A beauty company whose products previously earned viral fame has lost its female co-CEO after its male founder displayed increasingly erratic behavior on social media.
Deciem, which was created in 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, currently has nine brands under its control, including The Ordinary, and counts Estee Lauder among its investors. Last year, The Ordinary, which has acquired a cult following, was earning rave reviews and at one point had a 25,000-person wait list for its $7 foundation.
But now, the company has come under fire and raised eyebrows after its founder, Brandon Truaxe, announced he was taking over Deciem’s social media accounts, only to share a series of bizarre updates, while former employees of the company called it a ‘terrible’ place to work and accused Truaxe of being a bully.
Drama: Deciem’s co-CEO Nicola Kilner (left) is no longer with the company, a move that comes after a display of erratic behavior by founder Brandon Truaxe (right) on social media
Mayhem: Truaxe announced last month he would take over Deciem’s social media accounts and his posts have become increasingly bizarre ever since
On Friday, the company’s troubles took a new turn when its co-CEO Nicola Kilner, who has been with Deciem since the year of its creation, left the company in unclear circumstances.
Kilner did not disclose the reason for her departure, and did not specify whether she had resigned or been fired, but she confirmed in a text to Racked that she is no longer with the company.
‘Sadly yes. I’m too heartbroken to talk about it at the moment,’ she wrote.
The website said it had received a tip saying Kilner was let go, but a spokesperson wouldn’t confirm the information.
According to a tip received by Racked, Deciem’s CFO Stephen Kaplan is out too after resigning. Deciem has not confirmed nor denied the news.
As for Truaxe, he claimed to have fired several people whose ‘values’ didn’t align with his.
‘I have terminated employment of several people at Deciem who do not subscribe to my peaceful values,’ he told the website in an email before referring to his investor Estee Lauder.
‘I have also cc’d Estee Lauder’s management on here. I hope you’re well and smiling.’
Kaplan previously told Racked about Deciem, whose tag line is, rather aptly, ‘The abnormal beauty company’: ‘We definitely have grown too quickly, there’s no question, and that’s part of why I was brought on.’
Break: Kilner (left) did not disclose the reason for her departure, and did not specify whether she had resigned or been fired. Truaxe (right) said he terminated several people’s employment
Take-off: Deciem, created in 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, currently has nine brands under its control, including The Ordinary (pictured), and counts Estee Lauder among its investors
Deciem’s descent into social media mayhem started on January 24, when Brandon posted a video of himself announcing he had ‘cancelled all of [Deciem’s] marketing plans’ because ‘marketing is simply a way to try to convince people to buy what they don’t want or don’t need’.
He then explained he would communicate directly with the brand’s followers on its social media channels.
The post came a week after Deciem shared a message saying ‘someone we don’t know wrote that Deciem is just another marketing company at the end’, adding: ‘It really hurt to read it.’
After taking over the company’s Instagram account, which currently has 342,000 followers, Truaxe started sharing a series of bizarre posts including behind-the-scenes information about the company, at one point apologizing to one of its competitors, Tiffany Masterson, the creator of skincare company Drunk Elephant.
Drunk Elephant and The Ordinary both sell marula oil, but at different prices, and The Ordinary once appeared to take a jab at Drunk Elephant by writing that ‘one would have to be drunk to overpay for marula oil’.
The sentence, Truaxe said on Instagram, was ‘a distasteful joke that arose from [his] familiarity with the beautiful brand’.
He told Masterson in the public update: ‘I’m sorry. When I met you at the WWD breakfast, I saw a beautiful soul. And you have worked hard to build a beautiful brand. Please forgive me.’
Truaxe then shared more updates about Deciem and its products, before things once again took a turn for the bizarre.
Earlier this month, on February 4, he posted seven photos and videos of piles of trash with the exact same caption.
In the message, he pledged to stop using plastic in Deciem’s shopping bags, foundation bottles, and droppers—which could have been a standard update if not for several details, including the fact that it was posted several times in a row.
Truaxe also appeared to address members of the company directly in his public post, writing: ‘Alessandro and Hajar, please tell our suppliers that this plan will complete by end of 2018. Peter of Mong Packaging, I’m sorry that we won’t use plastic any more.
‘You’re such a good person. I’ll sponsor you and your family to come to Canada if you want and you can work at DECIEM. Alan of Idealpak, this direction means more business for you.’
He apparently expected people to be surprised by his multiple identical updates, adding: ‘Sorry everyone that I’ll repeat this note several times today with different videos. I love you, Brandon. (It’s sunny here.)’
On the same day, Truaxe posted a photo of a man posing on the street dressed in athleisure, sunglasses and a hat, writing in the caption: ‘Riad is our factory manager. His family adopted me when I needed help. His brothers Hashim and Faras run our US e-commerce. His other brother Ammar sells our products in Iraq, where they’re from. His youngest brother Omar is coming to Canada to join Deciem.’
Truaxe then addressed two specific people while offering more information about his romantic status and personal life.
‘Astrid and@diafoley, Riad is not my boyfriend (I’m not gay),’ he wrote. ‘He’s my brother and I love him (and his beautiful mother who’s my mother). Because of Estee Lauder’s investment, I have been able to give the family a gift of $500,000 in January. They’re building a home. And Riad is now travelling the world with me until March. I love you, Riad. Astrid, see you in Amsterdam to build my baby, Avestan. Our baby, Avestan.’
Also on February 4, Truaxe shared an emotional post about a soap that was given to him by ‘a gentle old man’ while he was traveling in Fes, Morocco.
‘I almost walked past it,’ he wrote about the soap, ‘because being in the beauty business can sometimes blind me from seeing real beauty’.
The next day, Truaxe indicated he had received some negative feedback as the result of his intense day of Instagram posting, but he didn’t appear too concerned.
‘Hi 🙂 I had the best time yesterday posting about my day. Many of you love what I did. But a few of you disliked it, criticized it and even unfollowed us. I won’t argue with you,’ he wrote. ‘I’ll listen to you and build a social content management team. We don’t have such a team because our social content has always been my doing but it was too curated for no reason until recently.’
Rude: When someone tagged Estee Lauder asking the brand to step in, Truaxe replied from Deciem’s account: ‘Bye bye. You don’t even know which @esteelaudercompanies to tag’
Strange: Another person tagged Estee Lauder and Sephora, which sells Deciem’s products, prompting Truaxe to reply by once again sending out personal messages in a public update
Not getting through to him: One Instagram user tried to talk some sense into Truaxe, but he responded simply with the sentence: ‘You need more followers’ and a kissy-face emoji
Messages: Earlier this month, on February 4, Truaxe posted seven photos and videos of piles of trash with the exact same caption
Things took another turn for the worse in the weekend of February 10 to February 11.
Truaxe shared a video of himself addressing Deciem’s followers, criticizing some of them for being ‘disrespectful’ and calling the company’s account his property.
He also announced that he would delete ‘any negative comments unless it’s constructive and useful criticism’.
Around the same time, Deciem left a few disparaging comments on its own Instagram page, responding to public messages that attempted to alert Deciem’s partners to Truaxe’s behavior, or asked the company to hire a proper social media team.
When someone tagged Estee Lauder asking the brand to step in, Truaxe replied from Deciem’s account: ‘Bye bye. You don’t even know which @esteelaudercompanies to tag and you don’t realize they don’t control our company. And they won’t agree with your stupid post. Brandon.’
Another person tagged Estee Lauder and Sephora, which sells Deciem’s products, prompting Truaxe to reply by once again sending out personal messages in a public update, The Cut noted at the time.
‘Hi @esteelaudercompanies and @sephora,’ he wrote. ‘Sorry that miserable people keep tagging you because they wrongly think you control @Deciem. I love you. Say hi to Leonard, Fabrizio, Andrew, Shana, Lori, Arastoo. Artemis and Sam and Priya of Sephora: hi. Can’t wait to launch Watercolors soon! @atavakoli when is the engagement?’
One Instagram user tried to talk some sense into Truaxe, telling him: ‘Please hire a social media team and pass over control of this account because it seems every time you post you just dig yourself and your company into a deeper hole.’
Truaxe responded simply with the sentence: ‘You need more followers’ and a kissy-face emoji.
The day after posting the video in which he called Instagram users ‘disrespectful’, Truaxe shared a new update insisting ‘everything is OK’, adding: ‘I’m peaceful and will do all that needs to be done to make Deciem stronger.’
Meanwhile, former employees of the company have been leaving scathing reviews on Glassdoor, describing Deciem as an ‘unprofessional’, ‘sexist’, and overall discriminatory, ‘toxic’ environment.
‘Every negative comment on here is true and I experienced it for myself,’ one former worker wrote. ‘I find it ironic how it’s a beauty company and its’ management is completely sexist and demeaning towards women.’
Questionable: Things took another turn for the worse in the weekend of February 10 to February 11. Truaxe shared a video of himself criticizing people for being ‘disrespectful’
What’s in a name? Deciem’s tagline, rather aplty, reads: ‘The abnormal beauty company’
Painful: Kilner (pictured with Truaxe in an archive shot) said she was ‘too hearbroken’ to discuss her departure from Deciem at the moment
Asked about the company’s pros, another person wrote: ‘There are not many that come to mind’. They deemed their experience with the company as ‘bad’ from start to finish.
Some reviews focused specifically on Truaxe.
‘Every single review on here that describes the atrocious actions of the CEO are true,’ someone wrote. ‘And you will notice that as soon as the truth is written in a review which highlights the shocking behavior of the CEO four positive reviews are posted almost instantly. He is a bully and nothing more.
‘He spend his day discriminating people of color, female employees and anyone he basically decides he does not like. He screams and belittle’s employees on a daily basis. I have seen him completely break people down with his screaming and bullying.’
Another person, who deemed their experience with Deciem to be the ‘worst’ of their ‘entire life’, wrote: ‘Animals in the zoo are treated better. No respect for employees. Expected to work morning until night. CEO communicates to his staff by using aggressive and discriminatory language to get the job done and outrageous profanities and you must be thin or you will be called fat on a daily basis. I really feel so sorry for the people still working there.’
Someone else deemed the company to be a ‘toxic work environment’ and added: ‘Owner yells, screams , throws fits. Gossips about prior employees in a demeaning manner. Expects employees to laugh along with his child like behavior, if you don’t your gone. Tends to hire employees with temporary work visas since he can get them for minimum wage. Don’t apply if you are Canadian-born, over 40 or married.’