Sali Hughes #14 Went to the pub during a pandemic, for real! Never mind, feel as you feel

[Handmaid]

re 'broken':

Sali, it is the easiest thing in the world to dismiss people who disagree with you or question your integrity as 'broken'. But maybe those of us you dismiss as 'a bunch of broken people' are the ones who listen, who pay attention, are sensitive enough to pick up on when we are being sold and told half-truths and are strong enough to voice it when we smell the bullshit. In fact, the opposite of broken, I'd venture to say.

It's also easy to dismiss all of Tattlelife as a 'cesspit'. I don't know about the other threads. However, before I'd even read or wrote anything on here, I questioned some things from you which didn't seem right to me on your Insta ( in a polite way ) and you totally closed me down/blocked me, had your bluetick mates block me too. I suspect if I'd sent you a personal letter outlining my concerns and questions with what didn't sit right, equally as polite, the outcome would have been the same: blocked and dismissed as 'broken' and 'scum'.

So as much as it's where you direct your anger, it's not really about Tattlelife at all. It's just about anyone who has the wherewithal to speak up.

You live in a world where you cannot seem to tolerate anyone asking you anything anymore-all of the short, snide and curt responses speak of that.

Who's the broken one?

 

[Originalnuttah]

Hello skidders, long time no speak. I have followed this thread as much as I could during this seismic time we are all live in. Trying to not put a blame where it’s not needed or necessary, I am still very much wondering why BB changed their line of priorities. Surely in the current situation where lots of people’s lives have been massively affected not only from the fear of getting infected, but loss of jobs and income. There are more people then ever in this country living in poverty and having to rely on benefits and food banks for survival! BB, if anything, should be bang on in their element to stick to their original mission to support those in danger of hygiene poverty.

As someone who works for the NHS, I find the fetishising of what’s effectively a stretched to the max healthcare resulting from years and years of gov cuts and neglect, kind of insulting. Front line staff need proper PPE, good level of support at work to allow them to do their jobs in the safest possible way. Not hand creams or else ‘treats’. When you try to balance the new demands of your job with your and your family’s physical safety, believe me, a hand cream (nice as it is) is not a priority. Also at least I have a job that allows me to afford the fucking hand cream.

I am also taken aback by the SH’s referrals to serious mental health issues. It is just so inflammatory and unnecessary in the current anxious climate we live in. I would urge anyone to get the support they need if their mental health is this negatively affected. Stay safe, everyone!

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Someone who lives in a HUGE four story, double-frontage house in north London with a massive garden writes a “lockdown is easy” article whilst thinking the rules don’t apply to them? No shit. Fuck off Caitlin.

 

[DCICassieStuart]

Sali's mate Marian Keyes is doing a foundation poll on her insta stories, asking which looks better. Burberry, Pat McGrath, Armani, and referring to Estee Lauder as 'new hydratey foundation'.

Maybe it's just me but I just feel that when people are losing their jobs, struggling to find food in supermarkets and worrying about how they're going to pay for it, that someone doing a story on which outrageously expensive foundation is better just doesn't seem right.

 

[Satisfying Click]

Yep, the fetishisation of the health service is very strange - behind the scenes there are people without PPE and being made to work in unsafe conditions. Clapping and donating a box of Elemis isn't going to address the real fears of the people in the thick of it or hold accountable those who contributed to the poor working conditions.

 

[SqualorVictoria]

re 'broken':

Sali, it is the easiest thing in the world to dismiss people who disagree with you or question your integrity as 'broken'. But maybe those of us you dismiss as 'a bunch of broken people' are the ones who listen, who pay attention, are sensitive enough to pick up on when we are being sold and told half-truths and are strong enough to voice it when we smell the bullshit. In fact, the opposite of broken, I'd venture to say.

It's also easy to dismiss all of Tattlelife as a 'cesspit'. I don't know about the other threads. However, before I'd even read or wrote anything on here, I questioned some things from you which didn't seem right to me on your Insta ( in a polite way ) and you totally closed me down/blocked me, had your bluetick mates block me too. I suspect if I'd sent you a personal letter outlining my concerns and questions with what didn't sit right, equally as polite, the outcome would have been the same: blocked and dismissed as 'broken' and 'scum'.

So as much as it's where you direct your anger, it's not really about Tattlelife at all. It's just about anyone who has the wherewithal to speak up.

You live in a world where you cannot seem to tolerate anyone asking you anything anymore-all of the short, snide and curt responses speak of that.

Who's the broken one?

For the longest time, Sali had pretty much the unwavering devotion of many. A Facebook group in her name, and then a forum, many dedicated fans who referred to themselves as "Salinistas", those who wore red lipstick even though they didn't like it because Sali told them it suited every woman. The guarantee that by writing about a product she wrote about would cause a mass stampede and be sold out about an hour after the column had been live. Readers who showed up at events. Those who loyally bought her books


Sure there were detractors, but they were below the line commentators and easily dismissed as trolls, the almost ridiculous "my granny did nothing with her skin, smoked 70 cigarettes a day and barely had a wrinkle". They just added further fuel to Sali's manifesto that makeup and skincare is a feminist tool and she would write a thinkpiece on makeup or red lipstick.

The moment it all started to unravel was when the critical comments came from within the camp, so to speak. Her long term readers who had loyally purchased books, read all the columns, turned up to events, purchased products in blind faith even when in hindsight, we had frequently been sold a pig in a poke.

Instead of listening to feedback from these long term readers, they were instantly put into the same category as the Guardian below the line commenters who expressed distaste of any beauty endeavours. Despite the fact that the comments from her long term readers mostly stemmed from frustration or feeling duped, disliking the secrecy around injectables whilst shilling skincare, or the language used ("weak dilute" or "I'm not there yet"), they were lumped with the "trolls". Why make it hard on yourself and do some critical analysis I guess. Far easier to point fingers and call people "broken" or "mental" or whatever than it is to look at oneself honestly.

 

[SqualorVictoria]

 

[Touchstone]

Evening all, long-time lurker (same story as most here, i.e. used to think very highly of SH and was disappointed by the Botox deceit - don’t want to even consider how much I spent on products she recommended).

Just wanted to say that a friend of mine works for Hygiene Banks and is very (but gently, kindly) weary of the Beauty Banks celebrity/monopoly. Hygiene Banks is working with the absolute destitute and I know from the parcels I see being made in my friend’s front room that it’s all about utter basics. They wouldn’t really know what to do with ‘spendy’ products or £100 foundations.

Room for all, of course, but Hygiene Banks are probably more Salvation Army-style (religion aside) than Beauty Banks.

I’ll go back to lurking now! Stay safe everyone.

 

[bottlewrapper]

I could get behind the aims of beauty banks when it was about giving homeless people deodorant and toothpaste, or providing poor teenage girls with tampons and towels.

I'm afraid I can't muster much enthusiasm for its new aims of giving employed people luxury toiletries that I can't afford myself.

She's upholding that horrible Victorian notion of the deserving and undeserving poor. Notice she makes a point of telling us that the 'good' toiletries only go to the 'good' people - no handing the luxury stuff to homeless addicts because what would they do with it? I hate that attitude.

 

[Mselvista]

Here comes another dose of that old Sali charm.

I actually agree with SH on this. Women (and men) who have decorative tat in their homes declaring their beverage of choice *are* reductive twats.

 

[GrunkaLunka]

I have a close family member working on the front line for the NHS at the moment. I think if Sali delivered some luxury products to her ward they would be absolutely baffled as to what good it was supposed to do. They are all in a constant state of shock, battle scarred, not sleeping or eating, not having any kind of life. My relative has been a shell since this got bad, and I know her colleagues are the same.
They don't want a face serum, or some vitamin c capsules. A pampering session (cringe) is an insult to them.
Sorry, that was more of a rant than I meant it to be but I'm finding this irritating.
Beauty Banks was supposed to be helping those in poverty. Go and fish for your nod from the Queen somewhere else Sali, and stop insulting the people putting their lives on the line every day.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Sali’s strapline for BB should be “just like The Hygiene Bank but about me”

 

[AmberSpyglass]

Morning all, just had a nosey seeing as she’d jumped into Jack Monroe’s tattle rage to fan the flames.

Saw this and the response was a bit “hey it’s not that bad Sali”

 

[lipsticktaser]

I don’t care what they wear. I don’t care what they weigh. I don’t care if they wear make up in lockdown or am going au natural (but help from fillers and micro blading)

I do care about being conned into thinking it’s easy and attainable. it’s not.

As the old adage goes ‘Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s press treatments’.

 

[AdoraDelano]

Looks like one of her pals can't follow lockdown either.

 

[Mokie]

Morale boost? I’m sure most NHS workers just want adequate PPE and a rest from work. Is anyone really arsed about skincare/make-up at the minute?

 

[ZLT123]

Good morning, this isn’t technically a post about Sali but I got myself all in a rage last night and need somewhere to vent...!!

Was while watching Nadine baggotts stories about all the products she is donating to beauty banks, and wow how my eyes were open to just how much these influencers and bloggers get sent...!! Bags and bags full of various cleansers, acids, moisturisers, everything you can think of!

Yes while it’s great they’re all donating all this, but it’s no skin off their nose is it really giving away items they’ve been sent for free in the first place?! Yes the whole community is orgasming over it and giving them hero status!? Surely all the stuff they get sent should be donated the rest of the year aswell since they obviously don’t need it!? You’d think by how everyone is reacting that they’d walked over hot coals for a starving African child... but oh no, just given away shit they got for free, how bloody
Noble of them.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Oh FFS. It’s because it’s the LAW you megalomaniac.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Tbf The Hygiene Bank is 'a grass roots, people powered movement' where Beauty Banks are 'a people powered, grass roots movement'. Completely different.

 

[Aude]

Sarah Cawood is indeed, very nice, but “Cawood is good people” is a cringey way to put it.

So a pair of tights is 'a tight', lips are 'a lip' but a person is 'people'.