Y'all when I started researching for this
video I honestly thought it was going to
be faster
huh
I thought I knew everything I genuinely
did I was a backer for the Lisa Frank
Glamour Dolls campaign back in 2017
I really thought I knew the story
I saw other peoples videos on it
and I was in it, I did
all of the things, I was part of it.
My friend, oh-my gosh, I did not know.
There was so much that I did not know
It is so fucked up, like I am just-
I am absolutely blown away.
Because the thing is, the more I started
looking into it, the more things that I found
And the more connections I was making
And I was like oh my gosh.
This is a story, my friend.
There is so much that happened
in the Lisa Frank Glamour Dolls Collab
That we did not know, because everything
wasn't laid out through hindsight
we know hindsight is 20/20.
Now we're seeing 20/20 my friend.
And the rainbows are not rainbowing,
and the unicorns and the peguseseses, and
they're not, it's not good, it's very bad.
So if you are ready, to go on this
wild journey with me
This is Behind the Controversy.
And its starting right now.
[Music]
I would dare to say, pretty much
everybody watching this video
has been online and seen something
that you never intended to purchase,
but you had that impulse feeling.
You had that feeling because,
for some reason, you didn't know
that you needed this,
and you needed to buy it.
Maybe it solves some kind of problem
in your life, maybe it was some kind of
advancement on something you already knew
or maybe it was due to nostalgia.
Something that reminded you of your childhood
or just when you were younger,
something that made you feel happy,
during that time.
And maybe its even something that made
an entire generation feel happy.
That's the feeling that the Backers had
when we saw that Lisa Frank was
coming out with makeup with a company
named Glamour Dolls.
Now we did not, a lot of us had never
heard of Glamour Dolls.
Imma be 100%, I'd never heard of
Glamour Dolls before.
But I had heard of Lisa Frank.
And I was freaking out because
I was a sticker collector.
I-I will tell you though,
the scratch-and-sniff stickers
were my favorite, but Lisa Frank
stickers were super cool too.
They were very very popular,
and that's the way it was
for a lot of people that were GenX
or older millennials.
Mostly, probably mid-millennials as well.
If it wasn't the stickers,
maybe it was the school supplies.
Because Trapper Keepers were a thing.
It was not just a regular notebook.
It was a cool notebook.
And they were kind of pricey,
so if you had a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper,
you were cool.
Or if you were like me, you had a knock-off
version from K-mart, which made you
moderately cool. Not really.
But we pretended we were.
"I'll never forget the day
I got stuck on Lisa Frank.
The stickers were so cool, the colors
were awesome.
I gotta find more. So go to the store,
And WOW, there's tons of awesome
Lisa Frank stuff. I gotta have it!
What more can I say?
Pretty soon my friends, Ashley and Lindsay
are going Lisa Frank Crazy too."
And like I mentioned earlier, the company
that started all of this wasn't super
well known. They're called Glamour Dolls,
so they had to get their name out there
somehow, so they used an uber popular
youtuber, at the time,
named Candy Johnson.
And Candy Johnson was the perfect influencer
for this campaign.
I don't even know if we were calling
people influencers at that point.
But anyway, my point is that Candy Johnson
was top of her game. Everybody freaking
loved Candy, she was like the sweetest,
sweetest, kindest person.
And she has this really light voice.
And everybody freakin' loved Candy.
"Hi guys, 2016 is behind us, but
I am gonna share with you
my Best in Beauty of 2016.
Make sure if you have not subscribed,
subscribe, join the family,
become a Candy Corn. Candy Corn,
like a Unicorn, but like candy corn,
I don't know, I'll have to think
about that one.
And follow me on Snapchat, Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook for all kinds of
different and awesome things."
So when Candy announced the collaboration
between Glamour Dolls and Lisa Frank,
people lost their minds, they opened
their wallets to the tune of over $300,000
Almost 6,000 people backed this project.
Now, if you don't know what
I'm talking about as far as Kickstarter
and "backing" a project,
basically, it's kind of like a GoFundMe-ish
kind of thing, but for a business.
So the business wants to make a product,
but they don't have the money,
so they go and they tell people
"Hey, we wanna make this product,
if you back us, if you give us money
at different tiers, you'll get X products
for helping us to create the product."
This story has been told many times before.
But I don't think it has been told
in this way, because what I'm gonna
focus on in this video is the point of view
of the Backers. What was it like to be
a backer from the beginning, and what
kind of tactics did Glamour Dolls use
to keep us hanging on for well over a year.
Where many, many people, including me,
did not ask for refunds even after
they were over a year late in sending out
products.
Some of you are probably sitting there
thinking, like, "why didn't you know?"
like, "why didn't you see the red flags?"
Like, "what happened?"
I'm going to tell you.
I'm going to share with you what they
did to us.
I'm pointing down because of a 22 page
script here with all the fucked-up shit
that they did.
Because, if you haven't figured it out yet
Yea, we didn't get anything.
[wheeze] Well some people got a little bit,
but I didn't get anything
And the vast majority of people got
absolutely nothing, the people that did
get things, got very very little.
It's layered. It's multi-layered.
So lets just jump in to the very beginning
which was the start of the Kickstarter
in February of 2017.
[Music]
Something you might want to remember
about 2017 was that we didn't have
the inundation of weird collabs,
like we do now, I mean,
the Glamlite Pizza palette was still about
a year away, and that one broke
the internet.
It was like the first really weird collab
that people were like "that's odd, but
also kind of cool".
The kind of collabs we were getting
at the time were things like
Wonder Woman and Luxie
and PUR and the Trolls Movie.
A makeup collaboration with Lisa Frank
had literally never been done before,
so people, naturally, were very excited
due to that strong feeling of nostalgia.
The Kickstarter launches with a maximum
bid of 40 dollars to get a few products
and a goal of 30,000 dollars.
And the lowest buy-in to get something was
pretty cheap, at 5 dollars for what they
called, a digital background.
It was an image that you could use as your
background on your phone,
or on your computer, or whatever.
The kickstarter ran for 45 days
from February 16, 2017, to April 2, 2017.
It's also important to talk about the fact
that Glamour Dolls said that Backers
would have a say in the products
being created.
That there would be polling and voting
and people would get sneak peaks,
people would also get the products
at a discount, because the products
would eventually end up at retailers
but the Backers, because you bought
in a bundle, would get things cheaper
than you would get if you bought
the products individually.
Just 3 days into the campaign,
Glamour Dolls posted their update.
They were so so excited.
They said that Lisa was "opening
her vault and would be sending
1000 vintage goodies to be included,
for the first 1000 Backers".
They promised a second treat,
if they hit 2000 Backers, and Lisa
had something really special planned
if they made it to 10,000.
They're just hyping the heck out of the
Backers, because they also promised
something called "stretch rewards".
And they way they described it is not
how it turned out.
Basically, what they said is that
if the Backers, as a community, complete
a set of challenges, that something will
be unlocked, and this something was going
to be very very exciting.
Challenges included tasks like creating
a Lisa Frank-inspired makeup look
and taking a picture of it, writing a rap
about Glitter and tweeting it, and they
even had a challenge where a person
had to create a foil unicorn horn and put
it on their head and take a picture
of themselves in public, wearing
the unicorn horn.
40 people had to take a picture of their
vintage Lisa Frank products and submit
those pictures.
See, the community's participating,
they're excited, they're talking about all
the things that they're doing because
in every comment section under each post
there's a place for people of the
community to communicate, to talk about
what's happening. Its almost like a
little, not a message board, but just
kind of a place to dump things that people
were thinking after the update.
So people are hyped about this, they're
so excited about their stretch reward.
And this is the first big disappointment
for the Backers.
Because it was not an extra item added to
the bag, it wasn't even a reward, because
when you think of a reward, you think
that you're getting something.
What it actually was, was a mock-up photo
of an image of three-piece nail polish set
and this is the kicker about it,
no pun intended, that the nail polish set
wasn't included in any of the levels,
so nobody that had put in any money
at this point was going to get the
nail polishes that were featured
in the picture, in order to get the
nail polishes, you had to now increase
your bid by at least 15 dollars
because Glamour Dolls had just created
new tiers that required more investment
and the Backers were like "what?"
"That's it?"
What we just worked so hard for, we just
did all the challenges, 40 of us sent
pictures of our Lisa Frank stuff that we
dug out of our basement or out of
our attics, and we found the stuff and
we took the picture and we did
all the work, and we got a drawing of
something we're not getting unless we
spend more money?
That's what happened.
I'm gonna put the whole post on the screen
for you to read, but I'll read one of the
key points.
"We started this collection with a handful
of products, but a big part of this
Kickstarter is expanding the collection
with the community and developing new
products to add to it.
What maybe separates this Kickstarter from
others is that we don't know how big the
collection will ultimately be.
It all depends on community engagement".
But the thing was is that they told people
how big it was going to be.
Because that's what they put their money
in for because it said if you put the
money in for this amount, then you'll get
this stuff, and now she's saying that it
may get even bigger than that.
Because what was about to happen is they
were about to add even more tiers with
even more products.
The explanation continued with this,
which was the kicker, "we would have told
you from the beginning" that basically it
was only a drawing of a mock-up of
something that no one was getting yet, but
"we only developed it last week.
In response to fan engagement after we
researched cost formulations. For many
people, the challenges were a fun way to
unlock it and we'll be clear going
forward so you can choose whether
to participate".
Unlock what? They unlocked a picture of
something they had to pay more for.
Thing is is that kind of the way that
these stretch rewards work, but they
didn't explain it to people that way.
When people see a stretch reward, they're
going to think that they're getting
something as a reward.
What it is traditionally called is
a "stretch goal" and that is not something
that is officially part of kickstarter,
but something that Kickstarter campaigns
do often. They usually call them goals,
not rewards, and from what I was reading,
a lot of the stretch goals typically happen
after the Backers already have their first
set of products because they have gotten
their products, they're excited about it,
they're loving it, and now they want
something more.
So in order to stretch their amount that
they've collected and create more products
they have a stretch goal. So let's say, If
I get 100 people to donate 20 more dollars
we can create X products, so lets see if
we can get to our stretch goal, rather
than, it's a mystery, it's a game, it's a
reward, it wasn't.
They just completely misrepresented
that to Backers. But I'm telling you,
that snafu is mild, compared to what is
coming next, like that-that's just
extremely minor. It gets so so much worse.
So trying to backtrack, Glamour Dolls
tells their Backers "hey, if we get to
3,500 Backers, then we're going to include
in everybody's bag, the first 3500 people,
a Lisa Frank designed crease brush.
Sometimes they call this a crease brush,
sometimes they call it a blending brush,
its the same brush.
The promise of the free crease brush,
I am not kidding you, according to the
Kickstarter brought them past that
3500 backer mark in 24 hours.
So at this point in time, highest level
includes everything that they've said
so far, plus the nail polishes at a $60
price point. But people were still mad,
people were like, this is not what you
said it was going to be, sir, ma'am, sir.
So in response, Glamour Dolls was like
"ok, well, we will add something else,
we'll add something from our own line",
It was what they called their
"Gypsy Eyeliners" to the first
2000 Backers who complete a survey
to pick their preferred color of this
liner. They were going to add that into
the boxes, and that I think kind of
calmed people down a little bit,
they were like "ok, that feels more like
a reward." And people started getting
really excited about everything all over
again. A backer named Marsha said
"Wow, thanks yet again, the entire vibe
of this campaign totally reminds me of
what it felt like to open my noisy
Lisa Frank Trapperkeeper, write with
my pencils, play with my erasers, that I
never used, to keep pristine, like dolls
LOL, etc. in school. It made me smile
and dream. I feel like we're all reliving
our childhoods through this campaign and
your team is making this fun. I'm hoping
this will begin a new generation
of Lisa Frank fans, when kids see us using
our stuff".
Little did Marsha and the rest of us know,
we'd never use the stuff, we're not
getting the stuff. In March of 2017,
the Kickstarter is still going on, and
one of the founders and CEOs
of Glamour Dolls came on to clarify a
couple things. You're gonna see his name
coming up a lot. His name is Peter,
he looks like that. Just so you can get
a visual of who we're talking to.
Peter, CEO, founder, Glamour Dolls,
along with a chick named Jessica,
that's Jessica. Back in 2017, unless you
were in the makeup industry, there wasn't
as much information readily available
about how makeup manufacturing worked,
so Peter felt like it was important
to explain to the Backers, kind of, what
we were in for with this. He explained
something called minimum order quantities
and he said "as we get more pledges we
have to order more units and if the order
gets big enough, we are able to consider
adding new products, knowing that we will
be able to meet the factory minimums for
packaging and filling".
And then he says "as we add new products,
there will need to be some higher pledge
tiers, there no way around it. I wish I
could tell you exactly how much the
highest tier will be or how many products
we'll end up with, but we came here to
figure that out with you. But, you may see
the problem with this, in that they
haven't even created or started to create
the products they've already promised,
and now we're talking about adding on
another layer, more tiers, more products,
that also they don't have any plan for how
they're going to make them. There's no
artwork from Lisa frank, there's no colors
picked out, there's just a concept
in their minds, that's all that exists.
And as we go through this, you'll realize
they didn't even calculate the financials
on how much all this was going to cost,
or if they did calculate the financials,
they didn't care, they were like, we'll
figure it out some how.
And then Peter said something that stuck
in the minds of Backers for the rest
of the campaign. This is what he said,
"Ultimately, whatever we do and don't
figure out, these products will be
available for individual purchase before
the end of the year". The end of 2017.
Kickstarter Backers will just be getting
them first. They didn't.
So you remember how I said they were
adding all of these new products, and
either they didn't calculate the
financials to figure out how much they
were gonna cost or they did know, but they
"oh we'll get the money from somewhere"
they kinda figured out how they might get
the money. They tapped into a creator
named Wengie, now back then, there was
a big boom around creators who did DIY
challenge kinds of videos. I'm gonna show
you some of Wengie's thumbnails. She got
tens of millions of views on these videos
Wengie was huge in this space, especially
with kids. At the time, Wengie only had
6 million official subscribers
on her channel, but she had way more
watching her.
Wengie: Hey guys, it's Wengie Welcome back
but today I'm here to make a special
awesome announcement, I'm so excited
to announce this, like I can't even right
now. I'm going to be collaborating with
Lisa Frank and Glamour Dolls on an
eyeshadow palette, like What?! for those
of you who haven't heard about Lisa Frank
she is so amazing. She is, like, literally my childhood.
And her art is all about rainbows,
unicorns, colorful, like
everything I'm about.
Like, her art is my aesthetic, but
the most amazing thing is
you guys get to be involved as well
because you guys are my Wingy-con fam
and if I'm going to work on my first
huge collaboration, it's got to be with you guys.
So, I really want you guys to help contribute to our creative.
Choose the colors with us, choose the designs of the pallet.
And we've partnered with Glamour Dolls Make-up
to make this come alive.
Because they are a high quality, vegan, cruelty-free brand.
Not only that,
they make super affordable makeup,
because I want this collaboration to be affordable to everyone.
And the great thing about this whole process
is this was Internationally available no matter where you are,
you can pre-order this palette.
I'm not a hundred percent on this timeline, but it seems
like this is when they added more tiers.
They added a seventy dollar tier, a one hundred dollar tier,
and two hundred dollar tier,
but what they added that was the most important thing
that I think really turned everything,
was the additional of the Trapper Keeper palettes.
These were going to be six pan eye-shadow palettes that
looked legit like a trapper keeper.
No one had ever seen anything like this before and the
nostalgia overload. Oh my gosh. People lost their minds when
they were thinking, "Oh my gosh, a trapper keeper
eye-shadow palette, I need to have this in my life!"
So, along with Wengie trapper keeper palette
there would be a naturally glam palette and a bold a bright palette.
All adorned with Lisa Frank artwork.
Just an hour before the kickstarted ended,
Glamour Dolls made another promise.
They said that everybody, thanks to their participation,
anybody that participated in the Kickstarter was going to get a goody bag.
What was in the goody bag? No idea - no one ever got it.
But they promised, they said "There's gonna be a goody bag added,
thank you so much for backing this project.":
According to the community, at the time, it looked like before
Wengie launched her video, they were at about
two hundred fifty thousand dollars in pledges.
After Wendgie launched her video, they reached their peak
at three hundred seventy thousand dollars and almost six thousand people.
That was an average of about sixty two dollars spent per backer.
The one hundred dollar tier got everything from the collection.
And the two hundred dollar tier got two sets of everything in the collection.
Now me not having a ton of money, at the time, and being a procrastinator
I waited until the last minute to back this campaign.
So I joined in at the very last moment in the very last day of the campaign
at the seventy dollar level, so I paid seventy dollars plus five dollar shipping.
And I will tell you, I was most excited about those dang trapper keeper palettes.
So excited about those things!
And I was excited, after I saw the drawing I was excited about the nail polishes.
They looked really cool. I'd never seen anything quite like that.
And I wanted to review it for the channel,
I was excited to talk to you all about it.
Was it good quality along with being really cute?
I wanted to let you know.
[music]
Then something really weird happened.
Because, at the time, I was really in to subscription boxes, I got a ton of them.
I got my Ipsy bag, and I got this in it.
Yes, I still have it.
This is the Lisa Frank blush brush.
What?
Why-why am I getting this in an Ipsy bag?
Let me go ahead and show you,
it is super super freaking cute.
there is a little line here, where the image connects,
but overall it's just a very cute design.
I will show you though that the, ya know, it is a little wiggly,
it's not great quality, but at the time,
I was more just confused. We are all super confused
on what is happening and why the Lisa Frank blush brushes are in Ipsy.
You guys! I'm so excited!
I saw that this might be a possibility, something you could get in your bag,
and I got it! I'm so excited!
The fourth grader in my is, like, jumping up and down, she has
her Lisa Frank trapper keeper like in the air.
This is a Lisa Frank inspired brush!
Look at this thing! Look [laughs] at this thing!
There's magical, like, unicorns on the handle.
And it is pink, and vibrant, and blue, and green,
and all sorts of magical colors.
If I would've had this in fourth grade I would've been the coolest kid around
I would've been like, "yes, I'm putting on my fake blush with my [laughs]
Lisa Frank blush brush. Thank you very much."
Guys, I'm completely serious, I had the trapper keeper, I had the folders,
I had the pencils, I had the little, like pencil holder. I had everything -
everything Lisa Frank.
When I was in fourth grade, that was like, the only way to be cool was to have
multicolored rainbow cheetahs on your trapper keeper.
And now I am twentyfour yearold woman with a rainbow unicorn brush and I love it.
But it does make sense, it will make sense
I'm gonna get there.
About a month after the kickstarter ended, there was a red flag.
Besides the red flag of the blush brush being in Ipsy bags and
them not telling us that this could happen,
this was another major red flag that we probably should've seen.
What they posted to the kickstarter was basically about lessons that they
had learned so far.
This is what they said:
"Lisa knows how much we've got in the works, but her advice was to
stop and focus on a few things with high production quality rather than
trying to do everything at once.
Our friends at Kickstarter gave us some very similar advice-
this is a marathon, not a sprint.
We've taken it to heart, and stopped, gone back to the lab and made sure that the
next few weeks are going to run smoothly and be everything that we promised. "
So ever body, Lisa Frank, Kickstarter, every body's telling Glamour Dolls
you're doing too much. Stop.
You have made too many promises and you are going to just lose everything
slow down, figure out how you're going to
just get a couple of high quality products out and then worry about the rest,
but the thing is; is on the Kickstarter page, it had said 'estimated deliver of
September of 2017,
So we are now the beginning of May. June, July, August, Semptember,
that's four months until the estimated deliver date of the products.
Now, I didn't know at the time a lot about production, I had no idea,
so I didn't know that was freaking impossible.
[scoff[
I don't think a lot of us knew that that was freaking impossible,
but it was freaking impossible.
But Glamour Dolls didn't tell us it was freaking impossible,
oh no, they made us think it was we were getting our stuff in September
because, remember, at this point, they've got thirteen products
that they've promised us,
including counting each nail polish as one product.
And then, on top of that, they had promised us
that they would add in a Lisa Frank designed nail file, so that made it
fourteen products that they needed to give us, in four months.
[eh-eh]
Because we didn't realize as Backers,
that Lisa was designing all of this stuff from scratch.
Why in the world, she was not using existing artwork, I have no freaking clue.
I still don't know why she didn't use existing artwork.
And in hindsight, this is why hindsight is twenty - twenty.
Glamour Dolls had to have know there was no way in hell
we were getting this stuff by September but they didn't tell us that.
They even went so far as people saying it was their birthday in September
and they were so excited to get Glamour Doll's products for their birthday
and Glamour Doll's like "yaaayy, we're so excited for you to get them too!"
They knew darn well those people were not getting those products
for their birthday.
In May of 2017, the surveys continued
They started really asking us our opinions on how we wanted things to be done.
And we started seeing actual product coming together
and they sent a picture of this unicorn lippy- it was a lip balm
and it was a unicorn, and it was so freaking cute in this little
empty white box. Of course it was a white box, because Lisa hadn't designed the
artwork yet, but they were like,
"yes look at this draft of this unicorn, it's so cute!"
And then they sent over the picture of the vegan leather make-up bag
also so cute! Really cute little zipper, that was like a rainbow, and it was white,
of course, because again, Lisa hadn't designed the artwork yet.
We also got a final look at the upcoming crease brush, now keep in mind,
that the blush brush that was already sent out to Ipsy people, and this
crease brush, were only going to be shipped to the highest tier Backers.
The 100 dollar level, and the 200 dollar level. This is going to be important
in just a moment.
In June, we get another in hindsight red-flag, because Glamour Dolls
opened up another way to buy items from the collection from a site called 'backer kit'
and on Backer Kit, you could order product individually to be added to your box
when all of your stuff shipped.
It was also a way for people who hadn't been part of the kickstarter
to get on the action and order the products.
If you did happen to order the angled blush brush from Backer Kit
those blush brushes did go out
but the 100 dollar and 200 dollar people, still didn't have a blush brush.
Unless they got it in their Ipsy bag, then they had a blush brush.
And if they were 200 dollar tear,
they were gonna end up with 3 blush brushes by the end of it,
if they also got it in Ipsy.
And in June, Backers got a sneak peak of a single eye shadow
and a bronzer - we are almost there
of the big debacle with the bronzer and the eye shadow.
That's a whole 'nother thing - we're almost there.
Throughout June we also got sneaks of the Trapper Keeper palate -
who are so excited! The draft of the actual product packaging.
We also got sneaks of the matte mousse swatches,
we also got information about what the nail polish colors were gonna look like,
I mean they are giving us pieces and pieces, and pieces,
of 'this is coming, this is coming, this is what we're working on.'
They really did show us a lot!
But one thing you'll notice, if you listen carefully to this video
of this nail polish swatches,
is somebody in the background says something about Hot Topic.
[inaudible]
That's gonna be another piece.
[laughs]
Hang tight.
They also said that everything was still on track for shipping in September
in three months!
How are they telling us this?
They lied to us! They outright lied to us! They had to have known, darn well,
we weren't getting shit in September.
Because at this point nobody had even gotten on this digital background yet,
that should've been the easiest thing to do.
You have a piece of art, you send it out as a background,-you just digitally send it
you don't even have to mail anything!
you don't even have to create a physical product!
It's literally just a piece of art e-mailed, that's it!
They didn't even make that yet.
Here comes another red flag. Are you ready?
In July, they started selling that crease brush that was supposed to go to the
top tier Backers, they started selling it on their website for 4.99
and according to Popsugar, it sold out immediately
at the beginning of July, and then restocked in the middle of July
So this is what I think happened,
because, of course, you can't sell out and then restock two weeks later
from a true sell out. You have to order more! They didn't sell out!
What they did, I think, is they had a number of extra brushes
beyond what people had, what they had, you know, allocated to send out.
So they sold those brushes, and then they realized they were selling out so fast
they sold the backer's brushes.
I guess, figuring they would just make more.
And they would just send more out later, I don't know.
So while all of this has happened, Glamour Dolls is continually and
constantly involving the Backers in the development process
of everything. We're watching everything go down, and I will honestly tell you...
I kinda tuned out, I was like, "I don't even freakin' care" like,
I don't care what thin- I just want the products! Like, I participated
in a couple of surveys, but after that, I just stopped reading e-mails.
I was like, I don't care! I don't care about all of this, it's too much!
It's just- send me the products!
I don't care what ya'll decide. It's j- it's fine - it's whatever.
So I kinda tuned out at this point.
But a lot of people were very invested in all of these choices.
The Backers even started arguing amongst each other,
where some people were being a little harsh about the designs,
like with the trapper keeper palate, saying that the mirror was too small
and can you make the mirror bigger, people were complaining that there
were too many unicorns. Like, and then some people, just being like,
jus-just-what did you expect, it's Lisa Frank.
Just let them do the thing. It's fine. It's fine.
People were just getting frustrated and just started arguing back and forth
a little bit.
Jessica, the co-founder with Peter even came in and was like,
"hey ya'll, you need to speak nicely to each other, like, we're a community
we're working on this together, cause it's starting to get a little heated."
Now we're in August of 2017, one month before we're supposed to be getting
our products shipped.
We get another shot of the bronzer, this time with swatches.
this is what they said, "We specifically developed this formula so it's universally
flattering, making it the perfect shade for all of our dolls."
Unless the dolls are deeper than that color, I-I don't know.
The thing is, you really can't make a universal shade of bronzer
because what works for someone very deep skinned, is not gonna work
for someone with very pale skin.
You just can't do that.
All you can do is shoot for the middle.
So just saying that they made it for all of their dolls, just really was kind of
insulting to some of the Backers.
The most interested update, i['m gonna go ahead, put it on the screen
for you, but I'll read the most interesting part, they said,
"we know we've been little quiet over the last few weeks,
but trust us, we have so many fun and exciting updates to share
with you guys. The Trapper Keeper palate artwork should be finalized
any day now. " Any day now. "And we literally cannot wait to show you
what it looks like! This collaboration has been long time in the works,
and we know that in the end, it'll be worth all the blood, sweat
and glitter tears that we put into it."
There's no mention of any shipping delays,
There's just - we're getting our products. All of them - in September apparently.
[laughs] And the reason why we know this is because they keep showing us things,
they keep showing us that things are almost done!
We got a sneak peak of the shades that were gonna be in the bold and bright palat
we also got an explanation about the digital artwork that was supposed
to be going out, and what they basically said was that they wanted to start
with the hardest products first, like the trapper keeper palates,
and then work they way to the easiest stuff which would be the digital background.
In mid-August they put out a statement that the Wengie palate was almost finished
and that they would update when they had an exact delivery schedule.
So it's getting towards the end of August
and the people with the September birthdays are starting to realize
I'm not getting this for my birthday, am I?
So there was a backer that said "It's obvious that all the
September birthday Backers are not receiving their make-up next month
it's almost September, and not many products and designs are finalized
as much of a bummer this may be, getting Lisa Frank make-up
for Christmas, will still be really cool. I hope it's ready by then."
It's not gonna be ready.
[music[
So September finally arrives and everybody is like okay
we're gonna get our announcement that everything is gonna be shipped
but we did not get that!
What we got was a sneak of the shade of the lip mousse,
and no mention of the fact that things are supposed to be shipping right now
like, they just didn't even say anything.
Comment after comment, people are like "what the hell? You're showing
me a shade of the lip mousse, how are you still making this?!
We're supposed to be getting them shipped this month!?"
So, after that post, everybody was pissed. Everybody was sounding off in the comments
how mad they were, so the CEO had to re-group and he ended up putting out
a very lengthy statement. I will put it all on the screen for you.
He sincerely apologizes for gaps in communication
and disappointment, and he says that if for any reason Backers are not happy
that they can send an email and they will issue a refund immediately.
followed with quote, "we need to stress to all of you that you will be receiving
the products that you paid for no matter what."
And I really genuinely don't think that people asked for refunds because of this
because they saw things that they really wanted and they knew if they asked
for a refund, they weren't going to get any of it.
And they still had faith that at some point, this was going to happen.
Maybe it wasn't going to happen right now,
but, if I take my money out I'm not getting all this stuff.
And if I do want it, I'm gonna have to wait for it to go to retailers
and I'm gonna have to pay retail price for it- i'm gon-I
I'm gonna have to pay a lot more money
for it, when if I had just been patient, I would've gotten everything that I wanted.
The post continued with statements about threats that they were getting
across social media- and they said that the threats are unnecessary
and if they want a refund, just let them know.
And they also said, about the shipping delay, they said it was just an estimated
shipping delivery for September.
Quote, "We started all these products from scratch with you at the concept phase
and this is our first time working with a license so there are new steps
and things to learn. Hiccups have ranged from trying to find the right
fulfillment agents, to some of the packaging samples we received
not being up to our standards.
We were clear from the beginning and in previous updates
that things might get delayed as the process played out.
We realize that September will be over within a few short weeks, which means
we will unfortunately not be -be on target with our hopeful September estimation."
This is a bold face lie! It is a straight up lie!
They never once in any of the updates told any body that there could possibly
be a delay.
In fact, they reassured customers that everything was on track for September
They lied!
Regarding communication, they said it hasn't been the best, but they're
going to do better in the future.
And about people getting the brushes from Ipsy, 'member, I said 'hold on'?
we're gonna get to it - I'm getting to it right now.
They said, "The only products from this collection that are on the market
are the Lisa Frank blush brush and the Lisa Frank blending brush.
Those were developed six months before the kickstarted, along with the eye shadow
and the travel bronzer for a specific customer."
That specific customer was Ipsy,
"And were offered during this campaign as an addition perk, or add on,
so that you can truly have everything in the collection.
Beyond that, we can assure you that anything being developed
through kickstarter will be in your hands first."
What they don't mention in this,
was the update where they said that 3500 Backers, the first 3500
were also going to get the crease slash blending brush.
They've conveniently forgotten about that.
That actually never gets mentioned again.
When Backers pointed out that Glam Dolls raised ten times more than their
original goal of 30 thousand dollars,
they said that it didn't make things easier, it actually made things more
complicated, because that's when they started adding extra products.
Well who's dang fault was that!?
This is also the first mention of hand painted items.
Why are there hand painted items in this collection?
I have no idea. I don't know why they thought this was a good idea.
We'll talk about that.
They also mention, that of course, because the Backers went in
and helped them fund the products that they will get everything
at a cheaper price than what they would be sold at retail.
Then they breakdown everything that they say is happening right now
including, they say, specifically
that all the products have been finalized
and physical production samples have been approved,
but they do say that they're keeping 3 products blank
so that community can vote on what kind of artwork is going to
go on to those 3 products.
They also promise that on October 1st, they're going to ship out
those 4 products that were made before the kickstarter started;
the 2 brushes, the eyeshadow, and the bronzer.
They'll go out to the 100 and 200 dollar Backers.
As well as anybody that added them on.
They also say this: "In addition to the press, we were reached out to by
a few major retailors, all of whom require time and energy to onboard
with. There have been many sleepless nights and it has been a journey
as we try to build our team, and turn this opportunity in to a solid foundation"
I don't think we knew what this meant at the time,
but this meant that they had two retailors they were talking to
to sell these products. Hot Topic and Dolls Kill.
The letter then goes on to pull at the heartstrings
of the Backers, to get everybody to calm down, and be patient,
and be nice to them.
They -s- give shoutouts to the staff members and the interns
and statements like, "Jessica and I are both people too"
And they mention Jessica neglecting her own wedding because she's
working so hard on this project. ]
They also talk about Peter missing friends and family members' major life events
due to trying to make this product happen.
What we like to think that if you were able to see our day to day,
those of you who feel the need to be critical, would be a little less so.
And this is when there's a complete tone-shift in the comment section
underneath the project.
The comments are so kind, and so patient, there's even people saying
that they expected the products to ship after September,
because a lot of kickstarters ship late
which I found isn't necessarily true,
but people were really nice to Peter
after his post. Just like, yeah you are human, let's give you some time
I can see that you're trying, like, you're doing your best
and things are coming. It'll be soon.
Everybody is just being super super nice to them.
But one backer, Ariel, she really summed things up, but in a very
very polite way. She asked questions like,
i-she wanted to know the dates of the extra promises, like the Glamour Doll's
Gypsy eyeliner pencil, the vintage Lisa Frank item that they were promised.
The nail file, and the digital background, and of course, her questions went
completely unanswered.
On September 21st, they said, Thank you so much,
the eyeshadow and the bronzer production have been completed. We have them.
They say, as a huge thank you for supporting us throughout this journey,
we've decided to ship out the orders early for those of you who backed a tier
that includes them, or added them to their pledge afterward in backerkit.
But you and I both know, that this is not on time.
October 1st is technically late, because the estimated ship time was September
and there shipping them in October,
but they're using this language on purpose to manipulate the Backers
and make them feel good that they're getting things early.
Because what I think they meant, is that they had intended to send out the packages
when they were all completed, but they're sending these particular items because
they're ready out before the rest of the products are ready.
Glamour Dolls makes it sound like this is - like- a big reward,
this is something we're doing for you because we care about you -
No, this is something that you owe to people.
This is not - this is not a - a luxury.
This is not a super kind thing to do.
This is just what you should be doing.
Then things switched with the digital background.
Basically what they were saying, was that they wanted to give an update
on the digital background and they said that Lisa had some concerns
about her artwork getting stolen.
I don't know, I think if anyone wanted to steal Lisa Frank's artwork
it'd be pretty easy to do, but I digress.
So anyway, they were worried about this digital background
being stolen and then put on things illegally,
so they didn't want to do a digital background, instead
Lisa was going to go in to her vault and she found these vintage postcards.
And these vintage postcards were going to be shipped out instead of the digital
background to anybody that pledged 5 dollars or more.
So every single person that pledged was going to get one of these.
And 25 people would have one that was handsigned personal signed by Lisa herself
This postcard was supposed to go out once all of the orders, all the products,
had been made and the final orders were being shipped.
Then they dropped drawing designs of the caps of the nail polishes
and I was thinking as I was looking at this, I was like didn't they just say
like a week ago, that everything was already designed, that they
already had all the mockups?
Apparently that was a lie.
And would you be shocked to learn
that the shipping of the bronzers doesn't happen on October 1st?
'Cause it doesn't happen.
In October, the community is sent a poll for the design for the vegan make-up bag
they had a choice of zoomer and zorbit, who are aliens,
dancing dolphins, or Sky the Pegasus.
We also saw the first physical samples of the Naturally Glam
and the bold and bright palates, so freaking cute.
The community loses their minds over these palettes, comments are lighting up
about people so excited to get these palettes in their hands.
And like I said, the eyeshadow and bronzers, that stuff did not
end up shipping on October 1st, because Glamour Dolls says that
they were stuck in customs.. for two weeks.
They said in an update, being as today is 10 26, we expect the product to arrive
to the shipping facility and ship to you on October 31st.
And therefor, you should expect the makeup there on your doorstep during the first
week of November.
Are you surprised that this did actually happen?
Me too.
[laughs]
In November we get more information
about the two brushes, the eyeshadow, and the bronzer.
They talk about how the products had already been in production
when the kickstarter started, but where Peter shot himself in the foot
was because in May he said that the Backers would be getting the products
first. And he should've known not to say that because he knew that they were
gonna end up in Ipsy bags before the
Backers got them, but he didn't tell anybody that.
He just lied to everybody instead and then when we found out they were in Ipsy bags
we naturally freaked out.
Because not only were the blush brushes in the April Ipsy bags, but the bronzers
were in the November Ipsy bags!
"Oh my gosh, is this a Lisa Frank? [gasp] Glamour Dolls bitten and bronze
matte bronzer!? Awhile ago we got a Lisa Frank brush in our Ipsy bag,
I wonder if this is from the same line. I'm not really expecting much from this
bronzer, because I feel like it's just more on the gimmicky side,
But I hope that it works amazingly well.
Color is really promising!
It's not too warm and it's not too cool.
I'm gonna swatch it out.
This feels a little bit powdery.
Ooh, it actually feels really nice and smooth on the skin.
Granted, I did just put that hand cream on so I don't really know what that says
but it feels really buttery-ish on the skin. Feels nice!
The color is pretty good too.
If you're fair though, I don't think this is going to work for you
because it's showing up on my really tan hand, so if you're fair,
I don't think this bronzer is for you.
But it's really F'in cute.
I wish the actual packaging looked as cute as the box,
but I mean, it's still pretty cute"
As a backer, what we were thinking was that Glamour Dolls took our money
from the Kickstarter and made these bronzers and made the brushes and made the
eyeshadows with our money and then sold them to Ipsy. Which is actually not what
happened. I put all of the timelines together and it turns out they did not use
Kickstarter money in order to fund these products.
They had used a different website. It was called: "Kickfurther".
Kickfurther - it still exists. It's kind of like Kickstarter, but instead
of backing a project and getting product, you back a project and you get interest
on your investment. It's basically a way that small businesses
can fund the production of something and then pay the investors back.
So I went over to the Glamour Dolls' Kickfurther page and what I found out was
that they had done a Kickfurther campaign to produce the blush brushes.
They raised $166,000 and they paid those Backers back about two weeks after
the Kickstarter ended in April of 2017. They ran a second Kickfurther campaign
that was running about the same time as the Kickstarter campaign was running.
It was from Feb 13th of 2017 to March 6th of 2017. This was to fund the
production of the eyeshadow and the bronzer. Because with the money
they got from the blush brush they were also able to make the crease brush.
There's a lot of business-y language over there and I'll be honest,
I don't understand a lot of what they're talking about.
But I will tell you what I did understand. So, he's basically saying people are
concerned that they're not going to get their money back. And he's reassuring them
and basically saying they've got these two purchase orders - they're very very
blurry, there's stuff that's knocked out of it, but we know now in hindsight that
the brand that ordered the highlight and the bronzer was Ipsy.
You can kind of make out in the very blurry paperwork that Ipsy paid $378,750
for the bronzer. Same for the eyeshadows. And that was for 757,500 units of each
product. But! They were not going to pay that money
until the product was delivered. That's why they needed the Kickfurther
people- was to actually make the products. Once they actually delivered them, then
they would get the money from Ipsy and they could pay the Kickfurther Backers
back. So here's the math broken down:
Glamour Dolls raises $313,000 from the Kickfurther. They spend that money to
make the bronzer and the eyeshadow. Ipsy pays them two payments of $378,750.
Which is $757,500 total for those two products.
Then they have to pay interest to the Kickfurther Backers.
They pay out $354,000 about to those Backers. That's $41,000 in profit for the
Kickfurther people, but that gives Glamour Dolls about $400,000 from
those two products from the Ipsy deal. Plus they still have that $350,000 from
the Kickstarter in order to make products. So what happened to all of that money -
where did they spend it?! I have it- I know exactly where
they spent it! I have to... but we have to get there.
So remember: the Backers over on the Kickstarter have no idea any of this
Kickfurther stuff was happening. And Glamour Dolls had no obligation
to share it - it wasn't our business.
But this was happening behind the scenes. In mid November, the Backers at the
$100 and $200 level, as well as people who added on the bronzer or
the eyeshadow are starting to get their products in the mail. Remember they
had ordered these back between February and April - it's now November and they've
finally got some products. And they also have their vintage
Lisa Frank postcard. Glamour Dolls seemed a little bit "Oooo"
about that because the postcards technically weren't supposed to go out yet.
The postcards were supposed to be in the final package.
So what they told the Backers was: if you got a postcard in this order,
you'll get a second one in your next order.
That's the order where we're going to ship you out everything.
And this is when Glamour Dolls is forced to admit that they are selling the
Lisa Frank branded stuff - the stuff that's supposed to be in the hands of the
Backers first- over at Hot Topic and Dolls Kill.
Because people found the products available over on Hot Topic!
But they spin it - they're SUCH manipulative liars, I swear. This is
so awful. This is what they said:
"The eyeshadow that leaked on Hot Topic that some of you eagle eyes caught (we are
so impressed!) was supposed to be a teaser promo for what's to come.
And we were 100% not aware that they would be breaking the news so soon.
We're of course THRILLED to have such an amazing partnership, but we truly had
had no idea they were launching this promo so early.
Now that the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, we'd love to formally introduce you
to the new single eyeshadow shades in the Lisa Frank x Glamour Dolls line."
followed by swatches of two shadows, not one.
This second single shadow was never a part of the original list of products.
Why are they making more products? It's because they could make money off
of Hot Topic customers. That's why they made more.
Because apparently they need more money. But then it gets so, so much worse.
This was when I went on my Twitter and I was like, "This is f*cking ridiculous!"
If you were following me on Twitter and you saw me freaking out on Twitter
about what I was finding, this is what I had found.
Because the postcards. The postcards.
Ok, I know it's just a postcard, but it's wild.
So the postcards were coming damaged.
Some of them were ripped, some of them were creased,
people were saying they got a signed one and it was ripped and they wanted
another one, but then they were worried they wouldn't get another signed one and
how could the signed one be ripped? It's a vintage postcard - these can't be reproduced.
But was it? Because people noticed that there was a QR code on the postcard.
These are supposed to be vintage and there was a QR code...
...on the postcard.
And I sh*t you not this is what Glamour Dolls said:
"QR codes actually came out in the 90's, if ya can believe it. These postcards
are right from the vault."
So, I had to look that up because I was like,
"Are you being for serious right now?" (laughs)
He's right - the QR codes did come out in the 90's.
But nobody had any ability to use them until smartphones had cameras.
According to the article on Microsoft, "In 2002, Sharp introduced the first
cellphone with a QR scanner and competing cell phone companies followed suit.
Eventually everyone who owned a smartphone possessed a QR scanner in their pocket."
So at the very earliest, the postcards were 15 years old.
But I will tell you there is a 0% chance- a 0% chance- that these postcards
were 15 years old. And the reason why was because the QR code
conveniently took you to a Lisa Frank app. Which definitely did not exist in 2002.
I found the two apps that she had available.
The apps at the time were the "Lisa Frank Pick 'n Share", developed
in 2012 per this Buzzfeed article. Apparently it sucked according to them.
The other app was called "Zoom 'n Color" which launched in February of 2013.
So unless somebody calls something vintage that is five years old,
these sh*t are not vintage. At all. Not even close.
But it gets worse. It gets worse! Not only weren't they vintage,
they weren't signed!
Some people were looking at their their signature because a lot of people
in the group seemed to have gotten signatures.
There were 1700 people who should have gotten these postcards because they
pledged that $100 tier or more. At least 1700 people.
But it seemed like almost everybody, if not everybody, commenting was
getting one of these 25 rare signed postcards.
Something was going on. There was a woman named, Calli,
who didn't get her postcard yet and was seeing all these people commenting
that they'd gotten a signed one and she was like,
"Oh I guess I'm not going to get a signed one with my order."
And Glamour Dolls was like, "Yeah, you do have a chance because maybe not
all the 25 have been sent out. We're not sure because Lisa sent them directly
to the warehouse and we don't know which ones went into the boxes."
And Calli says, "Yes!! Definitely still a chance. Realistically we won't
know who received the 25 postcards until they're all sent out once all the
products are through production and shipped out. Talk about suspense!!"
But we know how many of them were signed. They were all signed.
Every single one of them were signed.
Because thanks to tips from people that were commenting, they said well, there's
pictures of the cards on Instagram that people are posting. The signatures are
absolutely 100% identical down to the size of the commas and the sizes of the
loops and the extra little dot in the smiley face.
These were photocopied. Every single one had a Lisa Frank signature on it.
I even found an unboxing of one of these. This was from a channel called,
"Beauty Pop". And here was her reaction to getting the postcard:
"So first off there is this little card- it's really, really cute. It has a
Lisa Frank, like, illustration on it. I really like it.
And it says, "Lots of love! XO.... I don't...the team...or something maybe...
I don't know what that says. That signature is kind of hard to read.
So it's this little postcard. It's really really cute. I think I'm
going to save this because I really like the art that's on it."
(Laughing) She didn't even realize that it was Lisa Frank's signature because it
doesn't look like Lisa's Fran- Lisa Frank's signature. We see the Lisa Frank
name on everything and it looks like a signature.
That's not her real signature apparently, (laughing) so she didn't even realize
that's what it was supposed to be. (Laugh) Which I get! I totally get!
But it just goes to show how the signature was of zero value. Absolutely zero value.
One person said her eyeshadow came shattered.
And then a backer named, Denisha, was super disappointed and she said she lost
all complete hope that anything would work out for her. She said, "I was
happy to get one of the signed cards [because at this point everybody thinks
that they're hand signed], but I'm already not enthused about this makeup
working for me. The eyeshadow is beautiful and I might use it as a highlighter,
but the "bronzer" is a complete waste of time.
I really don't think based on the poll winners, etc. that this line will work
out for melanated Backers." Even Beauty Pop, who is closer to my
skin tone, swatches the bronzer and pretty much says the same thing.
So the postcard was a complete scam. And it doesn't seem like Glamour Dolls knew
that, but Lisa had to have known that.
Where did Glamour Dolls get the information that 1. these were vintage
and 2. that they would be hand signed because neither of those things were true.
Did Lisa lie to them? Did Glamour Dolls know it and lie to the Backers?
I would dare to say Lisa probably misled Glamour Dolls.
But it's Glamour Dolls fault for not even seeing the postcards and verifying what
they were before giving false promises to the Backers.
So at this point there starts to be kind of a split between the backers.
Some people are really excited and some people are starting to get
really disappointed. There's a backer named Lizzie and she says,
"Honestly if I'd known about the other shades not being available through the
Kickstarter when this whole thing started, it wouldn't have bothered me.
What really irritates me is that we keep finding out about these things being sent
out in Ipsy bags, Hot Topic suddenly selling items from this collection, etc.
on our own and THEN we hear from you about it once someone call you out and questions
It's important to be up front and open with your Backers, so they feel like
they can trust you."
The problem is that they weren't trustworthy. That's the problem.
And that's what a lot of the Backers were learning.
And beyond that, people were really disappointed about the design of the
eyeshadow and the bronzer themselves because the Lisa Frank artwork was on the
outer cardboard box and not on the actual packaging because a lot of people - I know
I do- I tend to throw away the outer box and I USE the product itself, so the
artwork, I thought, was going to be on the actual product and not on the outer carton
so people were really disappointed about that, too.
On November 22nd, they send out a mock-up of the lip balm tin. This is the first
time we see the lip balm tin. And it looks kind of cute.
But like I said at this point, we kind of are starting to get that split between
the Backers, but most people seem to still be really excited.
In December of 2017, they send out a big update with progress on
all of the products. They stress again the process of
creating all of this product.
They get the sample, they get the artwork from Lisa, they get the artwork put onto
the sample, they send that sample over to Lisa for approval and then she has the
opportunity to revise the sample and change things, then they have to send
that back to the lab with the revisions and it doesn't seem like Lisa has a limit
on how many revisions she can make on a product.
So, that's why things seem to be taking so long - is because it's just such a
multi-step process and where I keep digging back
is that - didn't they know this- when they started the Kickstarter-
that this was the format they were working with?
Why would you tell Backers that there was an estimated ship date that wa- you knew
100% was going to be impossible, based on what they're saying here that I'm sure
that they knew before they started, I don't understand why they would just
outright lie like that.
Glamour Dolls has created this problem for themselves.
Lisa isn't helping- which we'll find out more in a minute.
But Glamour Dolls has created this situation.
So right now, as of December 17th, the things that are available for purchase
were the crease/blending brush, the blush brush,
the bronzer, and the two eyeshadows
in "Heartthrob" and "Picnic".
"Heartthrob" was created specifically for Hot Topic. "Picnic" was created for
the Backers, but they were selling both at Hot Topic.