Conservative vlogger canceled by Sephora for comments on Capitol Hill riot

Amanda Ensing is a pro-Trump, conservative, Christian beauty influencer and vlogger. She is in the news for posts made after the Capitol Hill riot. Following a disagreement with her choice of public opinions, Sephora has severed its ties with her.

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Online activists pushed back on Ensing’s collaboration with Sephora and began talk of a boycott. Ensing has been a vlogger for nine years. She has 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube and Instagram. As an influencer, she also has relationships with a number of brands lining up to get a piece of her followers’ support. After the 2020 presidential election, Ensing posted a video explaining her conservative political views. She told her audience she votes on policy and according to her Christian faith. And, she announced her support for Donald Trump.

On January 6, the day of the Capitol Hill riot, she posted a tweet with her opinion on the political right versus the political left.

https://twitter.com/AmandaEnsing/status/1346915358830194690

https://twitter.com/AmandaEnsing/status/1346941330661003266

So, when Ensing did a Sephora video listing her preferred skincare products, Sephora experienced the wrath of the woke left on social media. Sephora’s response was to cancel its relationship with her. It makes you wonder if she was a Biden voter and announced her support for him after the election, would anyone have said a peep? The vlogging world is full of influencers and content makers from both sides of the political aisle and of those who are not at all interested in politics.

When Ensing did a Sephora video listing her preferred skincare products, outraged comments flooded social media and Sephora got an earful. It didn’t take long for the makeup powerhouse to respond by ending its relationship with the vlogger.

Sephora sent this in response to one comment: “We were made aware that Amanda Ensing, an influencer contracted by 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.”

Ensing says that she was told to take down content endorsing Sephora because of her political and religious views. She claims that they ‘smeared’ her character.

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On Monday, Sephora denied that her contract was pulled because of Ensing’s political or religious beliefs.

“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. However, Sephora reserves the right to terminate any partnership we deem inappropriate for our brand.”

Amanda took Sephora to task for its decision on her Instagram account. That’s how these things play out now. The video is a little over 15 minutes long. She goes into detail about her thoughts on cancel culture and how conservatives often face cancellation while that isn’t the case for liberals.

“I have received more support from ‘we the people’ in the last couple of days than I have in my own industry in the last almost decade,” Ensing said. “What Sephora, brands, influencers, that are not including conservatives … into their story, telling us that we are ‘unworthy,’ or ‘bad people’ because of [our views]. That is not the future.”

All of this kerfuffle produced dueling boycotts against Sephora. Ensing’s supporters encouraged others to boycott Sephora for the perceived censorship and Ensing’s critics encouraged a boycott of Sephora because they worked with her in the first place. That’s the dirty little secret about cancel culture – there are no winners. The goalposts of progressivism and political correctness continue to shift, sometimes from day to day, and it is impossible to keep up. The smallest disagreement can lead to a full-blown tantrum on social media.

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As far as I can tell, Ensing didn’t tweet anything that would incite thoughts of violence from her followers. It’s pretty run-of-the-mill stuff from someone fed up with the status quo in Washington, D.C. Two days after the riot, on January 8, she specifically denounced violence.

https://twitter.com/AmandaEnsing/status/1347611041056911365

It is interesting that this latest feud occurred 23 days after the fact, as this article notes at NewsBusters. Her tweets were labeled as hate speech or in support of violence then, not at the time she tweeted them. It looks like that only after a boycott hashtag emerged that Sephora acted. Probably just a coincidence, right?

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