This was a banner year for beauty. There were jaw-dropping celeb makeovers, budget-friendly DIYs we'll be making use of long into 2016, and several game-changing product launches. Then, there were the not-so-great moments: cultural appropriation, social-media challenges gone wrong, and so many negative discussions around hair.On top of all that, you could consider 2015 the year of the gross beauty treatment. Between semen facials, urine as an acne treatment, and the origin of the latest anti-aging ingredient (you won't believe it; see slide 21 for the jaw-dropping story), it’s safe to say some peeps took it a little too far in the name of beauty.
Ahead, we’ve rounded up the gross, the outrageous, the infuriating, and the just plain weird for a look back at 2015 you haven’t seen anywhere else. Dear 2016, you couldn't come fast enough...
Moment #1: Parents Are Mad As Hell About This Kids' Toy
Ah, the horror that is Bunchems. Imagine giving a child in your life a toy designed to stimulate the engineering parts of their developing brain — Bunchems is a building toy, similar to Legos, only soft and squishy — only to have it rip out their hair. Little did consumers know, these little balls quickly tangle in hair (of moms, kids, pets, innocent bystanders — you name it) and do not want to come out. Bald spots, hours of frustration, haircuts — the angry reviews say it all.
Moment #2: The Scariest Hair-Cutting Method We've Seen
We like to consider ourselves experts on the latest hair-cutting techniques and trends, but we did not see this one coming. There’s a real-life Edward Scissorhands in Spain, but his passion isn’t lawn sculptures. Madrid-based stylist Alberto Olmedo uses swords (yes, swords!) to cut his clients' hair in a similar fashion to the Johnny Depp character he's been compared to in the media. If you watch the video in the link above, you'll see that it's both fascinating and terrifying.
Moment #3: 8th-Grader Sent To The Principal's Office For Her Natural Hair
Get ready to get pissed, because a 13-year-old in Toronto was allegedly sent to the principal's office after wearing her natural curls to school (she normally wears braids), prompting administrators to force her to "do something about her hair," says the student's aunt. She was given a hair elastic and told if she returned to school with her hair "too poofy” again she would be removed from class.
Moment #4: Semen Facials
Ask anyone well-versed in dirty jokes and you’ll realize there is a second meaning to the word facial. The two (that is, the one that takes place at a spa, and the one that normally happens after hours at home) intersected this year, thanks to a beauty blogger who made the claim that semen is actually good for your skin. (She calls it "man moisturizer," for the record.) Not to worry, we checked with an actual derm, and what she said may surprise you...
Moment #5: Salon Owner Arrested For Bigoted Facebook Posts After Paris Attacks
The devastating attacks in Paris spurred a lot of emotions online — fear, anger, sadness — but a British salon owner provoked a special kind of wrath from the internet. "Blinks of Bicester are no longer taking bookings from anyone from the Islamic faith whether you are UK granted with passport or not," the 43-year-old allegedly wrote on the company's Facebook page, which has since been deleted. "Sorry but time to put my country first." We don't have to tell you why this is a saddening and infuriating display of displaced emotion. Sigh.
Moment #6: Clip-In Man Buns
Just when we thought man buns were officially on the way out, odd internet news broke that proved the trend still had legs. Get ready for it: Groupon was actually selling clip-in man buns. (Let that sink in for a moment.) There isn't much to say besides: Who the hell is buying these?!
Moment #7: Girl Kicked Off Cheerleading Squad For Not Straightening Her Hair
In "Are you kidding me?" news of last month, an 11-year-old Texas girl was kicked off her cheerleading team for refusing to straighten her naturally curly hair for competitions. Not only does this send a terrible message to young girls about beauty standards, but it’s a perfect example of modern-day bigotry, as the coach later went on to tell a local news station it was less about her hair and more about her attitude. Uh, okay. We hope the cheerleader found a better team with a reasonable coach who understands the beauty of our differences, hair being just one of them.
Moment #8: Actress Has Her Face X-Rayed To Prove She Didn't Have Plastic Surgery
It’s no secret that celebrities are under constant scrutiny for their looks, but the length Chinese actress and model Yeung Wing had to go to defend herself in court may be even worse than the stories gossip rags print. While suing a Beijing clinic for defamation — it alleged she had plastic surgery — a judge had her undergo a series of X-ray scans and physical examinations (including a doctor prodding her face) before finally ruling that she had not, in fact, had surgery. We can’t decide what’s worse: forcing someone to undergo tests in court or the clinic that lied in the first place.
Moment #9: People Are Not Happy About This Nail Polish
Imagine having an adverse reaction to nail polish that includes redness, burning, or even onycholysis, the separation of the nail from the nail bed. Did that just send a shiver down your spine? Ours, too. Well, that’s what consumers alleged about a batch of Mentality nail polish back in August, but what’s worse is how the company handled it: In short, it refused to take accountability, and the owner even used Facebook to complain about the high price of cosmetic testing, leading us all to believe that it hadn't even tested its formula before sending it to market.
Moment #10: The Internet Is Unhappy With This Allure Spread
We doubt that Allure anticipated the backlash that would come as a result of a story in its August issue titled "You (Yes, You) Can Have An Afro." The biggest problem? The magazine didn’t use a woman of color as the model, which prompted an avalanche of outrage on social media. Not only did Allure miss an opportunity to show an African-American woman embracing her natural texture, but this is a classic case of cultural appropriation; the correct term for the 'do shown should have been "twist-out," as one Twitter user noted.
Moment #11: The "You Look Disgusting" Video
Thanks to the anonymity of the internet, online commenters like to think they can say whatever hurtful things pop into their minds — things they would never say IRL. Vlogger Em Ford's "You Look Disgusting" video aims to shed light on this problem.
Moment #12: The Controversy Surrounding Kylie's Infamous Lip Kit
Just days after Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kit Instagram page was created, an image popped up that got her in hot water. The shot was a beauty editorial of a rose-gold lip color, which prompted suspicion that it would be the next shade to hit shelves (Kylie has hinted that would be in February). The only problem? It was screen-grabbed from makeup artist Vlada Haggerty's account without so much as a credit. Outrage ensued and the post was credited, before eventually being deleted from the Lip Kit account. Read what Haggerty said to us about it here.
Moment #13: Why Calling This Hairstyle "Twisted Mini-Buns" Is Offensive
In yet another case of cultural appropriation, hair blog Mane Addicts put up a post about the "twisted mini-bun" hairstyle seen on models at the Marc by Marc Jacobs spring 2015 show. The problem? The style originated in Africa, has been worn by women of color for centuries, and goes by the name "Bantu knots." After some warranted internet anger, the post was eventually taken down.
Moment #14: The Urine Facial
Now, we've really heard everything: People are actually using urine to help clear their acne and achieve smoother skin. We talked to a dermatologist, and believe it or not, urine does have skin benefits, as its main ingredient (after water) is urea, which is a natural exfoliant. However, there are other...more common liquids that are even more effective at treating acne, like green tea or apple-cider vinegar. So please, just say no.
Moment #15: Blackface At Milan Fashion Week
During Milan Fashion Week's fall 2015 presentations, designer Claudio Cutugno sent models down the runway with their faces painted black, then sprinkled with glitter. We're thinking what you're thinking: Who would ever think this is a good idea?! As we reported, the designer was supposedly inspired by the artist Emilio Isgrò, who creates art with bees. The paint was meant to represent models being swarmed by insects. Obviously, this was in incredibly poor taste, but the real question: Why did no one backstage speak up?
Moment #16: Donald Trump Thinks Hillary Clinton Is Wearing A Wig
In news that's shocking to no one, Donald Trump went on a rant about Hillary Clinton's hair last month. "Is that a wig?" he asked during a radio-show interview. "It was massive. Her hair became massive."
Luckily, another candidate responded so perfectly, we don’t have to add anything else: "We have millions of people who are struggling to keep their heads above water, who want to know what candidates can do to improve their lives, and the media will very often spend more time worrying about hair than the fact that we’re the only major country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people,” Bernie Sanders told The New York Times. Slow clap.
Moment #17: Giuliana Rancic's Tone-Deaf Comments About Zendaya's Hair
Back in February, Fashion Police host Giuliana Rancic commented on the dreadlocks Zendaya wore on the Oscars red carpet, saying that they make her look like she "smells like patchouli oil. Or, weed." Zendaya took to Instagram to respond to the tone-deaf comments, stating: "There is already harsh criticism of African-American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair. My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough." Rancic later apologized.
Moment #18: People Freaking Out About The First Lady's Hair
A few facts: Michelle Obama is an established lawyer, a public servant, and our first lady. So why did the internet explode about her hair, of all things, when she went on Jeopardy to help raise awareness around healthy eating and fighting childhood obesity through her program Let's Move? Yeah, we don't know either. Let's focus on what matters, people.
Moment #19: Kat Von D & THAT Lipstick
Sometimes the internet just loves to get pissed off. Take, for example, the name of Kat Von D’s fiery-red lipstick, "Underage Red." Hordes of people flipped out when Sephora stocked the shade last March, claiming it was promoting rape culture or was just plain creepy. In an era when many brands would pull the color from the shelves, Von D stood by the name and defended her decision, saying that the lipstick was named after her feelings about being turned away from her first punk-rock show while wearing a similar red lipstick. "NO. I will not be pulling 'Underage Red' from my collection. And, NO. This is not an apology," she wrote.
Moment #20: Moms Are Mad As Hell At Lego
In 2015 the world is still full of gender stereotypes, even when it comes to children. Lego launched a few "girl-centric" products with good intentions this year, but the toys lost any traction when an article came out in TheNew York Times. The op-ed was in reaction to an issue of Lego Club magazine that featured an article instructing the juvenile readers to only consider haircuts that would correct the flaws associated with their face shapes. What does it say when a company is telling 7-year-olds they need to change their hair to complement their faces? That Lego missed the mark, clearly.
Moment #21: CTFG
The world of gross beauty treatments may have gotten a new poster ingredient this year, by way of a "miracle" anti-aging treatment from HydraFacial called CTFG, which uses fibroblasts from the foreskins of human babies to help resurface your skin and make you glow. Before you totally freak, note that nothing inhumane is happening — check out the article link above for the full details — but it still begs one question: Have we gone too far in the pursuit of new anti-aging ingredients?
Moment #22: Valentino's "Africa-Inspired" Show
Did we mention that this was a year rife with cases of cultural appropriation? Twitter exploded after Valentino's spring 2016 show featured mostly white models walking the runway, sporting cornrows for a collection that was inspired by Africa. Sigh with us now. Click here for some of the outrage that went down online.
Moment #23: The Scary Truth About Product Safety
Lime Crime’s best-selling Velvetines liquid matte lip stains were near cult-classic status, but then someone realized that the ingredients list featured a few outlawed ones, and we all got nervous. While it turns out it was just a labeling issue, this brought to light the even scarier issues surrounding one big question: Who’s monitoring the safety of ingredients in our cosmetics? Read the whole story for the chilling truth about the state of cosmetics safety in the U.S.
Moment #24: The Vagina Facial
In "we didn't see this coming" beauty trends from January: the DIY vaginal facial. The origin? In an effort to come up with an at-home solution to treat the signs of aging on her own vulva (was that as weird for you to read as it was for us to write?), Lisa Palmer created a DIY vaginal-facial recipe using household ingredients like coconut oil, honey, and egg whites. While it’s probably best to consult your gynecologist before applying a mixture containing raw eggs to your lady parts, we suppose there’s nothing wrong with the idea. Although, here's a thought: Why not just love your vulva the way it is?
Moment #25: The #DontJudgeChallenge
Social-media challenges are a dime a dozen, but one in particular struck a chord this year: the #DontJudgeChallenge. Basically, it involved teens around the world posting videos of themselves getting "ugly," which apparently means drawing acne and unibrows on their faces, donning glasses, messing up their hair, and taking on other "unattractive" traits. Then, they transformed into their more "attractive"— i.e., totally made up — selves. While the intent was to challenge each other to embrace perceived flaws, it quickly turned into a game of insults.
Moment #26: The White-Girl Bindi
The bindi is a traditional adornment that has been worn by Hindu women for centuries. While certainly not the first time it's been worn in pop culture — Gwen Stefani did it for years back in her TragicKingdom period — the trend of non-Hindu women wearing them as accessories sparked internet attention this year. Some were mad and some defended it, but it seemed that everyone had an opinion. We're curious: What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.
Moment #27: 2 Teachers Allegedly Removed Students' Makeup By Force
In "Well, that could have been handled better" news from this month, two high school students in Cairns, Australia, were allegedly punished for breaking the school’s no-makeup policy in a truly over-the-top way. The Cairns Post reports that the students were forced to stand in front of the class while two teachers forcibly removed their makeup, even using their fingers to scrap off any residue. Can somebody send those teachers to the principal's office, please?
Moment #28: Bubble Nails
Ah, bubble nails — the oddest nail trend of the year. While we take a "to each their own" stance when it comes to beauty trends, this one had us a bit perplexed. Created by using a ball of acrylic as the base, then molded into the shape of a dome, it's definitely a...distinctive manicure.
Moment #29: Microbeads
The ongoing issue of whether we should finally ban microbeads, those tiny little balls still found in some exfoliating products, may finally have a resolution. To put this issue into context: It’s estimated that there are between 1,500 and 1.1 million microbeads per square mile in the Great Lakes, which kill fish and contaminate our food supply. A bill was finally introduced in the U.S. Senate that would eliminate plastic microbeads for good. It was passed this week, and is now headed to President Obama's desk.
Moment #30: The Wen Hair-Loss Controversy
Unless you were living under a rock this week, you probably heard all about the allegations against Wen’s co-washing hair products, which included hair loss, breakage, rashes, and more. The information floating around is a bit spotty, so we talked to a few experts to get to the bottom of the controversy. Check out our in-depth article here.
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