Love Island’s Huda Mustafa has lost her partnership with Huda Beauty after laughing at a racist comment about Olandria Carthen.
Huda Beauty (founded by a different Huda, makeup artist and entrepreneur Huda Kattan) announced that it was pulling the plug on their relationship with Mustafa in an Instagram post shared on Oct. 31.
“At Huda Beauty, kindness and humanity are at the heart of everything we do,” reads the statement. “Unfortunately, one of our recent collaborators has displayed behavior that does not align with our values.”
“As a result, we have decided to end our partnership and remove any related content from our social platforms and in-store displays,” the statement continues. “Accountability is incredibly important in moments like this, and we hope that meaningful change can come from it.”
The situation that led to this collaboration dissolving unfolded during an Instagram Live with Mustafa’s boyfriend, Louis Russell, when the two answered a call from someone who used a racial slur to seemingly reference Carthen.
Caught off guard by the comment, Mustafa and Russell laughed before ending the call.
“Yo, what the fuck, what did they say?” said Mustafa right afterwards. She then went on to post on her Instagram story that she “didn’t hear what was said” and “hung up immediately” after the slur.
After the incident, Carthen posted a statement reacting to it, writing on her Instagram Stories that she doesn’t “condone racism of any kind, nor do I entertain it.”
“That kind of language is never acceptable,” she continued. “Not in anger, not as a joke, not ever. Words like that carry generations of pain, and pretending otherwise only keeps the cycle going. Defending it, laughing about it, or making excuses is even worse.”
Mustafa followed up with a more detailed apology a Carthen’s post.
“Olandria — it is now clear that this comment was targeted at you, and I apologize for my immediate reaction,” she wrote. “My reaction in that moment came from being caught off guard, not from finding the word or situation funny.”
“It was a nervous, uncomfortable reaction that I recognize was inappropriate," she continued. “I want to be clear that I do not condone or tolerate anyone who uses such language, and I strongly encourage the individual responsible to reflect deeply on their words and the harm they’ve caused.”