013

-Luna by Luna Cosmetics

-Bang Beauty

-Steve Laurant Beauty, with clear documentation proving it's just alibaba whole-sale, found here.

At the time (2018), a total of four "brands," with identical website configurations, the same photography company (verified in this reddit post from two years back) , the same packaging and ingredients, the same sub-par quality, and the same inflated prices. 

DeFalco, a self-proclaimed "entrepreneur," who started DLS (a fitting name) Cosmetics with a loan of $10,000 from her father, (Founder and CEO of FinCredit, Inc), was not necessarily trying to hide the fact that she was essentially Mom from Futurama who was just a little more subtle with branding. 

Pictured: Emanuela DeFalco's second release from her skin care brand, Faccia

Granted, was all this illegal? Well, I'm not a lawyer. But, as documented in my first post, these practices undoubtedly compromised the image that Ipsy was going for. I can only imagine that either 1.) Ipsy did not know, or 2.) could not weather the demands of this arrangement, or 3.) did not like the consumer feedback/response, which continued long after I dropped the story.

In the gap time of 2019-2020, more reports of additional brands under DeFalco's name cropped up. These are:

-Basic Beauty, verified in this reddit post. 

-Give Them Lala (as documented on a LinkedIn post of Joseph DeFalco (maybe an uncle?) documented in this reddit post. 

-Faccia, which claimed to be a luxury skin care brand, despite its non-luxury ingredients and absolutely no brand story/identity. Read here. To make matters worse, consumers confirmed what was already long suspected of her other brands- they were private labelled from wholesalers, in this case, Alibaba. Read here, too, for ingredient break-down.

The Faccia gold stuff resold from Alibaba seemed to be the major tipping point for many consumers, who were horrified at the apparent misinformation and false promises. 

It is important to note that there may be many more brands, not just owned by DeFalco, out there that operate in the same way. They seem to be like a hydra. For our purposes, we know now of at least eight (listed above) that DeFalco runs. 

But how did the subscription boxes respond to this outrage?

As of February 2020, Ipsy no longer sells Luna by Luna, Steve Laurant, Bang Beauty, and DLS cosmetics from their marketplace, documented here. This occurred after they sent an email to their customers, saying they will not work with her anymore. A much different response than two years ago, when they wrote to me informing me that these are indie brands. It looks like one other box dropped them, Fashionista. 

Boxycharm, however, seems to be another story. While you can't search the site directly from items, and you cannot (without an account) determine what items may be available in boxes, a google search will get you access to their marketplace, where one could purchase items directly. In this case, as of late May 2020, they are still selling Steve Laurant lipgloss for $22.00 (lol), gloss from Luna by Luna for $18.00 (also lol). It is funny how arbitrary the price point is for both of them. Though neither Boxycharm, nor Luna by Luna reports ingredients or amounts, I am sure they are identical. By the way, it is the law to produce ingredients, so I am not sure why neither has.


Amazon lists the ingredients for the Luna gloss, though, as "POLYISOBUTENE, MINERAL OIL, ETHYLHEXYL PALMITATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, ISOPROPYL MYRISTATE, SILICA DIMETHYL SILYLATE, PHENOXYETHANOL, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, MAY CONTAIN: TITANIUM DIOXIDE, MICA, IRON OXIDES, RED 6 LAKE, RED 7 LAKE, YELLOW 5 LAKE" These ingredients also appear for a brand called KAB cosmetics, which has ties to a different group of reality-tv show people, but I am sure there are shared contacts and backing for both of them. Amazon Singapore also gives ingredients for Steve Laurant gloss (here, but link may expire), and surprise, surprise, they are the same.

Boxycharm also is still selling the Faccia face cream, but a reddit post revealed that after a consumer left a message about the Faccia/Ali-baba scandal, Boxycharm was unwilling to pull the plug on them. I could not find any apparent ties just yet between DeFalco and Boxycharm that would indicate something rather sinister, so for now I am just going to chalk it up to Boxycharm's greed and disdain for its own customers. 

Most of these businesses still seem active, unfortunately. Their sites are still up and running, and taking people's money. Boxycharm still seems like the last hold-out, but Ipsy's distancing seems like a big step. Two years ago, I was skeptical that all these brands would still be around, since they seemed like a ploy to make cash fast and run. 

I still feel that way, though, and am certain these are brands just exist to fill the subscription boxes of those brands who consider this type of business (subscription services) a way to cut corners. 

This story isn't finished, I don't think. While activity for everyone has slowed due to the pandemic, it remains to be seen what the future of these brands will be, and, to a greater extent, subscription boxes. I do not think S.B. can continue to thrive of this model of low-quality and low-transparency. 

For the consumer- take heed. I abandoned subscription boxes long ago, because I figured if I wanted one specific thing, I would just buy it. I didn't want to play essentially a game of risk with my money. When it comes to your own money, consider what (and who) it goes to. 

Shiro Face Products Swatches and Thoughts! (updated with reviews)

My Shiro sample haul came in today! Which was surprisingly fast for a Black Friday order. My last experience with Shiro was okay. I still have the two matte eyeshadows from a year ago, but the highlighter is long gone.

For this order I wanted to try out some tried and true favorites from the brand. I did not want to get full size because I did not want to make the same mistake as last time, when I bought a full-size jar of product that I ended up not using.

These just came in today, so I can't offer a complete review. I'll post the swatches, as well as my initial thoughts.

As of this morning, I've had the opportunity to use most of these products on my face. My review on the products will be in the same font!

The top swatch (under the bruise) is the light grey contour, Do Your Research. I've never really tried a proper grey contour in the powder form, so I am excited to try this. I am pleased with how sheer it is- it really behaves as a shadow on the skin.

On the face, Do Your Research is an excellent contour for me. For reference, I wear shade 110 Porcelain in Maybelline Fit Me Concealer, and 1.0 P in the Ordinary Serum Foundation (mostly in the winter, in the summer that one is too light). To apply it on the face I used the Beaute Basics contour brush and just applied it to the hollows of my cheeks. I don't contour a lot, but I am interested in it, as I do have a round face, but I want to avoid drawing obvious streaks on my face. I found that the end result was very subtle and natural. I would buy a full size of this. 

Second one down is the bronzer Milk Chocolate Frog. The first thing that surprised me was the golden shimmer. Immediately, I drew parallels to Too Faced's newest golden bronzer product. It was very easy to blend on the skin, and I do think this will work nicely.

Trying to apply this as I would normally do with bronzer was a bit difficult. I poured some out of the baggy onto a clean flat surface, and then took my fluffy brush and dabbed it into the product, aiming to get an even enough spread of product. On the skin, the product does blend out nicely, but that golden shimmer. I don't know. It looks pretty, don't get me wrong, but the golden sheen adds another layer of color that I didn't necessarily want. Though I will use up the rest of the sample, I would not buy full size of this. Pictured below is my forehead. Lol. 

The only one that was a little frustrating was the last swatch on the bottom- the brown contour/bronzer The Game is On. Maybe it is because of the amount of pigment in the product, but it was a little more dry on the skin and more difficult to blend evenly. You can see the difference in swatches.  

I did not end up testing this out. I was a little intimidated by the swatch. 

Below we have the two highlighters. Both are beautiful products, and I don't really have anything like them in my collection. The top swatch is Fleece-Lined Pillow Fort, which came as a free sample. I was completely stunned by this one, it is a very light cream color highlight that is pretty opaque and with a slight sheen. I am looking forward to trying this out on the face. *edit- okay, I just went back to the Shiro site- turns out this one is an eyeshadow, which explains why it came off so opaque. Honestly, I'll probably use this in the inner corner of my eye and as a highlighter anyway.

For "...Pillow Fort," I did use this as an inner-eye highlight and wow- I did not expect to like this, but I really do. It is not too shimmery, but does lighten up that area significantly. I did not try it as a highlighter, but I don't think I want to. I will happily use up the sample size of this and continue to use this on my eyes. 

White Chocolate Frog, the bottom swatch, was sheerer than I expected. It is more visible in the full-size version of the pics. It reminds me of a liquid illuminator blended out, but I anticipate enjoying this one as well! 

Finally, we'll end with White Chocolate Frog. Being someone who does love shimmer and sparkle, White Chocolate Fro seems a bit muted for me. It is noticeable on the skin, and does create a highlighting effect, but I am just not impressed with the level of intensity. I am sure, though, people who are looking for a subtle luminous effect would love this. In my initial reaction, I did say how it reminded me a liquid illuminating product, blended in. I will say that I stand by that opinion, and that it performs the same on the skin. 

Pictures! The first one is half of my face, with the products. Please excuse the potato quality. 

Most noticeable for me is the bronzer. I might have been too liberal with my application. The loose product and container does make it difficult to gauge how much is needed. 

You can also see the contour, Do Your Research, in the hollow of my cheek. It is just a tad darker than what I usually use- my contour stick in Proton by Life's Entropy, but I like that. 

The highlight is apparent also, but way too subtle for me. And look at that inner corner highlight!

We also have some uncomfortably close photos of my face:

So, my favorites are the inner corner highlight/eyeshadow Fleece-Lined Pillow Fort, as well as the contour Do Your Research. I am not a huge fan of either Chocolate Frog, but I will end up using up the samples.

Thanks for reading!