Morphe Brushes, a popular cosmetic company that started out only selling makeup brushes, recently released 60 shades in their Fluidity Full-Coverage Foundation. Yes, SIXTY. Morphe is coming for all the bags this year, literally and figuratively! On 01/05, one of their affiliates, Manny MUA, posted his review of the foundation. If you are unfamiliar with Morphe and Manny MUA, let’s dive into a very brief history of both before we get into Manny’s review.
BRAND HISTORY
In 2008, Morphe Brushes was born and based in LA. The company’s brand was specifically created to be wallet-friendly and of quality for those “looking for killer makeup without killing their wallet”. Their brushes became very popular with makeup artists and enthusiasts on YouTube.
In 2013, a year after aquiring the company, siblings Chris and Linda Tawil, saw their brand morph, (I couldn’t help it), into a staple brand though the rise of social media. The duo collaborated with social media influencers, from YouTube to Instagram, with the hopes of garnering the attention necessary by providing free product for testing and review. The marketing strategy was a huge hit! Morphe saw record sales and numbers when they collaborated with social media influencer turned celebrity and close friend Jaclyn Hill. In 2017, Jaclyn Hill’s 38-palette collaboration with Morphe sold more than 1 million units at $38/palette. Can you say “cha-ching”?
Manny MUA (Source: Morphe Website)
Before his career in the makeup industry, Manny MUA had aspirations of becoming a plastic surgeon. However, Manny left pre-medical school and began his makeup career by working at MAC & Sephora counters. Patrick Simondac urged Manny MUA to establish a presence on social media and became Manny’s mentor. In 2014, Manny started his makeup channel on YouTube and consistently posted content such as beauty tips, cosmetic reviews, first impressions and makeup tutorials. In the first eight months of creating his channel, Manny garnered over 250,000 loyal subscribers. By the beginning of 2017, Manny MUA had over 2 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. After establishing himself, Manny began to work with makeup brands such as Ofra, Makeup Geek and Morphe.
Manny scored his first major brand collaboration with Maybelline in 2017. Although he had collaborated with other brands, they were not as mainstream as Maybelline. He became the first male brand ambassador to work with Maybelline and the second male, behind James Charles, to work with a major mainstream makeup brand. His career’s success earned him a spot on the “30 under 30” Forbes’ list in 2018 for their Arts and Style category.
MANNY’S FOUNDATION REVIEW
On 01/05, Manny posted a foundation review of Morphe’s Fluidity Foundation to his YouTube channel. In his comments about the foundation he noted: it felt like paint, dried down fast, picked up on the dry patches in his skin, dried his skin out, lack of coverage, accentuated pores and that the product settled into his smiles lines. After mentioning his drawbacks, he stated that he liked the product so far and felt that Morphe did a great job. He hardly had anything positive to say about the foundation, but gave the foundation his approval for purchase to his subscribers. Well, his YouTube subscribers were very confused by the video and here are a few of the top comments.
The drama carried over to his Twitter account as well…
After the backlash, Manny MUA went to his Snapchat to clear up the confusion. He stated, “I said in my video that it was very matte, very full coverage [and] kind of drying foundation. If you are dry, I do not think that you would like this foundation…After 8 hours of no touchups, you guys saw how my face looked. It was oily in the T-Zone and areas… If I go 8 hours without touching up my skin, I will always come out looking oily… no matter what. Every matte foundation that I’ve worn, falls into my pores. Every foundation that I have worn will crack onto my smile lines. And the reason I ended up giving the foundation a positive review is because…it did last on my skin without any touch-ups…the coverage was really nice…and because if you are very oily it will last on your skin and the last reason is the price-point”. Whew!
On 01/07, popular YouTuber Alissa Ashley posted her review of the same foundation and her review of it was less than stellar. Alissa mentioned that it was the most annoying review that she had ever done of a foundation. She stated after wear, her nose did get oily, but that is usual for her skin-type. However, she did not like the concealer because it had a grayish to greenish cast; plus sat on top of the foundation and did not blend well. So, she did recommend the foundation, but not the concealer. Yet, she did state that the foundation might not deliver consistent results. Alissa advised to go into a physical store for matching because of the inconsistency.
Do you think that Manny was dishonest with his review or do you think his words got lost in translation?
Check out my last post to get the tea on Huda Beauty and BeautyBakerie.
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