Woke Makeup and the Christian Dilemma
Examining the mission of Beautycounter
I don’t suppose I can jump into this topic without the requisite disclaimer, so let’s get that out of the way:
This is not a “gotcha” article or a “go contact all your Beautycounter friends and lambast them” push. If your friends are the kind who would be grateful for the information, then please share. Otherwise, it’s tricky.
This involves people’s livelihoods, reputations, and relationships, and the whole point in sharing is so that we can love people better and live the Gospel more faithfully. Prudential judgment may look different for each of us and we should allow respectful space and deference to those making decisions for their own families.
So why am I writing?
I sold Beautycounter and brought others to it via my public platform and personal relationships. Because my conscience led me to leave, I had an obligation to share that information as well. When I did that on social media, the format made it difficult to enter into a deeper conversation with nuance and charity. This is a longer and slower response for those who wish to know more and to better understand my perspective.
I am not attached to your outcome, I simply think you have a right to know and to choose. Though I do not want to see this company flourish on its current path and continue to grow its influence using the money of Christians, I do wish to see you flourish. How you do that is your journey, not mine.
For my part, I could not protest global tyranny and anti-Christian activism on the one hand and feed it with the other. Not that I have any control over such things (frankly, I can’t even control the dishes in my own sink) but I do write about political and moral issues to help inform right action. Writing about the tremendous evil of the World Economic Forum, for example, rings a little hollow when I champion a company aligned with its values.
So… I’m not attacking you. I’m both reconciling conscience and writing about that which I commonly write and which people (for whatever reason) do come to read: faith, freedom, culture, and restoration of life’s order to Jesus Christ.
Red Flags and Moral Disorder
I was first introduced to Beautycounter through the recommendation of Catholic friends and was grateful to find products that don’t contribute to disease and toxicity. Almost all companies are secular so I wasn’t bothered by that fact. I didn’t do any research (mea culpa) even though many red flags were visible: Rainbows, woke promotions, and political lobbying that didn’t align with my views. I definitely noticed but I was just there for the makeup and a little cash.
Then in 2021 I received an email invitation to the annual leadership convention. It was virtual so I thought Maybe I’ll do that and clicked the link. What I discovered sent me down a rabbit hole that changed everything.
The keynote speaker for the convention was Glennon Doyle, a woman who was well-known to me as Christian mommy blogger, catapulted into fame after she divorced her cheating husband and married a prominent female soccer player. Her faith-laced writing was instrumental in leading countless Christians into moral ambiguity, teaching Christian women in particular to use the language of faith to justify moral disorder. She is most publicly notable for being an activist for gay marriage. Once, she posted a photo kissing her partner as a sign of resistance in front of the Vatican. She wrote:
We made it to the front of a massive chapel and a large crowd. We decided to kiss there, as our joyful loving resistance… God doesn’t care about the walls we build to keep others out. She doesn’t consult the self-appointed gate keepers who profess to speak for Her. Her light reaches us everywhere. She blesses Love everywhere.
It goes without saying that Glennon Doyle is not the sum of her activism. She is more, deeper, and beloved by God. But for the purpose of this article, I share what she wishes to have shared publicly… what she identifies as her worldview and passion. We must love everyone but we can only choose some as our teachers and mentors. Beautycounter chose her to mentor its consultants. As Gregg Renfrew (founder and then CEO of BC) promoted the event and encouraged women to “bring your daughters,” I started clicking and reading more.
The results of my research turned up endless evidence for the fact that Beautycounter is not simply another secular company, nor a company that has bowed to ideological bullying, but a company founded in and committed to leftist activist mission.
Secular or Activist?
One of the first places I looked was the Instagram account of Gregg Renfrew. I wanted to know who this woman was that my friends held in such esteem and why she would elevate the voice of an anti-Christian activist at a leadership training event. I found radical feminism. I found a worldview that is not only different from mine but opposed to mine. I found a woman who started a company because she was inspired by Al Gore and wanted to impact the world with his ideology. And I found a lot of faithful Christian women liking posts which I couldn’t support. I was surprised. It highlighted to me that my own involvement was sending a public message to others as well and possibly misleading. I kept reading…
On the company website and in various articles, I learned that Renfrew was inspired to start the company in 2006 when she watched the propaganda movie An Inconvenient Truth. She said “I watched ... and had become impassioned with the environmental health movement.” I’ll say it now and repeatedly:
If this is all your cup of tea, have at it…
But my political and moral worlds diverge dramatically with Renfrew’s. The fact that the company was inspired by radical leftist propaganda tool is a problem for me. My commitment to good stewardship informed by faith for healing and the glory of God is intact, supported by Church teaching… and not at all represented by men like Al Gore who use environmentalism for a different political end. [Insert lengthy mental discourse on the danger of Marxist ideology fueling current radical political environmentalism…to be taken up with the keyboard another time.]
The deeper I looked, the more I had to face the reality that the billion dollar Beautycounter enterprise is not simply secular but overtly political, and increasingly effective in that arena. It would have been simpler if it was a case of “they donated that one time to such-and-such organization,” but the uncomfortable reality is that their commitment to real social and political change is enmeshed with every product, every dollar that comes in.
There isn't a way to extricate myself from every woke company, but my line in the sand has to be drawn at actively promoting what I knew I had to vigorously oppose. An anti-Christian company is not “secular” but inherently religious. To openly work against goodness, life, and the truth of Jesus Christ is NOT a neutral position. I kept reading.
“Whoever is not for me…”
In 2016, I wrote an article about the UN's push for the anti-Christian Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the Church and I have followed the growing encroachment on faith and liberty since then. Though I realize that I cannot change global outcomes, I speak out against the UN and their anti-Gospel so that individuals might be equipped against what is coming… and what is here. So when I discovered that Beautycounter was actively involved in their pro-death agenda, I sighed. Deeply.
There is no perfection in this enmeshed culture. I know many faithful women who work with this company. This discussion is not about your choices but an open examination of the company, my personal response to what I’ve found, and my need to best serve those who ask for my recommendations.
Here are some reasons I cannot personally promote BC and why I do oppose them. The company:
Supports the UN’s anti-life Sustainable Development Goals and works to build them into local and national legislation
Signatory to the UN’s Global Compact
Supports the World Economic Forum (WEC) goals and evaluates company actions by those standards.
Feminist activism including partnerships with pro-abortion organizations
Anti-Christian moral agenda
Support of openly Marxist organizations like BLM
Acquired by major radical leftist investment group whose woke values do not mesh with a Christian worldview (image below from The Carlyle Group Instagram page)
There is more. But these suffice. The WEC is everything Americans are fighting against now. The SDGs are incompatible with Catholicism. Along with the constant pounding of the activist drums on every platform and in company training, it all became too much. I cannot promote a company with my left hand and oppose its overt goals with my right. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
Environmental Activism
Many (but not all) of the Christian women who are enthusiastic for the mission of Beautycounter believe that they are simply pursuing good stewardship of the earth. It isn’t our tendency to ascribe bad intentions to those who seem to love God’s creation and seek to protect it. But I do have to make the distinction here between the ideologies of the left (and the teachings of men like Al Gore) and what it is that a Christian believes.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “Every offense against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace, and the environment.”
But the diabolical message of the left (the Democrat party, the UN, “woke” America, and yes, Beautycounter) is that human dignity must be subject to environmental ideology. And the rules are very specific: Abortion, destruction of the family, contraception, centralized power, socialism, etc.
For you, it is about preserving what is beautiful and being a caretaker, people lover, and giving glory to God. For others, it is about suppressing the blight of humanity and dismantling capitalism. This was a core belief of Karl Marx whose toxic mind heavily infects our schools, governments, and media. This is why leftist environmentalism is permanently linked to “reproductive freedom.” Regardless of what Gregg Renfrew believes about personhood and the gift of creation, she has delivered the company and its massive profits into the hands of the political left… and that is a place of great spiritual, physical, and psychological poverty.
Is Beautycounter influenced by (and loyal to) its consultants?
This is an important question because many women selling BC are committed to staying and changing the company from within. I respect that approach but this is why I did not choose it.
BC does not sell exclusively through their consultants. Though many MLMs reward their rep loyalty by making sure that sales are only funneled directly through that seller relationship, BC uses a multi-channel approach which means that customers can purchase directly online without a consultant and through select companies like Sephora. That’s not bad in itself (business is business) but it impacts this conversation…
BC does not rely exclusively on network marketing, and itprofits by attention from Hollywood, global elites, and others of influence who share its ideological vision. Consultants have absolutely helped the meteoric rise, but the model and success of the company renders them increasingly impotent as advocates for change.
Nobody asks consultants if they approve of leadership being a UN signatory for the Global Compact. Or lobbying in Washington. There was no consultant vote on who would speak at leadership, whether or not they support Marxist, pro-abortion organizations, or to which aspect of the company their team profits go. The consultant’s only power is in whether they do or do not participate in funding the work.
The numbers of consultants with conservative values who are trying to change the culture of the company from the inside is a minority. An accurate reflection of our culture. A friend of mine was threatened with account deletion for privately sharing her pro-family beliefs with another consultant. If you have Christian values, the company is tolerating you, not the other way around. The stakeholders are the ones making the decisions about the direction of the company, not you.
So the question for Christian consultants is whether they are willing to champion the company’s overreaching goals, under the direction of The Carlyle Group and the new CEO, overlooking a consistently anti-Christian company ideology, for a business that is increasingly independent from the network marketing growth model.
That’s a brief overview of why I left and why I go a step further and caution against. Some of you might want to stop reading here. Others might want a little more information about what I have already posted. I’ll format the rest of this article below in Q & A format to help with finding information.
Note: I am not an expert on this subject. I am not a saint. I am not an idol that needs to be knocked down. Neither am I the scum of the earth trying to ruin everything. Understand my place and yours and receive with peace. If you don’t want to give my words power, then don’t. If you want to open the discussion in your life, then by all means…
“What is the World Economic Forum?”
For an excellent overview of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and why it matters in your life, I recommend this article from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College. The WEF is the originator of the Great Reset, which is not a conspiracy theory, but a real threat to human freedom. Think Communism and totalitarianism are only found in history books? That is changing for Americans as our administration and corporations align with one of the greatest evils of our time. That Beautycounter aligns with this organization in any way communicates to me that their mission is much broader than just “woke-to-get-along” but enmeshed with powerful global influence.
To summarize briefly and loosely…
The WEF champions what some experts call “corporate socialism” or “communist capitalism” and seeks to equalize the global economy and rebuild under what is essentially totalitarianism. Yes, the Biden administration is involved as well as many of our governors and corporations. Many countries in the world have signed on as well (hello, Canada).
“Equity” is used in many ways within the agenda. The end goal is to acclimate people to the ideas of the Great Reset…
BLM (aka Marxism), gender ideology, CRT, forced inflation, dismantling “systems,” uprooting education, scarcity, radical environmentalism (again rooted in Marxist ideology which equates capitalism with harm to the earth), down with the police and social constructs…
All seemingly separate issues which converge in the WEF agenda to convince people to passively accept their flattened utopia. The early quarantine memes equating “flattening the curve” with “flattening the economy” were actually spot on. Global leaders have spoken openly about the opportunity that COVID provided to “reset” the global economy. It was a dream come true for them, some say constructed by them. An opportunity to rebuild after total global devastation which they allowed to happen when they could have stopped it.
I cannot change global totalitarianism, nor am I responsible for doing so. I am only responsible for my own actions. The world only changes one soul at a time. There will be no peace until there is widespread conversion to the Kingship of Jesus Christ.
“BC says it is not involved with the WEF. Thoughts?”
If that’s true, they should correct it publicly and take it off of their website where the 2019 mission report is accessible to all visitors. A company like BC pays people big money to make sure their public statements are clear. They gave a solid nod to the WEF and were influenced by factors much more impactful than the opinions of an extreme minority of their reps. This is how they spoke of their relationship with WEF:
(Image from 2019 Mission Report)
To be informed and inspired by totalitarian evil in 2019 is still a concern in 2022. Because BC is openly political, actively lobbying, signing UN documents, and aligned with the leftist moral and political ideology, it is reasonable to be taken aback by any mention of the WEF, especially as a prominent mention, not an ancillary one.
“BC told me they don’t support BLM.”
The company has spoken for itself and still has easily searchable connections with the movement. Their social media platforms still boast the hashtag and information. I’m going to take their word for it. You cannot convince me that a billion dollar company is half-baked about their marketing. They carefully thought this through and the list is on their corporate website. If that’s what you want or if you aren’t concerned over it, then that’s your business. But that they don’t promote BLM or its values is a false statement.
“BC told me they don’t support Planned Parenthood.”
They do support organizations which champion and fund Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and “reproductive justice” education for girls. Having “Partnerships with our friends at Black Women for Wellness” and including them on “carefully compiled lists” may be remote enough for you but I’m just being clear. BC openly partners with organizations that have as a prominent mission the protection and promotion of abortion. And just in case anyone has become desensitized to what that means… it’s still child murder.
“Isn’t most of the lobbying about ingredients and safety?”
Yes, but not all. And the lobbying is tainted by their leftist view of the role of government. They would rather increase regulation to advance their own goals than hold government to its proper boundaries. Renfrew actively opposes smaller government and continues to support heavy regulation and Democrat-led government expansion. That perspective does not align with my personal views (call them “Constitutional” if you will) that we must accept a certain amount of risk to ensure that government does not become tyrant.
Renfrew’s championing of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act is a good example of how makeup money supports an agenda beyond clean makeup. She celebrated on social media, and people who think it’s just about helping the environment cheered what is essentially another globalist encroachment against a sovereign nation.
Maybe I’ll write another day on the absurdity of governments throwing regulatory weight behind preventing toxic exposure to the environment while also mandating injections of toxic substances into citizens. Anyway…
I do not want the BC agenda in America. I want it OUT. I do not align with the left or with a company that uses my money to lobby against my principles. BC lobbying is inherently political and it is socially and politically “progressive.” I cannot support that and do not want them speaking for me.
“I asked the company about XYZ and they said there’s nothing to worry about.”
Can a person (or company leadership) who rejects objective moral truths be trusted not to lie to you?
If someone is untrustworthy, is it reasonable to use them as the primary authority for your discernment?
“There is no way to get around woke companies”
I don’t accept the argument of futility: that we can’t avoid everything so we must object to nothing. This country is thoroughly enmeshed and we are all stuck in it to some degree. We do our best. Here is what is different for me with Beautycounter…
The business of network marketing necessarily involves championing a company, not just tolerating it. I like (and participate in) the business model when it’s done well, but there is no question that it takes a deeper commitment to company mission in order to thrive in business and to ask other people to come on board. That’s what the conferences are for. The team building. The cheerleading. Beautycounter is extremely clear that the company is first about its mission.
I could not do that. I would never have been able to say “I love my company.” When I stepped away from the business (which I was only just barely in and had the advantage of having not much to lose), I thought I would just continue to purchase the makeup. Then I realized that I had options. In fact, the options were plentiful and truly lovely. I found that my makeup purchases decreased overall once there was no pressure to meet volume minimums. And that it was a pleasure to once again support smaller companies that are more closely aligned with my values… or at least don’t directly assault them.
Not everyone will be able to walk away as easily as I did. Nor will everyone want to. But the argument that it is futile to even try to align work and purchases with conscience is simply not true.
“Are you saying I’m a bad Christian?”
No, I am encouraging good Christians to take a closer look at what is real about the situation. I am not here to condemn you but to protest against BCs activism. It is a call to action.
Whatever you do with this information, please don’t be dismissive or rude to those asking questions. It isn’t their fault that a company leadership does what it does. Questioners are doing due diligence and that is commendable even if it doesn’t align with your business goals. Some of those people are your customers and they are not stupid or bad for examining their purchasing decisions.
And if you are someone leaving the company, please be kind to those still in it. Everyone has their own discernment to do. Inform, bless, carry on.
All my content is free to you. If you value what I share, please consider supporting me through a paid subscription or donation.
Dang. Thanks for sharing. It’s becoming more and more difficult to know where it is safe to spend our money without inadvertently supporting something we don’t want to support. You don’t happen to have any recommendations for non-toxic makeup elsewhere, do you?
Interesting! And good to know. I am not a make up person really, but curious which companies you might recommend, if you don't mind sharing