This is Actually the WORST Makeup Launch EVER: Lisa Frank X Glamour Dolls | Behind the Controversy

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 missed represented

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 tear 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 tear 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 you 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 was 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.