When good brands go bad...

Oh Deciem. Oh Brandon. Just why? To say I'm disappointed by the very public social media actions of Deciem founder Brandon Truaxe and him firing his co-founder and the company CFO is putting it quite mildly. As such, I will not be placing an order from them any time soon. Truthfully, I have enough products to keep me supplied until summer and I'm going to take this opportunity to explore other brands.

Here's the thing, pragmatically speaking, you will be hard pressed to find any brand that is 100% problematic-free. But Brandon's actions are pretty darn extra and I don't feel like throwing my money at someone behaving so badly. To be clear, I don't judge anyone who will continue to order from them: the shame of it all is they make some great products.

At this point I foresee three outcomes:

Brandon continues to run Deciem and either hardcore apologizes or keeps being as he is right now, and it will likely lead in some of his retail partnerships ending
Brandon essentially burns it all down to the ground, no more Deciem.
Deciem is bought out by a bigger brand like Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Coty or Unilever.

Option number 3 is the one I consider the best for all parties, frankly. It's very clear Deciem, especially The Ordinary range, is a very hot property that likely could never quite fulfill the demand it created when it disrupted the skincare industry. Having Deciem bought by a larger brand with the logistics and infrastructure to support the supply to meet demand better would ultimately be a good thing, depending on how you view those larger brands People definitely aren't keen on L'Oreal and Lauder when it comes to animal testing so as always this is all your mileage may vary. But all things being equal, it's also not great having someone behaving like this, now also coupled with the claims of how he treats his employees, running the show.

So what are other options?

For retinol, vitamin C and most of the current popular ingredients, there's always La Roche Posay. It isn't the super budget pricing of The Ordinary, but La Roche Posay is a fairly reliable brand when it comes to quality. Likewise if you don't mind splashing cash there's also Drunk Elephant, Kate Somerville, and First Aid Beauty of the known brands. Even MUJI has some great options for basic moisturizing needs like their sensitive skin line.

And if you really aren't bothered over retinols, vitamin C, and want something a little less scientific, I've always liked the Pixi Skintreats line.

As for lesser known skincare brands, I have a list I'm going to spend time researching on thanks to some Reddit users at r/SkincareAddicts, which includes: Hado Labo, Mad Hippie, Indeed Labs, Skinlex, Skin Actives, Meow Meow Tweet, and Andalou Naturals.

If you know of other good brands or good dupes for The Ordinary range (especially retinoid, retinol, Vitamin C, and Niacinamide) please share in the comments!