Earlier this week, when Pat McGrath Labs revealed it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy—a way for companies to sort out their debts while staying in business—one person’s response on Twitter cut through the internet’s commiserations about the brand’s financial status: “Pat McGrath products are inaccessible to most Black women, so she’s an oppressive elitist and I’m glad she’s going bankrupt. That’s why Danessa Myricks took her spot.”
From there, a small but loud corner of the Black community piled on, criticizing one of the most successful Black women in beauty history for occupying the luxury space. “To be honest it is too expensive, considering its positioning and the kind of customer it’s hoping to attract. Hence the declining sales. It’s not like Hermès beauty or Carolina Herrera, another user wrote. “Pat McGrath (self) is a legend. But Pat McGrath Labs (company) isn’t established enough to have the same audience range as brands like NARS, MAC, & Too Faced. It’s self sabotage pricing products the same as them when you don’t have that reach yet,” wrote another. One other response reads: “She believed because she did celebrity makeup that her prices had to be stupid expensive out the gate. She came out with high end prices for makeup as a newcomer. You have to crawl before you run.”
For the uninitiated: Pat McGrath, the makeup artist behind the brand (and a Dame of the British Empire, by the way), has painted the faces of people as famous as Naomi Campbell, Taylor Swift, and Gigi Hadid, and she’s revolutionized runway beauty repeatedly; most recently with the viral glass skin she created for John Galliano’s 2024 Maison Margiela Artisanal show.
And she’s being held to an egregious double standard. Generally speaking, luxury brands aren’t expected to be price-accessible because it’s simply not their business model. Victoria Beckham Beauty sells foundation for $100, and La Mer charges upwards of $80 for some for some of its moisturizers. No one calls them oppressive or asks them to lower their prices in solidarity with white women who can’t afford them, but it seems that’s exactly what has been expected of Pat McGrath Labs. (Pat McGrath’s 10-shade Mothership eye shadow palettes retail for around $128, by the way, and her lipsticks range from $29 to $39. That puts her squarely in the same price range as brands like Natasha Denona, Chantecaille, and yes, Danessa Myricks—the very brand some Twitter users hold up as the more “accessible” alternative to Pat McGrath Labs.)
For Black-owned brands of all sorts, “accessibility” has become a test. When a Black person launches a brand, there’s an assumption its products should be cheaper and available to a mass market. Founders, like the late Sharon Chuter of Uoma Beauty, have recalled facing countless questions from their customer bases about their prices. It’s an impossible position for Black leaders in luxury beauty. They’re expected to serve their entire community at price points everyone can afford while succeeding on their own terms.