Deciem

Brandon Truaxe is the founder and CEO — though he likes to say his official title is “worker” — of Deciem, one of the buzziest skin care companies on the planet right now. When he launched the company, five years ago, it was immediately the talk of the beauty world. At this point, though, the cult of personality that he embodies has overshadowed the skin care company he built to the point that he is no longer in charge of the company he founded. Deciem’s sales have hit $300 million, which is significant for a company best known for its inexpensive products, specifically from its marquee brand, The Ordinary. Kim Kardashian publicly claimed her love of one of the serums, which costs less than $10. Deciem has over 370,000 Instagram followers and a Facebook fan group that is 58,000 strong. Estée Lauder even took a minority stake in the company because of its unique brand proposition and incredible growth. But recently its products and business model have been eclipsed by Truaxe himself. While most CEOs stay safely behind the curtain, Truaxe placed himself into the fray. The unconventional beauty brand founder’s exploits have been followed rabidly by those both interested in incredibly affordable skin care and those who just love messy gossip. As Deciem’s sub-brand the Ordinary gains popularity for its $9 acids, its founder gains notoriety for his incendiary and even offensive Instagram presence. He’s used the platform to insult fans, cancel partnerships, and even posted a photo of an impoverished-looking New Yorker in front of one of the brand’s stores. In a video on Deciem’s Instagram, which has now been deleted, Truaxe said: “This is the final post of Deciem. ... We will shut down all operations until further notice, which will be about two months. Please take me seriously.” The location of the video was tagged as the White House. (It’s not clear that he is actually there, but the likelihood is low. He sometimes uses creative tagging to make points in his posts.) He went on to say, “Almost everyone at Deciem has been involved in major criminal activity, which includes financial crimes.” The largely incoherent message was paired with a long, rambling caption in which he called out many in the company’s inner circle, then went on to name hotels, restaurants, other cosmetic companies, “so many porn ‘studios,’”

According to Truaxe, there’s a open inquiry into “financial wrongdoings/crimes of one and/or more of DECIEM’s shareholders.” After providing “significant material information,” he says he was concerned for his safety, leading to the distress and 911 call posted on Instagram a few weeks ago.

Truaxe assures everyone that he is fine, stating, “Please do not worry about my safety at all.” But he’s upset at several people who didn’t believe he was okay and calls them out by name, among them Ali, Riyadh [perhaps Swedaan, manager of the Toronto factory], Shamin [Mohamed Jr., Deciem’s director of operations], and Jonathan [Behar]. “You should have listened to my several emails to you saying the same thing over and over again: listen to your soul, not others,” he writes. They are instructed to email him to confirm their allegiance.

He alleges that shareholders tried to wrongly send him to a mental hospital following the “arrest,” claiming he was “addicted to drugs.” He places blame on a few people for this including ex-co-CEO Nicola Kilner, whom he calls, “STUPID” (in all caps), insinuating that she is being “heavily investigated.”

Someone named Jonathan (perhaps Behar, his lawyer) will be forever on his bad side for not believing Truaxe. He says:

Months later, a group of former employees came out with allegations against Deciem and Truaxe, and said that the "Abnormal Beauty Company" founder allegedly made racist remarks to employees and yelled at others.

On October 8, Truaxe claimed that the company would be temporarily shut down in a now-deleted Instagram video post.

A few days later, Truaxe shocked his audience once again when he posted a photo of a dead sheep on Instagram, which has also been deleted. In the caption of the photo, which some readers may find upsetting, Truaxe wrote that Deciem "will never test on animals.

"This is the final post of Deciem, which we will shut down all operations until further notice — which is about two months," Truaxe said at the start of the video.

On Monday, Truaxe posted a rambling video to Deciem’s official Instagram account, in which he said the company was immediately shutting down and accused his colleagues of being “involved in a major criminal activity.”

A judge with the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario issued an order Friday that restricts Mr. Truaxe from communicating with or coming within 300 meters of the residences of Mr. Lauder and Andrew Ross, Estée Lauder’s senior vice president of strategy, or visiting company properties. The ruling was requested by Estée Lauder and came a day after the two men received an email from Mr. Truaxe warning that he was on his way to New York to confront and potentially harm them following his dismissal earlier this month from Deciem, which he founded in 2013.

Brandon Truaxe, the founder of cult skin care line Deciem, was ousted from his role Friday after its parent company Estée Lauder told a Canadian court he has caused “irreparable harm” to the business.

The creator of the low-price skin care brand The Ordinary has been ousted after a year of erratic behavior, and now has a restraining order against him.

Today an Ontario judge ruled in Estée Lauder’s favor and removed Truaxe as CEO and member of the board. Existing Deciem co-CEO Nicola Kilner will assume command.

Citing the “extremely erratic, disturbing and offensive behavior” of Brandon Truaxe, the founder of cult-beauty brand Deciem, minority-shareholder Estée Lauder stepped in with a lawsuit to have him dismissed from the company’s board of directors, barred from hiring and firing and issuing statements on the company’s social media accounts.

A Canadian judge granted Estée Lauder’s request to remove Brandon Truaxe from the company for “causing irreparable harm to Deciem’s business.”

Brandon Truaxe was ousted from his role as the company’s chief executive and board member on an interim basis after a judge approved an Ontario court application from Estee Lauder Companies Inc., which holds a one-third stake in Deciem.

Minority investor Estée Lauder Cos. pushed for Brandon Truaxe’s removal after he unexpectedly announced Deciem operations would close

He would often post major business announcements to Instagram, CC reporters on sensitive internal company emails, and, last October, he abruptly shut down operations after claiming the company was guilty of financial crimes, which ultimately resulted in him being ousted from his job.

Truaxe says he will be making claims against Estée Lauder (a minority shareholder) and Pasquale Cusano (Truaxe’s other business partner, who owns 28 percent of Deciem).

He includes a note for Mohammed Ali Iranpana, whom he identifies as the first employee of Deciem’s new fragrance brand Avestan:

After his first post on the brand's account, Truaxe came under fire for a variety of other incidents, including an advertisement in which The Ordinary mocked skin-care brand Drunk Elephant. He later apologized for the ad in a now-deleted Instagram post.

Truaxe first took over his brand's Instagram account in January 2017. In his first post on the account, which has since been deleted, he promised to respond to each and every comment left by customers.

He pulls rank, addressing the Deciem social team: