Estée Laundry, the anonymous Instagram account and self-proclaimed beauty industry “watchdog,” is back after a two-year hiatus.
Estée Laundry—the name a play on beauty giant Estée Lauder—launched in 2018 to air out “the beauty industry’s dirty laundry,” as the account’s bio once read. It posted regularly, and followers, or “Laundrites,” were encouraged to weigh in on daily beauty news and controversies. That continued until some members of the anonymous collective left, and the account ultimately went quiet in 2023.
This month, however, a new post appeared asking followers, “serious question, are there still any exciting beauty brands?” In a recent interview with Business of Fashion, the beauty custodian described itself as a “group of outsiders with ties to the beauty industry.” Those ties remain strong enough to break news: the account was the first to share an internal memo announcing layoffs at Shiseido Americas last week.
Like its fashion industry counterpart Diet Prada, Estée Laundry grew its nearly 200,000-strong following by spotlighting industry-wide issues such as cultural appropriation, lack of diversity, and unsubstantiated product claims. Major brands that have found themselves in the crosshairs include millennial-favorite Glossier, Fenty Beauty, and the Kardashians, to name a few.
In 2022, the account famously flagged former Estée Lauder Companies executive John Demsey’s Instagram post that included a racial epithet (which he swiftly deleted). “How’s it OK for a beauty executive (responsible for the branding and direction of a company that claims to focus on diversity and inclusion) to post this?” the account questioned. The executive was forced to resign less than a week later, The New York Times reported.
Now, Estée Laundry is back and shifting gears. With the relaunch, the group is intentionally moving away from its vigilante roots and instead focusing on “longform opinion pieces” via a weekly Patreon newsletter, aptly named Laundry Service, for $8 a month.
A representative told Business of Fashion, “We think of ourselves as a beauty industry observer.”
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