Indie cosmetics brand Pink Honey UK has accused Revolution Beauty of copying its hero brow product.
Make-up artist and founder Olivia Taylor has claimed the skin care and make-up brand ripped off her Honey Glue Original Super Hold brow product in its I Heart Revolution Honey Bear Collection.
The entrepreneur stated that Revolution Beauty’s Honey Brow Jam, a jar of citrus honey brow jam with a spoolie applicator, is a copy of her product’s name, design and packaging.
Pink Honey UK’s Honey Glue Original Super Hold is a honey and bubblegum scented eyebrow wax that comes in a jam jar with a bamboo spoolie applicator.
In a TikTok video, posted on 5 October, Taylor shared a screenshot of Revolution’s Instagram post promoting the brow product, and said: “I literally don’t even know what to say.
“Obviously, Revolution has completely ripped off our product, something that took years of such hard work.
“We’ve had so much success, and don’t get me wrong, I’m really fucking grateful, but this has been the worst day of my life. I can’t believe this is happening.”
She added: “Since when have big companies been able to do this? When did our community become about this? What the hell? Why is this alright?
“This has gone through a team of people. You’ve copied the name, the packaging, the product design.
“You even called the lip gloss [the Honey Bear Lip Oil in the collection] Pink Honey, that’s ridiculous.
“We have to stop supporting big businesses that are doing this to small businesses.”
The video has received 1.5 million views on TikTok so far.
Revolution has removed the post about the collection from its @iheartrevolution Instagram account and taken down the range from its website.
Cosmetics Business has reached out to Revolution for comment.
An age old problem?
This is not the first time that the industry has witnessed copycat drama between big beauty companies and smaller-owned brands.
Only this year, Hailey Bieber's skin care line Rhode Skin created chaos for indie beauty brand Rhodes Skincare.
The small business was left thousands of pounds out of pocket after fans mistaked the model’s line for theirs and then quickly cancelled their orders.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian’s long-anticipated skin care line, SKKN by Kim, launched in June under a mist of legal uncertainty due to her proposed trademark.
The beauty entrepreneur was accused of poaching the name from black-owned beauty brands SKN by LH and SKKN+.
But even the big players can be victims of copycat behaviour, especially dupes.
In 2019, Charlotte Tilbury won a legal battle against supermarket giant Aldi, which was selling £6.99 dupes of the make-up brand’s Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette, which retails for £49.
In 2015, Kylie Cosmetics faced controversy over its Lip Kit, with the melting lips artwork on the packaging said to be eerily similar to make-up artist’s Vlada Haggerty work.
Deciem's wildly successful The Ordinary has also spurred copycats from luxury players to private label lines.
