Christian beauty influencer Amanda Ensing in the midst of a cancel culture war with one of the biggest personal care and beauty retailers in the country: Sephora. With an audience of over 1.4 million on Instagram and YouTube, Ensing filed a lawsuit against Sephora and its chief marketing officer Deborah Yeh for defamation.
The lawsuit comes after the retailer stopped working with her when they found out about her statements on social media regarding the riot at Capitol Hill. Ensing is an outspoken Christian who embraces conservative values and openly shows her support for former President Donald Trump.
According to Insider, Ensing accused Sephora of "[making] false and defamatory statements," thereby exposing her to "public hatred, ridicule, and contempt." The lawsuit also says Yeh made "false and defamatory statements" about Ensing in an email sent to Sephora employees.
The Christian beauty influencer took to Instagram on Friday to share a photo of her complaint against the company, writing, "This is for every conservative who's been discriminated against for their views."
Ensing's Twitter posts in January read, "There's not enough popcorn in the world for what's about to happen." The Christian beauty influencer also wrote in her now-suspended Twitter account, "The left: I hate it here. America is embarrassing. Only we can riot & loot. Defund the police. Just do what the government tells you & don't ask questions. The right: Let's fight for freedom. We love the USA. Defend the Constitution. We support our Military & Law enforcement."
Ensing, who has a major in political science in college, defended her statements saying that she was merely indicating that "corruption [is] about to be revealed in our government." However, some followers did not take her statements lightly especially with the riot on Capitol Hill.
Beauty fans began to ask Sephora about their partnership with the Christian beauty influencer, to which Sephora responded that Ensing's messages were "not aligned with Sephora's values around inclusivity" and that they decided to "cease all programming with Amanda and will not be engaging her for future partnerships."
WND reported how Ensing explained that Sephora "dropped me saying that I didn't fit in with their values of inclusivity." She accused them of "[spreading] defamatory statements" not only on their social media platform but also within the company. The Christian beauty influencer said she received an internal Sephora memo written by Yeh from a whistleblower, which speaks about the Christian beauty influencer in a bad light.
"If you've ever witnessed or experienced cancel culture, you know it can ruin people's lives," Ensing said. "With what Sephora did to me, it not only resulted in a loss of my primary source of income, but it completely discredited and erased a decade worth of work."
Ensing is now suing Sephora for "committing false light invasion of privacy, interference with economic advantage, and conspiracy for imputing hate speech that's 'contrary to the company's inclusion and diversity policies.'"
The Christian beauty influencer is also seeking "an award of compensatory, special, punitive, and/or treble damages in appropriate amounts to be established at trial" and "further relief as the Court may deem just and proper."
