Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Harvard Business School student Jessica Assaf runs a blog along with Alexis Krauss called Beauty Lies Truth, and together they advocate against parabens and toxins in cosmetics. So Assaf was surprised to get a recruitment email from corporate beauty giant L'Oreal, and she wrote a blog post about the experience. She even pasted an image of the email from the L'Oreal recruiter into the post—in which he asked her to "like" a L'Oreal video while also attempting to recruit her.
Instead, Assaf wrote a blistering response that she also posted on her blog. She said: "I guess you didn't get a chance to review my resume before sending this email, because if you had you would have realized that I am definitely not the right candidate for an internship at L'Oreal. I have been a chemical activist since the age of fifteen, committed specifically to spreading awareness about the unregulated cosmetic industry and the unnecessary chemicals in our beauty products."
She continues: "As a fellow HBS student and someone you specifically reached out to, I feel I deserve to know your level of awareness regarding the ingredients in the products you sell, and your reasoning behind the use of toxic chemicals in L'Oreal products. Many of these chemicals, such as parabens, have been banned or restricted in Europe, yet L'Oreal still uses them in their U.S. products. My question is: why?"
The 500-word letter ends with Assaf writing: "Long story short, I will not be applying for an internship at L'Oreal. I would like you to respond with an honest assessment of the ingredients in L'Oreal, and whether you would use the products on your children. If you do not respond, I will assume that it is indeed true that your company cares more about profit than about the health of my generation."
· L'Oreal Tried to Recruit the Wrong Girl… [Beauty Lies Truth]
· Gwyneth Paltrow's Stocking GOOP With Clean Beauty Products [Racked]
· Why EOS Lip Balm Is Suddenly Everywhere [Racked]
Loading comments...