Key Takeaways:
Kevin James Bennett refuses to change his cell number despite the barrage of hate calls and death threats he’s received over the years from rabid fans of Kylie Jenner, James Charles, and Jaclyn Hill, to name a few. The Emmy-winning (semi-retired) makeup artist, product developer, consumer advocate, and author of the “In My Kit” Substack has been putting consumers first and pissing off the beauty industry for more than four decades.
Long before Bennett called bullshit on brands and influencers, he led the makeup teams for soap operas Another World and As the World Turns from 1994 to 2003. There are no reruns in soap opera land, so Bennett worked 50 weeks a year, and long, grueling days. This meant his actors required makeup 12-16 hours a day. This prompted Bennett to develop his own long-lasting makeup techniques, which he taught to his team, so they wouldn’t have to reapply an actor’s full face of makeup multiple times a day on shoots. “These techniques allowed us to maintain the original makeup throughout the day with just touch-ups,” said Bennett, who used these methods later to develop his “Bulletproof Bridal Makeup” protocol. “I taught these techniques to artists specializing in special-event and red-carpet makeup applications."
Around this time, Bennett was nicknamed “Blenderella” for his skill at complexion matching. “There wasn’t a skintone I couldn’t mix and match, exactly,” hence his nickname “Blenderella.” Even now, when it comes to brands developing shades for foundation and concealer projects, Blenderella is often their first call.
In the late nineties, Bennett’s soap operas were transitioning to HD video. This meant that viewers would soon see every pore on his actors, particularly since soap operas are known for their excessive close-ups. “Airbrush makeup was thought, incorrectly, to be the only way to apply makeup for HD,” Bennett explained. “There were no facial foundations for airbrush at that time, so we all began mixing Revlon ColorStay with silicone solvent (Fluid 244), which was originally used to remove prosthetics and heavy theatrical makeup. Using a makeup solvent to create stable, long-lasting makeup was not ideal.”
That’s when Bennett started mixing loose mineral makeup powders (mostly pure pigments) with less reactive fluids to create his own airbrush makeup. “I was using Jane Iredale loose mineral makeup, so I opened an account for my show.” Iredale then reached out to Bennett to tell him she loved the way his mind worked and asked if he would be interested in becoming a product development consultant for the brand.
This work catalyzed Bennett’s product development journey, piquing his interest in working with additional makeup brands, and prompting him “to go deep” with Make Up For Ever (MUFE).
Bennett worked directly with MUFE founder Dany Sanz on R&D from 2007 to 2010. Bennett would visit Sanz and her assistant, Ludo, in Paris multiple times a year to develop products for professional makeup artists that were also user-friendly for consumers.
After his work with Jane Iredale and MUFE, Bennett decided he was ready to go out on his own and start a consulting business, Makeup Art + Design Enterprises. “My toolbox had already become very deep at that point, so it was kind of easy to start putting together the components, creation, formulation, manufacturing, and marketing for the client.”
The "Joan of Arc" of Cosmetics Has Receipts
Bennett had a constant stream of brand clients, which exposed him to many different manufacturers. “I was getting a much deeper education into ingredients, efficacy, and stability,” Bennett explained. “So with all this knowledge, when I looked at marketing claims of products coming out on the market, I'm going, ‘Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense. If my information is correct—if my clinical information is correct—this is bullshit.’”
When Bennett says his “clinical information is correct,” he’s basing it on exhaustive research. “If I’m calling out brands or manufacturers over ingredients or claims, it’s only after deep research. I never post unciteable information or prompt misinformation based on brand marketing.” Bennett doesn’t care that it often takes a long time to get the receipts—he won’t publish a criticism until he has the facts backing it up.
Bennett said he got angry about discrepancies between what brands claimed and how their products actually performed. So, he started posting about it online, “I'm like, ‘buyer beware.’" After a few followers called him the “Joan of Arc” (of cosmetic consumer advocacy), the name stuck for a while. “I appreciated it and all, I said, but couldn't it be somebody else? I mean, she got burned at the stake!”
This is when Bennett became a consumer advocate and industry watchdog. When he would approach brands and manufacturers about their inconsistencies in their product claims, if they ignored him or couldn’t give an explanation, Bennett would “call bullshit.”
Bennett points to the progression of YouTube beauty gurus becoming influencers around 2017 as the beginning of his Joan of Arc era. He felt consumers were being duped by influencers “lying and misleading people just to get their [influencers’] affiliate money and sponsorships,” Bennett said. “That's when it started for me, because I'm like, wait a minute. These people don’t seem to understand that much of the information they get from influencers is false. They think, ‘This is a parasocial relationship, this is my friend, they wouldn't lie to me.’”
Bennett felt this was the impetus for him to expose that influencers were not disclosing their relationships with brands and that they were getting paid on the back end. “I took a lot of heat. I had James Charles up my ass, I had Manny MUA up my ass. I had all of them. They were calling me hateful things left and right. And I'm like, ‘I'm not going to stop because I know you're wrong.’ It wasn’t that I didn’t like them personally or was jealous of their influencer hustle. I didn’t like that they were lying to people who trusted them, just to make money.”
Fallen Demigods
Many beauty brands, content creators, and categories (throat clear, “clean” beauty) have attracted Bennett’s ire, but makeup artist Jaclyn Hill reigns supreme in sustaining Bennett’s probing eye over the years. Since 2017, Bennett has called out Hill for selling contaminated lipsticks, copying other brands, lying, and gaslighting. Bennett has called Hill a “world-class grifter” and “#JaclynShill,” and has told consumers “buyer beware.”
Hill’s followers (8.6 million on Instagram and 1.2 million on TikTok) did not take Bennett’s criticism lightly. “Years ago, with #lipstickgate, one of her crazy fans found their way to the front of my apartment building and ominously sent me a picture of it, inquiring if they had found the correct address with the message, ‘This is where you live, right?’ And I was like, ‘Are these people out of their minds taking it to that level?’”
Bennett received a similar reaction when he “called bullshit” on James Charles’ Painted in 2023. “He's lying, saying that it's two weeks before launch and ‘We're still formulating.’ That's bullshit. What is going on?" Bennett thinks the reason he got so much backlash from the influencers’ followers is that “back then, nobody ever questioned them. These were the demigods of social media, and how dare you question them, you know?”
Charles and his 19.9 million followers launched a full-on social media attack on Bennett, but he remained unfazed. “This is why I became a watchdog, because I'm going to call this shit out. And I have zero fucks to give at this point, because you can't damage my career. I've already had three careers, and I'm very happy.”
Lab Cosplay
Before August 2022, most of the vitriol aimed at Bennett came from influencers’ armies. Sure, Hill and Charles have impressive followings, but not like a Kardashian. When Bennett posted photos of Kylie Jenner in a lab setting, allegedly “making cosmetics” with her hair down and loose, no gloves, no mask, no shoe covers, he knew there would be blood. He criticized Jenner for not following sanitary guidelines and gaslighting her followers into believing she was making cosmetics in the photos.
Bennett knew he would face backlash from Jenner’s massive fan base, many of whom swarmed Bennett’s social media pages, leaving nasty comments on every post going back years. But he didn’t know that the online conversation with Jenner would gain international attention.
“I remember my finger hovering over the enter button, saying to myself, ‘Before you hit enter, understand this is going to be a thing, because she has 385 million followers on this platform alone. If you answer back, her people are going to come for you.’ So I went in knowing exactly what was going to happen. I had no illusions about it, but I didn't realize it was going to go viral.” Bennett said he was hit with a tsunami of hate messaging and DMs, "I mean, to the point where people were sending me death threats.”
At first, Jenner responded with, “Kevin—this picture is not taken in a manufacturing facility. i would never bypass sanitary protocols, and neither would any other celeb or beauty brand owner.” She then took her comment a step further by adding, “no one is putting customers at risk! shame on you kevin for spreading false information !!!!"
At one point, Jenner asked Bennett in the comments, “Were you there?" This bothered Bennett even more, "As if I had to be there to validate her lying to her fans.”
After working in numerous labs throughout his career, Bennett immediately recognized Jenner's photos were taken at Italian manufacturing lab Regi on the production floor with vats full of product worth thousands of dollars. Bennett said he was amazed that Regi allowed her on the production floor, with no PPE, standing on a platform looking into a full emulsifying tank holding between 40-60 liters of finished complexion product. “I have short hair and no crazy manicure, but I have never been allowed on a production floor at a cosmetic manufacturer without a lab coat, shoe covers, gloves, a face mask, and a hair net—period!”
Bennett understood staging inside the laboratories because they [lab staff] can clean down the room and sanitize it after the shoot. “That's not the issue. She was on the floor, standing over vats so big she literally had to step up to see them. There was actual product on the mixing paddles that she was looking into with her greasy extensions, no mask, no gloves. I'm like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? If folks from the EU Commission had gotten wind of this sanitary protocol breach, Regi could have been in BIG trouble.”
When the interaction got to the point where Jenner kept commenting and Bennett wouldn’t back down, Jenner resorted to personal attacks. “Which was so stupid on her part, because it made her look really bad. Like when she said she would have to rename her dog because his name is Kevin. I'm like, ‘Are you kidding me? First you're gaslighting people and lying, and now you're just being a bitch.’”
After all of Jenner’s declarations that the photos were not taken in a real lab or manufacturer, 10 months later, vindication arrived for Bennett in an episode of The Kardashians, showing that the shoot was indeed staged in her manufacturer’s lab.
Coming “Clean”
Bennett does not hide his contempt for the “clean” beauty movement and sees it as a disingenuous marketing tactic: “Clean beauty is bullshit.” Over the years, he’s devoted many posts and later Substacks to debunking “paraben-free,” throwing rocks at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and condemning “clean” beauty’s fear-mongering narratives. “The greenwashing is so disturbing. The situation is out of control,” Bennett said. “On the most basic level, 'clean' beauty's messaging goes against the FDA and FTC rules. They [clean beauty brands] are acting as though they are presenting clinical data.”
Don’t even get Bennett started on the demonizing of parabens. “The whole paraben-free thing is ridiculous. It’s been 21 years since Darbre’s [Dr. Philippa Darbre, lead author of the flawed paper that fueled the parabens and cancer fear] study that started this whole ball of wax. We still do not have clinicals that show that short-chain parabens cause cancer or are dangerous.”
Bennett takes issue with formulators forced to use “natural” preservatives. “They're using, quote, unquote, natural preservatives, many of which have an acid base or a salt base. Formulators have to use 10 to 20 times as much as they would with a paraben.” Using large amounts of these natural preservatives creates formulation issues because they take up such a significant part of the formula, Bennett said. “It can actually make formulas less stable and less efficacious.”
When a client tells Bennett they want to use natural preservatives, he tries to talk them off that chemophobia cliff. “A little bit of science helps. The thing is, if you use natural preservatives, you'll end up with a product that irritates many people. It also probably won’t be as effective as it could be because we have to put so much of this natural preservative in where we would have put a minuscule amount of a paraben.” It’s important that brands know there are trade-offs, Bennett explained. “A brand wants to say it's natural, but at what cost to the consumer? And to be quite frank, arsenic is natural too.”
Wisdom Has Receipts
When advising new brands, Bennett tells them to do extensive research and ask hard questions. “Don’t think you’ve done your job if you just go to Makeup in New York and sit down with a contract manufacturer, who shows you all their innovation and blah-blah-blah. Don’t just believe what they’re saying. You need to ask them, ‘Where was that ingredient sourced? Do you have information about the ingredient? Do you have clinicals and/or scientific data to back up your claims?’ Be more intelligent. Ask questions. Don't believe automatically what you're told.”
If you’re looking to avoid getting caught in Bennett’s critical crosshairs, he advises staying honest and authentic. “If you are being authentic, I would have nothing to say. You could be as outrageous and crazy as you want to be, but if you are being outrageous for the sake of clickbait, and you're lying to people to put cash in your pocket, I'm going to call that shit out.
“I'm not trying to burn bridges. I'm not trying to shake things up anymore. I'm just trying to get the information out there and let the people who really want the information find it.”
