Jackie Aina and the candle controversy!
Little Miss “Candle lady”?
Jackie Aina is a 35 year old Nigerian-American Beauty YouTuber and the owner of lifestyle brand Forvr Mood, which she launched in July 2020, where she sells candles, skin care products and fragrances.
Her knack for makeup made her discover that most cosmetic brands do not sell makeup for people of color. she took to the media to drag major cosmetics brands on a jumbo scale, she also made videos where she praised the brands that sold darker shades of cosmetics and thanked them for allowing inclusivity.
As expected, she stepped on many toes with her “advocacy” but also got many partnership deals with brands like Sigma Beauty, Too Faced and Anastasia Beverly Hills.
She won YouTuber of the year of 2018 with 3.57 million subscribers and 390 something million views under her belt.
The Owambe Candle Collection
In one way or the other, every Nigerian still bears the scars of the EndSARS massacre that took place on October 20th, 2020. So when Jackie Aina, supposedly one of ours, launched a candle collection called Owambe in celebration of her 34th birthday and named one of the candles Soro Soke, Nigerians were righteously pissed. Soro Soke which means ‘Speak up’ in Yoruba, was a battle chant that was rallied during the EndSars protests of 2020.
For someone who allegedly dragged her feet to post about the #EndSARSmovement, her audacity to name some 30-dollar candle after such a painful experience is jarring.
To put this in more context, imagine someone putting ‘I can’t Breathe’ (from George Floyd’s case) or ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a candle. Well, as deserved, she was dragged on the streets of Twitter. In addition to insensitivity , she and other people of mixed races were accused of being a Nigerian only when it was convenient.
The Apology
She and her Forvr Mood team put out an apology message after the massive outrage. They stated that they had removed the erring candle from the collection.
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