In the latter part of last year, we were given some of the best news to date in the beauty world - elf cosmetics was launching in South Africa!
Beauty blogs went wild with the news, and thousands of us clambered to follow Elf Cosmetics South Africa on their multiple social media accounts. Photos of the cosmetics that we have been lusting over were splashed over their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. We liked, we commented, and more importantly, we got pumped up for what promised to be the launch of the year. They even held a competition that said you could win a year's supply of Elf cosmetics if you followed them on all their accounts by 31 January 2016.
That should have been the first clue that something was off. Firstly, to win a year's supply of cosmetics is a massive prize. Secondly, how were they controlling how they knew you were following them on all platforms? Usernames are different, so there is no way of knowing unless you use something like Rafflecopter. Another clue that something was off is that their website's address is eyeslipsface.co.za (elf stands for eyes lips face), however the real American and UK website address is elfcosmetics.com - surely the continuity would be kept, and the address would have been elfcosmetics.co.za? And finally, would a huge cosmetics company mess up basic spelling in images they post, like this:
Then, all of the social media accounts VANISHED! I was following on all accounts, then remembered that I hadn't seen anything about the launch for a while, so I went to check up what their latest posts had been. Imagine my horror when I couldn't find anything! Not a single scrap of evidence that they had ever existed. Even the website is gone. I searched their handle on twitter and found that I was not alone in wondering what had happened.
I contacted the Head Office to find out if they could give me some clarity, but I have not heard from them yet. As far as I am concerned, either someone was pulling a nasty prank on us, or something went wrong with the launch in South Africa and Elf Cosmetics had to pull out, but I am leaning more towards this being a prank based on some of the suspicious activities. Either way, there are now a ton of disappointed beauty fans who were so looking forward to the launch of an affordable brand with great quality.
