Picture this: Johannesburg, Mall of Africa, a throng of eager beauty enthusiasts buzzing with excitement. Hailey Bieber’sskincare brand, Rhode Skin, was making its much-anticipated debut in South Africa—or so we thought. You could almost hear the gentle rustling of Hailey’s Glazed Donut Skin revolution sweeping through the crowd, until, like a beauty filter gone wrong, the dream turned into an all-too-real nightmare.
The pop-up was a glitzy spectacle—shiny packaging, dewy lip glosses, and a sea of influencers streaming live for the ‘official’ launch of Rhode in South Africa. There was only one problem: it wasn’t actually Hailey’s brand at all. It was a fake, a high-fashion con artist in the form of a pop-up shop.
The plot thickens as TikTokers jumped on the bandwagon, exposing the truth like detectives on a beauty case. Misspelled product labels, products that had supposedly been discontinued, and a suspiciously empty store the very next day? Let’s just say the only thing dewy about this was the sweat on the brows of the unsuspecting shoppers.
One creator even returned to the “pop-up” the following day, only to discover the shop had vanished faster than a celebrity’s apology tweet. “That was such a clean scam,” one person commented, while another pointed out, “Rhode Skinwould have announced this, like Rihanna did with Fenty, but nope.” Ouch. Burn.
Mall of Africa, in all its glowing mall glory, wasn’t about to let this slide. They swiftly posted a statement on their Instagram, promising to uphold product integrity and giving their most sincere apology, all while closing the pop-up in the name of transparency and trust. Sounds nice, but I’m not sure that reassures the people who spent money on what they thought were Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin products, only to realize they’d been played like a TikTok trend.
To make matters worse, Rhode Skin’s actual social media presence remains as quiet as a library. No shout-out for South Africa, no promo about any pop-ups, not even a cheeky Instagram story. The real Rhode Skin is busy promoting events in LA, London, and New York, with Hailey herself seemingly living her best life in Paris while Johannesburg was dealing with this scandal.
And so, as the dust settles, we’re left with a sad, shiny reminder of the Rhode less traveled: sometimes, in the world of beauty, things look too good to be true. Maybe next time we’ll remember to check the label… and not just on the lip gloss. Oh, how I wish the girlies had actually bought the fakes, just so they could attempt to make me gloat. They had all these grand plans to hit up the Rhode Skin pop-up at Mall of Africa, ready to flaunt their Hailey Bieber-inspired glow. I only found out when I casually mentioned the scam—you know, the whole “misspelled labels and disappearing store” saga. But, of course, they didn’t end up going. Instead, they spent more time talking about all the social media content they would’ve posted—stuff I definitely would’ve been jealous of—than actually getting duped.
Shame. Looks like they hit the Rhode fast.
