Amanda Ensing, a YouTube beauty influencer with over one million followers, is claiming that beauty retailer Sephora, pulled out from a contract with her because of her conservative Christian views.
According to Yahoo News, Ensing, who is very open about her conservative political views and Christian faith, has recently come under fire for her support of former President Donald Trump.
Issues began for Ensing after she took to Twitter on Jan. 6, the day of the U.S. Capitol attack, to write:
“The left: I hate it here. America is embarrassing. Only we can riot & loot. Defund the police. Just do what the government tells you & don’t ask questions. The right: Let’s fight for freedom. We love the USA. Defend the Constitution. We support our Military & Law enforcement.
Then, last Friday, Ensing posted a sponsored video titled “10 Sephora Skin-Care Gems You Need In Your Life!!” on her YouTube channel in which she shared her favorite products from Sephora.
Many social media users, however, vowed to boycott Sephora over their partnership with Ensing, as many saw her January 6th tweet as showing support for the deadly Capitol attack. In response to the criticism, Sephora announced that it would cut ties with Ensing.
“Thank you for reaching out and bringing this to our attention,” Sephora wrote to several commenters on Twitter. “We were made aware that Amanda Ensing, an influencer contracted through one of our external vendors’ campaigns, recently shared content on social media that is not aligned with Sephora’s values around inclusivity.”
“As soon as we were informed, we made the decision to cease all programming with Amanda and will not be engaging her for future partnerships,” the statement continued.
Following Sephora’s statement, Ensing’s supporters and conservative beauty fans started using the hashtag #boycottSephora in protest against the company for targeting conservative influencers.
In a statement shared with Insider, a Sephora spokesperson contended that the decision to cut ties with Ensing because of her religious and political views were “inaccurate”. The spokesperson noted that it was in light of her “concerning behavior” on social media.
“Any claim that this decision was made on the basis of political or religious beliefs is inaccurate; we respect each individual’s right to have their own perspectives and freedom of expression,” the statement continued. “However, Sephora reserves the right to terminate any partnership we deem inappropriate for our brand.”
On Saturday, Ensing posted a video on Instagram addressing the situation and asserted that she does not condone violence.
“I’ve never condoned violence, never will,” she said. “I’m first and foremost a Christian, Jesus is my lord and savior. I’m secondly American, and I’m thirdly Latina. I am not racist, I am not homophobic, I am not a white supremacist, I am not part of some violent group,” she asserted.
In a separate video, captioned “Conservatives Aren’t Going Anywhere,” Ensign asserted that she will not be silenced because of her Christian and conservative views. She added that she will be launching her own beauty brand called “Make Makeup Great Again” in 2021.
