The cult beauty brand Deciem suddenly closes all stores including the San Francisco location

The skincare company closed after a puzzling video released by its CEO

By Dianne de Guzman, SFGATE

updated

8:24 pm PDT, Tuesday, October 9, 2018

The beauty brand Deciem suddenly closed several of its stores, following a disjointed video released Monday on social networks by its founder and CEO, reporting a "major criminal activity" in society.

Brandon Truaxe announced that the Toronto-based brand stores would be closed "until further notice, in about two months" in an Instagram video posted on Deciem's ​​official account.

On Tuesday, several media announced that several Deciem stores, both in the United States and abroad, were closed to the public. Calls to the San Francisco site on Grant Avenue went unanswered and the business was classified as permanently closed via Google.

In the video, Truaxe told viewers, "Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in a major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes and many others." You have no idea what I have been a soldier for over 13 years. "

The video's caption mentioned several names associated with the brand, including makeup company Estee Lauder – who had bought a 28% minority stake in the company in June 2017 – and a number of hotel and restaurant brands. clothes, even naming Hollywood actors Ben Affleck. , Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the unintelligible diatribe.

An employee e-mail leaked to Cosmopolitan UK ordered employees to immediately close UK stores, leaving only one branch open and planning to reopen in 2019.

Monday 's video is only the latest in a series of incidents involving Truaxe. However, it may be the first time that all of its stores have been closed since the brand's inception. Previously, Truaxe was under fire after taking over the brand's social networking accounts, posted personal content, chatted with people in comments, traded with other beauty lines and even broke up business partnerships via Instagram .

In addition, according to a survey conducted by the Racked fashion site on the company, former employees described the company as "disorganized" and said they heard management shouting past employees, as well as witnessing "behavior inappropriate "on the part of its leaders, according to the February 2018 article. (In turn, the company denied these allegations and invited the publication to observe its head office in Toronto.)

The favorite cult brand has won many of its customers through one of its affordable line of beauty products, The Ordinary. Kim Kardashian West sees himself as a fan of the company founded in 2013 and owning around 30 stores worldwide. According to Elle, sales of the brand are expected to reach $ 300 million in 2018.

Requests for comments on store closures were not immediately returned by Deciem.

Read the latest news from Dianne de Guzman and send her new tips to [email protected].

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