What Beauty's Biggest Copycat Moment Tells Us About Hiring in Beauty

30.09.26

The Moment

If you've been anywhere near beauty social media this month, you'll have seen it. Within the space of five days, three of the industry's biggest names, Fenty Skin, Glow Recipe and Huda Beauty, all teased under-eye patches dispensed from the exact same kind of twist-and-slice container.

Fenty Skin went first on 17 September with its Dew N Plump Fresh-Sliced Hydrogel Eye Patches. The next day, Glow Recipe's Exopeptide Caffeine Brighten & Depuff Fresh Slices Eye Mask turned up looking remarkably similar. By 22 September, creators were posting footage of an unreleased Huda Beauty product using the same mechanism. Naturally, the internet asked the obvious question: who copied who?

The honest answer is more interesting than a simple copycat story. South Korean brand Wonder Bath had already been using a version of this slicing format since July, so none of the three brands technically invented it. Some reporting points to a shared third-party packaging supplier as the likely explanation, though that hasn't been confirmed by any of the brands involved.

Why This Matters Beyond the Drama

This is a useful reminder of something we talk about often at Refyne: the pace of innovation in this industry rarely lives inside one brand's walls. A lot of the genuinely novel packaging, mechanisms and delivery systems that reach consumers first pass through a small pool of specialist manufacturers and suppliers, the same ones multiple brands are quietly working with at once. That's not a scandal, it's how a fast-moving, trend-driven category actually operates.

It also says something about the calibre of talent these brands need behind the scenes. Spotting a manufacturing innovation early, moving fast enough to bring it to market, and then having the instinct to turn an awkward coincidence into a viral moment rather than a PR crisis, that takes sharp NPD, supply chain and brand marketing teams working in genuine lockstep.

What This Means If You're Hiring or Job Hunting

For employers, "Eye Patch Gate" is a reminder to look for NPD and supply chain talent who can spot and secure manufacturing advantages early, not just react to what a competitor has already launched. The brands that came out of this looking good weren't necessarily first, they were simply the most prepared.

For candidates, it's worth being able to speak to moments like this directly in interview: how would you have handled it, and what would you have done differently to protect the brand's advantage?

At We Are Refyne, this is exactly the kind of hire we spend our time thinking about, matching genuine industry expertise with the businesses that need it most. If you're planning a senior appointment, we'd love to talk.