It's more about the founder than the brand. The Ordiary never really stopped selling. Edit: I completely forgot that the website shut down for a bit! So I guess that was a downfall of sorts, even though you could still purchase the product elsewhere, I think. Also, I see a lot of their products in people's bathrooms still so they're doing well rn.
The Ordinary made skincare supper super accessible.$13 for a bottle of something you'd normally see for $25. Taught regular people getting into skincare about different ingredients. I really appreciated this brand.
Good affordable products have always existed. Especially in Asia where I order half of my products. I bought two from The Ordinary, that were supposedly compatible, and it irritated my skin so much skincare wasn't enjoyable anymore. I couldn't even sleep 2 to 3 days in a row. So I never bought anything from them after this. 😢
As a psychologist, most suicidal individuals are at their calmest once they have made the decision and chose a plan to end their life. They feel that everything is in order. Mental health care is as important as physical care.
Mental health IS health! I don’t know why people think it’s so wrong to take meds for mental health. It’s like your brain is not producing what it needs, just like a diabetic’s pancreas might not be producing what it needs. You wouldn’t tell a diabetic not to take insulin, so why would you tell someone not to take mental health meds???
@@DebbieTDP She didn’t. But lots of people in America do. I was agreeing with her especially the statement that mental health care is as important as physical care. I went on to illustrate that point by comparing people who say don’t take meds to someone saying don’t take insulin. I’m sorry that that point didn’t come across well. I was agreeing with the original poster.
@sierrarmcclain because nowaadays everything gets fixed with a pill. Id tell my type 2 disbetes patient to exercise and watch what they eat but nobody listens. They just take a pill and dont change a thing. Same for mental health, you can do a lot more than taking a pill in some cases, but again nobody does anything more than picking up a prescription (counseling, exercise, quitting drugs and alcohol, etc). And then of course there are conditions for which meds are unfortunately required but still people dont do anything more than that, because of unwillingness, misinformation, lack of resources, lack of familial support (that includes bridges they burned themselves, families are not always to blame).. So Inagree, mental health is important, but we rely so heavily on pharmaceuticals, it's scary and it keeps you trapped where you are.
I feel so sad for Brandon. He was unwell, very unwell and people forget that mental illness isn’t just depression and anxiety etc. Drugs can trigger extreme psychotic episodes and the problem is that often the people suffering don’t believe they are unwell, and that their beliefs are founded in reality. No one should ever judge their actions, they literally gave no control over them during these periods. This also happened to Lucian Piane from rupauls drag race. So upsetting
I don't think it is necessarily wrong to judge them, but definitely we need more mental health education for everyone. When I see stories like this (again bipolar gone off the rails) I worry if some day that could be me. Perhaps I'll be severely depressed cause of, idk, a bad break up, have idk a psychosis episode and never come back and receive help or something. With the knowledge that I have, I believe being more in that altered state leads to you being more easily in that state. And that's kind of horrifying. Thankfully my closest friends are also knowledgeable about these things, so if something happened to one of us, if we're still friends, hopefully we'd be able to convince the person then to accept help.
Yep. I used to know someone (we've fallen out of touch due to moves and so on) who did some kind of herbal something or other at a music festival and it triggered schizophrenia and he was found walking naked down the street reciting bible verses. He was completely different until they got his meds sorted out properly, and it wasn't a gradual transition, it was just something in whatever he took didn't agree at all with his personal brain chemistry.
Yeah this happened to me. I took acid and I had such a bad trip I developed an eating disorder that took like 4 years to recover from. People act like acid and shrooms aren’t as bad because you can’t get addicted to them but they forget the mental tole it can take emotionally. It took me weeks to recover from my first acid trip and I should have learned my lesson then but when I did it the second time it led to more permanent consequences. Especially for people like me who are already genetically predisposed to mental illness it’s a huge risk to take and overdosing isn’t the only thing people need to worry about.
@@maimee1 I hope that it doesn't happen to you or your close friends. I hope you and your friends will notice early changes that you will be able to redirect before they turn to anything serious and will always be willing to seek help and receive help. Definitely therapy is also something to consider as professional might be able to spot earliest shifts and changes and will know best ways to manage those. One of my friends from years ago had started new meds for bipolar that her doc had prescribed. One day during class in university she looked at the window next to her and went to open and was gonna "step" out of it (10th floor). She was caught by her professor and had rest of the day off uny. I don't exactly remember what she said she saw there, but she saw something through the window that made her want to go there. She was not aware of the fact that she was in a class with others or more importantly that she is on the 10th floor of this building. Afterwards she was scared to try other meds to find what works, because she didn't want to be in a situation where there is no one around to save her from herself. Bipolar is so complicated as are so many other mental health illnesses.
People often forget that the medications used to treat mental illnesses have very real, very serious side effects. Also, since so many mental illnesses present themselves with very similar symptoms and actions it is extremely difficult to properly diagnose and treat. Not only that, but everyone has different brain chemistry and DNA, so no diagnosis or treatment is "cookie cutter". Treatments also don't interact well with recreational substances, which many people will not be open about to heathcare providers. I've been through all sorts of medication switches, treatment programs, etc. and it's not easy when your body and mind don't react favorably to treatment. It's a constant struggle and I feel for anyone who suffers from mental health issues.
Just to answer your confusion, CVS & Walgreens are both basically the Same thing, just different companies. They have pharmacies, extensive drug store makeup sections, they sell hella marked up foods as well & a bunch of random stuff. They’re basically interchangeable
Idk bout cvs, but walgreens and boots are owned by the same company now. Same way yall have Walmart and we a supermarket owned by them but it's called Asda
I had a friend who passed earlier this year by suicide. She was schizoaffective and a year and a half before her passing she had jumped from a window during a psychotic episode and was paralysed from the waist down. I recognise Brandon’s behaviour as it is very similar to my friends during psychosis. A radical shift in personality, beliefs, behaviour, and erratic and/or cryptic social media posts along with rash decision making are typical signs of psychosis. I can only speculate, but there are several reasons why one would avoid alcohol and some of them include a family history of alcoholism/mental health issues or an inability to handle your liquor. In these cases you have to be EXTREMELY careful with drugs. Ideally you shouldn’t do them. Drug induced psychosis is a very real and common thing. I also think it’s important that more people can recognise the signs of psychosis/schizophrenia cause many times it’s written off as being an asshole all of a sudden. Anyway, that’s my two cents.
Absolutely. I wish it was talked about more (in general) that even something as “harmless” as marijuana can have disastrous effects on people with certain mental illnesses or predispositions, and you won’t always know if you’re at risk. If you’re predisposed to a psychotic disorder but haven’t developed symptoms yet, weed can trigger an episode and then… you just have to live with a psychotic disorder. I can’t even imagine what other drugs could do to a person.
I had a really similar experience with my best friend, and I immediately recognized that Brandon was having psychosis. My friend is fortunately still alive, but I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you're okay, I can't imagine if that happened to my friend. I already left a long comment explaining the situation with my friend, so I will just copy it under this comment, in case you or anyone else is interested.
Almost from the beginning of the video I was thinking "this must be psychosis", and now I'm 100% sure I was right. A couple years ago, my best girl friend experienced psychosis and had exactly the same symptoms as Brandon, but fortunately she survived. She had a lot of hard stuff going on in her life, and her mom was schizophrenic almost all her life, but the family was too ashamed to seek help, which meant that my underage friend had to deal with her talking to herself, having delusions, kicking her out of the house and not opening for 6 months, breaking down walls with a hammer, even pulling a knife on my friend on multiple occasions. Her mom was really unstable and couldn't take care of herself and her daughter, and no one else was around. One day her mom threw out my friend's dog out of a window of their apartment, and my friend took it really bad especially when she couldn't find the dog. The same day she tried mushrooms for the first time. Later I found out that for people who have family history of schizophrenia or psychosis- psychedelic drugs can sometimes trigger psychosis, especially when combined with stress, which I assume was the case for Brandon as well. It started with nonsensical speech and ideas, weird social media posts, hearing voices, having delusions, paranoid (usually about someone following them) etc. For example she would listen to the radio or commercials and somehow conclude from that that her lost dog is in another city, and she would travel to that city alone to search for her dog, and no one could stop her. She lost a lot of weight because she didn't eat, she didn't shower or brush her teeth, and she slept maybe a couple of hours every few days. Multiple times she told me that a famous singer (Beyonce, Taylor Swift etc) came to a bar we frequently go to, to wish her a happy birthday and sing for her, and that the waiters served ecstasy and cocaine in there instead of water. She couldn't see that there's no possible way any of this could happen. The morning of her arrest went something like this: At 3 AM she went to the same bar I mentioned with a knife. Fortunately the bar was already closed but there was a cleaning lady who was terrified of my friend and locked herself in the bathroom. She then got in a taxi threatening the driver with the knife to take her to my home. She got outside of my house at 6 AM and started banging on the door, crying, laughing, yelling nonsense and I was too afraid to open especially when she told me she would stab me with her knife because my mom is her mom. Idk what that means. I called her dad and begged him to come. When he came eventually and asked her to go to the hospital, she replied " dad you just want to see my p*ssy*" (also nonsense). Then the neighbors called the police and while they were arresting her, she was yelling "I will kill those who raped me, snorted cocaine of me, and stabbed me in the vein with h*roin" (again, none of this is true, she read some articles in the news about women who experienced those things and she imagined it was her). When they took her to the hospital she refused to eat or drink anything because she believed they were trying to poison her, and she just went up and down the room yelling nonsensical stuff. All of this (and a lot more) happened and escalated in a month. She is okay now as far as I know. She's taking her meds and finishing college. Sorry for the long post, I never talk about this because it left me with a lot of trauma, but since Brandon's case reminded me of it, I wanted to share and hopefully help or educate people who are dealing with this, or have a loved one who is dealing with this, so you could recognize the signs. I feel so sorry for Brandon, despite his success and wealth no one stepped in, helped him or even gor him to a mental hospital in time. It is so unfortunate, because this could've been prevented. As far as those offensive posts that he made, I just wanted to say that my friend also sent threatening messages to animal shelters because she believed that they stole her dog (even though I mentioned that her mom threw him out of a tall apartment window and he got lost), but before this happened she would never, and I mean never be rude to anyone, I've known her since we were children and we never even had an argument, and I've never seen her have an argument with anyone else, even if they were bullying or abusing her, unfortunately. I believe it's the same case with Brandon, especially when everyone described him as a kind person, and I think it was just the psychosis talking. My friend was completely the opposite person before her psychosis, so much so that it even felt like she was possessed by something. The pain Brandon caused people in that state is, of course, real and valid and I'm not denying that. It's just that I don't want him (or anyone) to be remembered by stuff they did while they were seriously mentally ill, especially if they were the opposite of that when they were healthy. I hope his family is aware of that and that at least they remember him for who he actually is, but it's so sad to see that a society which is supposed to be more progressive or more aware of mental health issues today, still doesn't recognize and respect a clearly mentally ill person (the same thing as with the airplane lady which was also having a mental health crisis). Again sorry for the long post to anyone who's reading this
Wow. This story is so tragic. It's heartbreaking that even though he was so clearly struggling so publicly, and presumably had many resources potentially available to him, he didn't get the help he needed. 💔
A lot of people in the Industry tried to help Brandon Because of his mental state he turned on everyone and vilified them publicly. Brandon was totally off the rails but he refused to let anyone help him He was not left to sink!
One of the worst things about mental illness is that people can be too ill to take care of themself and still be judged too 'sane' to be commited against their will or forced to take their meds. And then there is not really much friends and family is able to do. It happened to my family and it may have happened here. In our case our family member stopped taking the meds, became increasingly angry and paranoid, and then died of completely treatable heart issues because they refused to go see any doctor for any reason.
People really do forget that it’s not “just makeup/skincare”. It’s someone’s life, someone’s passion/love. That’s why soo many talented people are scared to start businesses because once you do it’s like signing yourself over to the public which is soo scary.
As someone with bipolar I can absolutely see Brandon having it. The amount of impulsive and bizarre things that I did in manic episodes (as well as saying things that I’m not proud of or identify my beliefs with) really match up with his. I hope he’s resting in peace and everyone who’s lives he’s touched is healing
Omg I had NO idea he had died, I'm so shocked. I remember in 2018 (I worked in skincare at the time) seeing stuff about him going off the rails and it seeming like the brand was going under, but I thought that Estee Lauder had just stepped in and acquired it and everything went back to "normal" 😐 What a horrible sad story.
It was terrible watching it all play out on social media. You could see his mental state tank. His followers were worried they were calling the police asking to help him. I remember watching his last post then seeing news of his death the next day.
19:44-20:26 This is what stuck out to me too at the time, the people treating the situation as a spectacle... truly awful. While I appreciate you covering this topic, I do wish the title could be slightly modified...seems some people are assuming that there's a current "downfall" of The Ordinary skincare, not something that happened with the brand's former owner
Exactly.. I followed it when it happened and was really sad for what happened to Brandon and all the nasty politics at the heart of it all. The caption used is slightly misleading as it makes people think The Ordinary is in distress which is not the case.
Yes! There were even people encouraging him and playing along with his thought process! Idk if they were trolls or well meaning, but it definitely didn't help him in any way
it’s on purpose, as “empathetic” as these people seem, at the end of the day, he’s an influencer and wants his bag. hence an ambiguous, slightly provocative title
I think it might be because this way it fits in some series. Robert has done alot of "the downfall of *insert make-up brand*". So maybe James is creating something like that but more skincare-y?
I've been wanting to hear a summary of this. I just got into skincare just when The Ordinary started and lived in Toronto at that time too. Brandon was enigmatic in their IG until the posts started getting crazy and disturbing. He was such a forward thinker and it's so heartbreaking that he ended up dying so tragically.
this is so sad. thank you for opening up a conversation about the mental health struggles this individual went through and your compassion towards his struggles 🖤 it means a lot as someone with mental health issues
Exactly! It's not as if he WANTED to have mental health problems. We don't do these things on purpose! (Yes, I'm one of the "crazy people" - bipolar disorder)! I just wish the "normies" realized it's not something we can control 100% of the time. Sometimes, I wish that they could see just what it's like to not have complete control over your thoughts and/or actions.
great point! my biggest mental health issue is OCD, and much of the time it seems I don't have control over my thoughts. even though we may be deemed ''crazy'' by the general public, please know that we very much so fit the definition of ''normal''- just as much as other people, even without mental illness. this is something I'm trying to remember.. thanks for your reply to my comment; it really gave me insight into this situation! I wish the best for you and yours :)@@samanthafairweather9186
I knew nothing of this. I feel so silly but as a person with almost no social media I can’t believe I didn’t hear about this because The Ordinary got so big and I’ve always used a few of their products since their launch. I did see that there were some changes made to the company itself and it really took off, I just wish I had known the full story. Thank you so much for shedding light on this. Rest peacefully Brandon, it’s very unfortunate that nobody had intervened in time and that he never truly got the help he so obviously needed. There are products I still use to this day from The Ordinary and I’ll continue to buy them but I will definitely be paying more attention to the brands story. I try to stick with cleaner brands but knowing the full story behind the products you buy and companies you support is so important. Thank you James you’re absolutely lovely. ❤
I had no idea about this. It is so tragic and horrible. The poor guy was obviously struggling, it is such a shame that someone this talented couldn't get or accept the help he needed. Such a tragedy.
The thing about mental health is that we all talk about it and bring 'awerness'. But in reality it is so bad. Getting appointment to psychiatrist is so difficult and even of you want to go do the hospital it's very difficult to find a place that would take you. And it's only when you realize that you need help. If you're in bad mental state but you don't want to go to the hospital. They can't make you to do so. Then the only possibility to help that person is going through court which is not easy. We're all like...awww mental health is so important but in reality there's not much we can do because of system being broken. It seems like we can talk gibberish about it but then nothing happens. And it's sad
I feel like the ordinary really helped westerners understand their skincare. Over in Asia it’s common to be clued in with ingredients etc but because skin treatments and skincare has always been expensive and less important over here (west/uk/America) it really helped people navigate their skin concerns and how to help their skin on their own instead of relying solely on expensive treatments
People start off with what ingredient sounds interesting if the product isn't specifically targeting a concern in its title. A cleanser with Marshmallow Root + Calendula may be more exciting than Ceramides. It's definitely important to become more familiar with the actions of each star ingredient. I loved learning the processes of Asian skincare, and some of their quirky ingredients like pig collagen (controversial for a variety of reasons), swiftlet extract, snail mucin, and donkey milk. My routine has expanded from a cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen to inclusions of glycolic acid, retinol, and red light therapy. It's such a delight to have something so nice to do for yourself twice a day. ☺️
Yeah, the west really had/has a weird market niche for skincare--insanely overpriced, mystical and opaque branding to make you feel like it's a magic potion while telling you really nothing at all, in combination with a degree of general cultural apathy toward the importance of skincare in a beauty or even skin health regimen. We apparently care very much about getting a magical potion, enough to shuck out hundreds of dollars, but only if our skin is already concerning enough for us to do so, and then we're desperate and we still don't know what we need and how to find it because no brand will educate you on what anything does lest they lose money by not pushing their most expensive product. ANYWAY. Lol. It's been interesting over the past few years seeing how east asian skincare culture (and products) has been changing that landscape
@@ZestyBison00 most people didn't understand ingredients, they just went for what they thought did everything but most people now know that it takes more than cleanser, thick moisturiser, and spf to keep your skin in godly condition. There's a whole community of weirdos on Tiktok who follow an infulencer (she isn't qualified in any sort of science) that preach only using retinol and spf, they didn't wanna hear how that combination alone would ruin some peoples faces even though their own faces were okay, they didn't even know what type of retinoid they used. My mother is thai and is trash at self care, she literally doesn't understand basic and common sense things and says "you're too young" when i use anti aging or anything of the like. she smokes a pack a day, done so for like 30 years and gets mad when i tell her she looks terrible for her age after she asks if she looks young. Fortunately she has beautiful and knowledgable friends who I stuck to as a child because they would give me mini facials and let me use their big girl expensive creams lol I am glad that brand are now putting their key ingredients on their products with descriptions of what they do
@@alexia3552 its not just east asian skincare culture but the entirety of Asian cultures. I've seen people "discover" "hacks" even though the methods were used in India for millennia, I think Korea and Japan are leads in the field only because they're 1st world countries compared to the majority of south and south east asian countries being developing countries, the techniques and knowledge they have now comes from hundreds of years of Asian countries adopting and adapting their neighbors skincare. I think another thing is that Korea and Japan are OBSESSED with appearance so I'm not surprised they are constantly churning out new skincare since they have to keep adding to this impossible standard of beauty they have. But with the expensive niche wester brands... YES. I remember being a kid and seeing clarins or other brands with these "magical anti aging creams" which we all know now are just overpriced heavy moisturisers with a brand name slapped on them 😭 idk how people still buy from these expensive brands when there are cheaper brands who do products BETTER
I was an art director here in Toronto for Deciem back when they first kickstarted Hylamide and worked with Brandon for just a little under 2 years. A genuinely very kind person, and very eccentric. Always wanted to do a million different things a minute and didn't necessarily always explain things vividly. It was hard to capture his vision lol. Always felt like his mind was racing 24/7 and he couldn't keep up. Anyway, his loss was quite surreal when it happened. It felt like it came out of nowhere, but it also reallllllllly didn't, if that makes any sense. PS. It's pronounced "DEH-SEE-YUM" PSS: I completely forgot about the ESHO chaos until this video. This one broke my heart as I was literally counting down the days for the release of the line and 2 of the products from launch ended up being my two holy grails of all time. I left Deciem at this point to join my old ad agency, but I definitely vividly remember scrolling through social to see Brandon's infamous "we are too busy to love your brand" post and just being in complete utter shock and disappointment. Also, the new products are not anywhere as good as the original launch products under Deciem, so yeah, still heartbroken.
This has provided enormous insight for me. I’d almost bet that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. That flight of ideas, and everything being the next greatest thing to take on the world is sadly a very common experience for many with bipolar when they’re not medicated/not balanced. In fact I remember seeing an interview with another very successful exec, I can’t remember who, who suffered with bipolar his entire life until finally receiving a late in life diagnosis. How you described Brandon is exactly the experience this man spoke of. Your comment makes complete sense in both the shock and simultaneous non-surprise. Thank you for sharing your little insights & anecdotes. I think so often, especially in the corporate and the creative world, mental illness is ignored if not encouraged so long as it’s _functional_ We’ll happily accept the ‘eccentricities’ so long as that person is creating phenomenal art, music, writing, or generating millions of dollars. We’ll say _Oh that’s just Brandon, he’s always like that! There’s method to his madness!__ etc. It’s only once the person succumbs to their mental illness, and/or crashes in their work product, that it becomes an issue. Being an art director I suspect you’ve seen more than your fair share of such personalities over the years:
Thank you for sharing. I followed Brandon on instagram and remember him wanting to connect with customers and I thought he was so kind and even had a few conversations in the comments with him. He was such a genius when it came to skincare and it was so heartbreaking to see him go in a downward spiral and clearly needed help. I really wish he got the help he needed…I’m no professional but my husband has bipolar disorder and I seen the signs in Brandon.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I have to second the other two commenters. I have type 1 bipolar disorder. My Grandmother, Aunty and Mum were all diagnosed with it too. Both my Aunty and Mum died by suicide well before their time. My Aunt in 1998 and my Mum just a year ago. Suicide rates for bipolar disorder are very high. Based on numerous studies, researchers estimate that 25% to 60% of individuals with bipolar disorder will attempt suicide at least once in their lives and between 4% and 19% will complete suicide. These rates are far higher than the total population. Worldwide, suicide accounts for 1.3% of deaths. Your description of Brandon also matches a lot of mania symptoms; high energy, confidence, exuberance, racing thoughts, forced speech, euphoria and a desire to connect with people. Severe mania can also lead to psychosis. I know both the pain of living with this disorder and the pain of losing loved ones to it. I'm so sorry for your loss. Thanks again for sharing and I hope you're doing well.
@@ScoobyDoozy when people say "that's just the way they are" about creatives with mental illness, I wouldn't say that amounts to ignoring their mental illness until it interrupts their work so much as it's really not their place to control that person or forcibly intervene. It's not illegal to be mentally ill. You only get your freedom taken away from you if you break laws or can't keep yourself alive. You can't force someone else to behave or think the way you'd prefer them to. We can't assume we know what's best for other people, and even if we do, there's no way we can rightfully make them act "appropriately"
Almost from the beginning of the video I was thinking "this must be psychosis", and now I'm 100% sure I was right. A couple years ago, my best girl friend experienced psychosis and had exactly the same symptoms as Brandon, but fortunately she survived. She had a lot of hard stuff going on in her life, and her mom was schizophrenic almost all her life, but the family was too ashamed to seek help, which meant that my underage friend had to deal with her talking to herself, having delusions, kicking her out of the house and not opening for 6 months, breaking down walls with a hammer, even pulling a knife on my friend on multiple occasions. Her mom was really unstable and couldn't take care of herself and her daughter, and no one else was around. One day her mom threw out my friend's dog out of a window of their apartment, and my friend took it really bad especially when she couldn't find the dog. The same day she tried mushrooms for the first time. Later I found out that for people who have family history of schizophrenia or psychosis- psychedelic drugs can sometimes trigger psychosis, especially when combined with stress, which I assume was the case for Brandon as well. It started with nonsensical speech and ideas, weird social media posts, hearing voices, having delusions, paranoid (usually about someone following them) etc. For example she would listen to the radio or commercials and somehow conclude from that that her lost dog is in another city, and she would travel to that city alone to search for her dog, and no one could stop her. She lost a lot of weight because she didn't eat, she didn't shower or brush her teeth, and she slept maybe a couple of hours every few days. Multiple times she told me that a famous singer (Beyonce, Taylor Swift etc) came to a bar we frequently go to, to wish her a happy birthday and sing for her, and that the waiters served ecstasy and cocaine in there instead of water. She couldn't see that there's no possible way any of this could happen. The morning of her arrest went something like this: At 3 AM she went to the same bar I mentioned with a knife. Fortunately the bar was already closed but there was a cleaning lady who was terrified of my friend and locked herself in the bathroom. She then got in a taxi threatening the driver with the knife to take her to my home. She got outside of my house at 6 AM and started banging on the door, crying, laughing, yelling nonsense and I was too afraid to open especially when she told me she would stab me with her knife because my mom is her mom. Idk what that means. I called her dad and begged him to come. When he came eventually and asked her to go to the hospital, she replied " dad you just want to see my p*ssy*" (also nonsense). Then the neighbors called the police and while they were arresting her, she was yelling "I will kill those who raped me, snorted cocaine of me, and stabbed me in the vein with h*roin" (again, none of this is true, she read some articles in the news about women who experienced those things and she imagined it was her). When they took her to the hospital she refused to eat or drink anything because she believed they were trying to poison her, and she just went up and down the room yelling nonsensical stuff. All of this (and a lot more) happened and escalated in a month. She is okay now as far as I know. She's taking her meds and finishing college. Sorry for the long post, I never talk about this because it left me with a lot of trauma, but since Brandon's case reminded me of it, I wanted to share and hopefully help or educate people who are dealing with this, or have a loved one who is dealing with this, so you could recognize the signs. I feel so sorry for Brandon, despite his success and wealth no one stepped in, helped him or even gor him to a mental hospital in time. It is so unfortunate, because this could've been prevented. As far as those offensive posts that he made, I just wanted to say that my friend also sent threatening messages to animal shelters because she believed that they stole her dog (even though I mentioned that her mom threw him out of a tall apartment window and he got lost), but before this happened she would never, and I mean never be rude to anyone, I've known her since we were children and we never even had an argument, and I've never seen her have an argument with anyone else, even if they were bullying or abusing her, unfortunately. I believe it's the same case with Brandon, especially when everyone described him as a kind person, and I think it was just the psychosis talking. My friend was completely the opposite person before her psychosis, so much so that it even felt like she was possessed by something. The pain Brandon caused people in that state is, of course, real and valid and I'm not denying that. It's just that I don't want him (or anyone) to be remembered by stuff they did while they were seriously mentally ill, especially if they were the opposite of that when they were healthy. I hope his family is aware of that and that at least they remember him for who he actually is, but it's so sad to see that a society which is supposed to be more progressive or more aware of mental health issues today, still doesn't recognize and respect a clearly mentally ill person (the same thing as with the airplane lady which was also having a mental health crisis). Again sorry for the long post to anyone who's reading this lol.
Thank u for this long post.. I really appreciate u did… making ppl aware that mental issues r actually vry serious.. n sud b taken care of immediately n carefully.. thanx agin👍
Thank you for sharing this and I think you are exactly right about the psychosis. Completely changed a person and they shouldn’t be held to the same standards as someone in control of their facilities. Glad your friend is doing better but I’m sure that stuff haunts her every day poor thing. I would probably have a breakdown if my dog was thrown out a window too
Thank you for sharing this story. No matter how many celebrities or social media posts speak about removing the stigma around mental illness we still have a long way to go. Getting people's stories out there helps. I am glad your friend got the the help that Brandon unfortunately didn't despite having the means to. There are so many people who need help and can't afford with Brandon that wasn't the case unfortunately nobody was able to get through to him in time to get him the help he needed.
Sadly there isn't a lot that can be done for adults in mental distress if they refuse help. Unless they are posing a threat to themselves or others they can literally do what they want. I'm so sorry your friend experienced that and that you too could do little for her beyond be her friend and love her. It's not until someone experiences mental health issues that the lack of provision becomes evident. I'm so very glad she is progressing well and I hope that you are well also.
What got my attention about the brand The Ordinary was reading how the makers said most brands did work, a little…but there wasn’t enough of the active ingredient to initiate a significant benefit. The article went on to say they - or he- was frustrated at the corruption and deception in skin care and they wanted to give the consumer the full benefit without paying the “ luxury tax” and that thinking has my vote every time.
Watching everything that went down with Brandon was a really strange experience. The company had an incredible trajectory and then it just seemed to go off the rails and now it's just.. there. It's nothing great, it's nothing terrible. It's just.. there.
I really love the ordinary to this day. Why would I pay £30 for niacinimide dew drop when I can buy the ordinary one for a 1/4 of the price and it works just as well ?
@@Osuzyque I was joking, I wasn't mean. Mean it's different. Mean would have been a comment like.."did you live under a rock until now?" Or something like "are you from Mars?" I'm sure she is capable to reply by herself anyway, if she gets huffed up like you!!🤌🏻🥴
The Ordinary Niacinamide and zinc changed my world. It was the first product that actually reduced my acne and oiliness and didn't irritate my skin. I have tried other brands over the past years (even though it took a while for other brands to lauch a similar product) but this is still my favorite. This was a very interesting video, tnx James.
I highly encourage people to watch this episode, but make sure you are in a good head space because it's pretty raw. That said, the discussion is an important one and I am so thankful that the topic was presented.
@@goddessnocturnasthank you! I was going to listen to it now, before I go to sleep but I can have some incredibly disturbing dreams that leave me literally traumatized when I wake up. I’ll keep it for the morning instead
Whenever we feel we need to speak badly or idly chat about other peoples problems it's a good idea to check with yourself what your motive is. The problem generally starts at home and is a careless, completely uninformed knee jerk reaction to a total strangerd private issues. If it is a mental health crisis is not gossip it's hate and it is exponentially felt by the sufferer. James, you handled this really well, all round 🧡
That’s such a sad story. My younger brother also died similarly, he was in poor mental health and impulsive. It’s very hard to process. Thanks for covering this.
I remember watching that Instagram live the day it came out because my colleagues were so into The Ordinary, and a bunch of them went on a panic buy. We knew something wasn’t right, but it’s sad that on looking back that this outcome seemed inevitable.
I remember all this happening in real time. I followed Brandon's personal ig and he was so active and responsive to any questions you asked him. He was so sweet and helpful. It was so shocking to witness everything until the very end, I remember being in disbelief. I truly hope he's at peace.
Same. It was watching someone spiral in real time and so sad and concerning. I was so saddened but not surprised when he died; this person was ill and needed help and the whole thing was tragic.
Gosh, this is actually one of the saddest videos that you've done. What an awful situation and how harrowing it is to watch those videos and posts. I can only imagine how much pain he was in and how terrified he likely was. Poor man 😔
I remember watching every single Instagram story Brandon Truaxe made and as a former addict, I immediately knew he was using amphetamines. No one can change my mind on this. I now work with addicts and see a lot of people in psychosis from methamphetamine and other substances and it is very obvious. I felt so bad for him and just wanted to reach through the screen and slap him silly because I could feel what he was feeling. Just horrible that a genius like this went down the way he did.
Does it supercharge your brain may be that's why he took it but succumbs to it's sideeffects. Much like a short term euphoria followed by haunting depression.
It’s crazy how fast it can make someone become mentally unhinged. It happened to my ex just after 3 months of use. He became extremely paranoid that the CIA was following him, had hacked his computer, hacked his car, sending brain waves to mess him up, etc.
You might find this interesting. I think Brandon was experiencing severe bipolar mania. The manic brain and the brain on meth have very similar chemistry. Basically, during mania the brain releases tonnes of dopamine, just like with meth. I have type 1 bipolar (the most severe type) and I have also tried meth in the past. I was shocked to find that mania and meth feel identical. The same euphoria, increased self-esteem, forced speech, lowered inhibitions, racing thoughts, insomnia etc. I've had to take drug tests while manic and they're always surprised to see that I'm "clean". Yeah I'm clean, just very mentally ill... Just like meth, severe mania can also lead to psychosis - which I have also experienced. Meth and bipolar mania are very similar which is why I think Brandon may have been bipolar and experiencing a manic episode but it is also possible he was using meth too. The effects are basically indistinguishable without a drug test.
Out of curiosity, what line of work are you in? I ask because I work in education and recognize (from personal past psychiatrist prescribed medication) that many of my cohorts definitely use stimulants.
@stancexpunks My ex-hubby was shooting meth, unbeknownst to me, & suspected me of trying to have him killed (I was 7 months pregnant at the time). He would sit in the apartment & shoosh me, saying "The walls have ears." He was paranoid & delusional, & ended up getting piss tested & kicked out of the Army.
I remember this all unfolding - I’m in Toronto and our news outlets were constantly updating on it. The Deciem store on Bay and Bloor was closed for a bit and we all just waited to see if they would reopen at all. I was so sad to see what happened to Brandon!
James I think that has to be one of the best videos you have ever done. You can see your compassion and humanity and concern come through for what you do and for other people. I just had to tell you that. I don’t normally comment on social media but I felt compelled to. I love all your videos but this was some of your best work.
What an incredibly compassionate gentleman you are James. It's healthy to shine the light on the truth of our lives, not just gloss over the seriousness of mental health and how common it really is in society today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The thing I always remember about Brandon’s final months were the influencers that jumped on condemning him without taking into account he may have been having a MH crisis. This overview was so informative thank-you.
I remember watching Brandon's mental health issues through his Instagram posts on the ordinary and it really concerned and scared me for his well-being. He was literally having and going through drug induced psychosis episodes in some of them
I've heard about it at a time...just so sad. I'll always have a soft spot for the Ordinary. They tought me about ingredients. I always have at least 1-3 the Ordinary products in my stash.
I had no idea! I loved TO and would stock up during their once a year sale. When they sold off and almost all the prices increased, it felt like a betrayal of what TO was created to be; quality, AFFORDABLE skincare. But I don't really follow social media and had no idea all this was happening to the creator behind the scenes... it's really sad, both he and his vision had such a tragic end :(
Thank you James for bringing Mental health into this discussion😇! It's very sad to hear that he didn't receive more help..and I'm also shocked to hear that the Ordinary had a downfall🙄? 💜👏💜
his story is so tragic, I remember his posts on Instagram, there were email screenshots and a lot of stuff that didn't make sense but it was obvious it was private matters and that he needed help
I was following the Ordinary's Instagram in 2018, and when their posts started getting weird, I was so confused. I figured they were hacked or something and unfollowed, but I always wondered what had happened. Now I know, lol, and it's crazier than I could have ever imagined.
I remember this well, I was a part of "the ordinary cult" per se. We had a very busy facebook group where we would comment on everything that was going on. What you haven't mentioned is that Brandon wasn't just posting on social media, he was sending us bizarre emails (through the newsletter), and he would publicly BASH anyone who commented anything against him (whether telling him to get help, or asking the team to get him off the official account). He also liked to make it clear that he was the owner of the brand, and no one would get him off the account. If I'm not mistaken he said he changed the passwords so not one else could login. It got worse when he started to publicly bash Estee Lauder, and then he was served a lawsuit - he posted the entirety of the papers he received, and victimised himself. That was when he was removed from the ordinary and the official social media channels of the brand. I'm not gonna lie, in the group everyone cheered on the news. We were just happy Brandon wouldn't be allowed to continue to run the brand we all loved into the mud. I also remember that last livestream, he was complaining about the noise on the street (if I'm not mistaken) and even stated his full address a few times during the transmission. Then the news broke that he had passed. At the time it wasn't said that he fell off his window, so everyone was speculating on his cause of death and many people thought he had overdosed. Watching your video was a trip down memory lane, because I watched it all so closely. I hope Brandon is resting in peace now, very sad ending to such a talented man.
This is a surprise to me. I only discovered the brand about 4 months ago when I decided I finally needed more skincare than just cleanser and sunscreen. I appreciate The Ordinary's commitment to science-based, no-hype, fairly priced products as I'm looking into serious skincare. So much of the industry seems like pretension and puffery.
That WAS the original thought and creative start with Brandon. Since 2018, it’s been a Totally money grab shit show. Save money anyway they can cut every corner until you’re left with a circle.
I really appreciate you using your platform to cover this especially during #mentalhealthswaness month. I remember when The Ordinary ( Deciem ) was new and Brandon owned Deciem. I followed him on Instagram & even have had a conversation with him a few times. I watched Brandon make videos on instagram watch thing’s goes downhill & I just really wished that the ppl around him would’ve helped Brandon out more. It was really heartbreaking to watch him struggle online & not truly get the help he needed 💔 RIP Brandon ❤️
I remember watching this unfold and being concerned for his mental health and seeing comments on the videos he posted of people lashing out at those that were saying they were concerned, saying they were making accusations and shouldn’t be making diagnoses and to let him be.
Ty for your considerate words. It’s so hard with a mental health crisis to know what to do for loved ones and sometimes all you can do is hang on for the ride. Ty for bringing a human face to the story.❤
A sad yet interesting back story of The Ordinary. Many of us have or have had friends derail similar to Brandon. Concerned individuals try to reach out, try to help friends going through a harsh emotional or mental patch and are frequently pushed away. At least that has been my experience. It's heartbreaking.
I can't believe how fast people forgot about this. I remember him using Deciem's insta as his personal, and all the weird things he said and did on there. He wasn't well, and anyone could see that, but what did people do? What people do. There were so many horrible comments mocking and berating him. And when he died it took like a month, and people acted like he never existed.
I too had no idea this happened. How horrible for this to have happened. He clearly needed help and gossip overshadowed his trouble with mental health. I hope he is at peace now.
i'm bipolar and it breaks my heart to think that that might've been what he was struggling with. mania is truly horrible and i wouldn't wish it on anyone. with proper medication, i've been able to lead a normal life. i do feel like this is a case where he didn't have very much support from those around him. without my support system of my family, fiance, friends, and therapist, i definitely wouldn't be where i am today. sad case all around. we definitely have a long way to go with mental health awareness and access.
I remember the downfall of Brandon but this was after I got into The Ordinary. Some of the stuff he was doing before his death reminded me so much of my brother having a highly manic episode before he passed away. BP is still not as well understood and I imagine the drugs made it worse. Thank you for showing compassion to someone who was clearly suffering. ❤
Hi James, Did not realize they had a downfall. I like The Ordinary and began using some of their products after you reviewed it quite some time ago. Looking forward to watching this.
As a long awaited newcomer to the brand, I'm right there with everyone else when I say I had no idea all of this went down 😱 RIP to Brandon, I can imagine how his success made it all the more easy to succumb to his addictions 😢🙏🏽
I love that the ordinary gave us an opportunity to learn exactly what product does what, then making it easier to figure out what product or product combinations will work best for our individual skin. They did great
Am so moved by this . I watched Nicola’s interview a few months ago. A very big part of me feels like Brandon was let down. He needed more help than he got. I feel weird…. I have struggled with depression since I was 16 and have such a soft spot for those who struggle with their mental health.
I remember the sheep post and thinking "Oh my, they're going the PETA route." I didn't know all of this and the mental health issues behind the scenes. I also 100% agree with getting to know who is behind a brand and their stories. I like to find out who and what I am supporting, voting with my money. Thank you, James for another great and informative video 🥰🥰
I didn’t know about the downfall at all. I decided just the other day that I needed an Vitamin C serum and looked for The Ordinary because I expected it to be under $10, but that is not the case anymore with their pricing. However now there’s The Inkey List which seems to have filled the void.
I was following Brandan on Instagram as things unravelled. He was the most sensitive beautiful soul. It's always been an unfinished story to me too. Just so tragic, this tortured genius. It did seem like no one was looking after him, but maybe they just couldn't do anything. Thanks for your gentle respectful telling of the story ♥️
I love the Ordinary. I like the affordability. I think i use 3 of their products. The retinol in squalene is so nice and has really made a difference in my skin.
Their prices have gone up several times from when they launched first. Now I know why: a large brand name company gobbled them up! It’s a shame that smaller companies are taken over by greedy large corporations.
I've said this before, you're like the Bailey Sarian of the skincare community with these videos. I love it so much, and this was such an interesting story! Really nicely put together, and presented in a very respectable way. So sad that nobody was able to help Brandon, when there were so many clear signs that he really needed it.
Seeing his instagram posts just made me concerned for his mental health. So sad to hear how it ended for him & that no one was concerned. How the media reacted to it was also awful. I was actually off social media when all this happened, but were using The Ordinary everyday.
Thank you for telling Brandon’s story. Like so many others here, I had no idea. I definitely agree that there is value in knowing about the people and stories behind the brands we support. I actually love to shop on QVC because many times the actual brand owners/ founders come on and tell their stories while explaining their products. It’s meaningful to be able to connect that way.
What an eye opener. I was so excited when The Ordinary first appeared. It was a revelation that a quality product didn’t have to break your bank account. I’m afraid, however, that I stopped using it soon after because the distributor seemed unprepared for the demand and it was always sold out before I could get my hands on it. I switched to The Inky List and have been really pleased with their performance and price point. I’ll be with them for however long they stick around.
I still use multiple ordinary products depending on what I need/feel like and especially still when I feel like I need to budget more with skincare. I remember going into the Deceim store after his death and they were giving out free products?? It felt a bit strange to be like “oh our CEO died here’s some free stuff in his honour” 😞
The Ordinary is a special brand to me. When I first got sober a few years ago I had to find a new interest that could make me feel good about myself and give me something to do with myself honestly. So I started learning about skincare and watching your channel and others on RUclips. And I remember thinking ok I’m going to go buy one product that I keep hearing about and it was The Ordinary’s Niacinamide and Zinc. My skin took to it really well and it’s a staple in my skincare line up now. So I will keep buying the brand even knowing all this now. It’s incredibly sad and I hope he has found some peace somehow now. 😔
Man, this feels like a case of engineer brain meeting the esoteric. I knew a couple students back at uni who fell into the same hole. In my experience, the issue is that people with engineering backgrounds tend towards very binary thinking and grow used to the idea that answers to problems are either correct or incorrect. They then take some mushrooms or whatever and have a metaphysical, surreal experience that cannot be contained or expressed by that kind of binary thought. Most will either violently reject the experience and never go near hallucinogens again, or will come to a less binary, more nuanced way of seeing the world. Some, however, react as if they have been challenged to solve what is clearly an error in the way the world has been designed, and so dive head long into esoteric/occult philosophies and altered state techniques in order to find the correct answer to the problem that the first trip presented them with. The problem here is that they do so with no guidance or preparation from either medical professionals (i.e. therapists who specialise in using hallucinogens in a therapeutic setting) nor from philosophers or practitioners of esoteric thought and altered state practices. In fact, they often wholly reject these experts because the experts will tell them that there are no correct or incorrect answers to the questions they have, and this particular type of engineer brain will never accept that. So you basically have these people who keep hurling themselves into these metaphysical experiences, all while stubbornly refusing to let go of a binary mentality that is incompatible with the experiences they keep putting themselves through. The result is a destabilisation of personality and chronic mental health problems almost every time. (This is also, by the way, why engineers are more likely to have more authoritarian social attitudes)
I remember being in a very active Deciem group on Facebook when this was happening and I was very disappointed to see that I was apparently one of the only people pointing out that this seemed like a psychotic break. I was so sad to hear the news of how it all ended. 😔 Thank you for covering this and for emphasizing how important it is to take into account people's mental health when there is an erratic shift in personality/actions. There will always be those who refuse help in those situations, but it's important to try.
I remember being so obsessed with this story and Brandon .....watching his posts come up on Instagram and other places was so strange.....but I still feel like we will never know the whole story and there was something very sinister about the way it all ended. #ripbrandon
Those types of behaviors are very consistent with bipolar disorder, bipolar 2, and cyclothymia. There is always an first onset breakdown and it really looks like that was very likely in his case. People suffering from these conditions can also be very resistant to seeking medical care because they cant tell that something is wrong. I have know own people who went through years of manic and depressive episodes before they decided to seek treatment. Its a very difficult condition.
🙏🏽This video is everything I hoped would be addressed a long time ago. Brandon publicly screaming for help…and then, nothing. This was a truly sad situation and I’m glad that you have addressed it here. Thank you James.🫶🏽
Brandon was a shooting star that burnt out too quickly. I was with Niod from the start and what a rush it was, I remember him saying the only way he could lose Deciem was if he was declared insane! Food for thought. Nicola was the Yin to his yang, a beautiful human being. Last i saw of Brandon was his ashes on a bare table with some Niod. A very stark end to a man who turned the beauty world on its head Feels like there is so much more to his story, too sudden an ending.
I remember when Brandon took over the Instagram and was talking about Nicola. I commented that he should just call her and the next post was him texting her. It was a very strange time
This was 100% brand new information for me, thanks for reviewing it! Wow..I don’t love all Ordinary products, but their squalane cleanser is a tried and true product-only thing not to burn my eyes but still gently remove all makeup/sunscreen. And so I love the brand for that product alone. But what a history, and having taken a turn I wasn’t expecting!
I will forever be thankful to The Ordinary for the revolution they brought in skin care. This brand has changed my skin care and my skin Love this brand ❤❤❤❤❤
I remember following when these Instagram posts were up and it was so sad to see. What disgusted me was people in his comments encouraging his erratic behaviour and feeding into his paranoia and hysteria. People were telling them to stop and to encourage him to get help (lots of other comments were telling him to seek medical help too). Just so tragic all around
I wasn't even aware The Ordinary had a downfall, tbh... apparently I live under a rock. 🥴
Same
Same here.
ditto!
yup same haha
It's more about the founder than the brand. The Ordiary never really stopped selling.
Edit: I completely forgot that the website shut down for a bit! So I guess that was a downfall of sorts, even though you could still purchase the product elsewhere, I think. Also, I see a lot of their products in people's bathrooms still so they're doing well rn.
The Ordinary made skincare supper super accessible.$13 for a bottle of something you'd normally see for $25. Taught regular people getting into skincare about different ingredients. I really appreciated this brand.
Mostly useless ingredients. In terrible formulations. From an apparently criminal company.
Me too. I knew nothing about skin care before the ordinary. They even taught what NOT to use together, when, and how.
Lucky you. One time I tried them and now I have little holes in my skin :(
@@bailing77😢
Good affordable products have always existed. Especially in Asia where I order half of my products. I bought two from The Ordinary, that were supposedly compatible, and it irritated my skin so much skincare wasn't enjoyable anymore. I couldn't even sleep 2 to 3 days in a row. So I never bought anything from them after this. 😢
As a psychologist, most suicidal individuals are at their calmest once they have made the decision and chose a plan to end their life. They feel that everything is in order. Mental health care is as important as physical care.
Mental health IS health! I don’t know why people think it’s so wrong to take meds for mental health. It’s like your brain is not producing what it needs, just like a diabetic’s pancreas might not be producing what it needs. You wouldn’t tell a diabetic not to take insulin, so why would you tell someone not to take mental health meds???
@@sierrarmcclain where did she say not to take medicines? 🤌🏻🙄
@@DebbieTDP She didn’t. But lots of people in America do. I was agreeing with her especially the statement that mental health care is as important as physical care. I went on to illustrate that point by comparing people who say don’t take meds to someone saying don’t take insulin. I’m sorry that that point didn’t come across well. I was agreeing with the original poster.
Yes. September is Suicide Prevention Month
@sierrarmcclain because nowaadays everything gets fixed with a pill. Id tell my type 2 disbetes patient to exercise and watch what they eat but nobody listens. They just take a pill and dont change a thing. Same for mental health, you can do a lot more than taking a pill in some cases, but again nobody does anything more than picking up a prescription (counseling, exercise, quitting drugs and alcohol, etc). And then of course there are conditions for which meds are unfortunately required but still people dont do anything more than that, because of unwillingness, misinformation, lack of resources, lack of familial support (that includes bridges they burned themselves, families are not always to blame).. So Inagree, mental health is important, but we rely so heavily on pharmaceuticals, it's scary and it keeps you trapped where you are.
I feel so sad for Brandon. He was unwell, very unwell and people forget that mental illness isn’t just depression and anxiety etc. Drugs can trigger extreme psychotic episodes and the problem is that often the people suffering don’t believe they are unwell, and that their beliefs are founded in reality. No one should ever judge their actions, they literally gave no control over them during these periods. This also happened to Lucian Piane from rupauls drag race. So upsetting
I don't think it is necessarily wrong to judge them, but definitely we need more mental health education for everyone. When I see stories like this (again bipolar gone off the rails) I worry if some day that could be me. Perhaps I'll be severely depressed cause of, idk, a bad break up, have idk a psychosis episode and never come back and receive help or something. With the knowledge that I have, I believe being more in that altered state leads to you being more easily in that state. And that's kind of horrifying.
Thankfully my closest friends are also knowledgeable about these things, so if something happened to one of us, if we're still friends, hopefully we'd be able to convince the person then to accept help.
Yep. I used to know someone (we've fallen out of touch due to moves and so on) who did some kind of herbal something or other at a music festival and it triggered schizophrenia and he was found walking naked down the street reciting bible verses. He was completely different until they got his meds sorted out properly, and it wasn't a gradual transition, it was just something in whatever he took didn't agree at all with his personal brain chemistry.
Yeah this happened to me. I took acid and I had such a bad trip I developed an eating disorder that took like 4 years to recover from. People act like acid and shrooms aren’t as bad because you can’t get addicted to them but they forget the mental tole it can take emotionally. It took me weeks to recover from my first acid trip and I should have learned my lesson then but when I did it the second time it led to more permanent consequences. Especially for people like me who are already genetically predisposed to mental illness it’s a huge risk to take and overdosing isn’t the only thing people need to worry about.
@@maimee1 I hope that it doesn't happen to you or your close friends. I hope you and your friends will notice early changes that you will be able to redirect before they turn to anything serious and will always be willing to seek help and receive help. Definitely therapy is also something to consider as professional might be able to spot earliest shifts and changes and will know best ways to manage those.
One of my friends from years ago had started new meds for bipolar that her doc had prescribed. One day during class in university she looked at the window next to her and went to open and was gonna "step" out of it (10th floor). She was caught by her professor and had rest of the day off uny. I don't exactly remember what she said she saw there, but she saw something through the window that made her want to go there. She was not aware of the fact that she was in a class with others or more importantly that she is on the 10th floor of this building. Afterwards she was scared to try other meds to find what works, because she didn't want to be in a situation where there is no one around to save her from herself.
Bipolar is so complicated as are so many other mental health illnesses.
People often forget that the medications used to treat mental illnesses have very real, very serious side effects. Also, since so many mental illnesses present themselves with very similar symptoms and actions it is extremely difficult to properly diagnose and treat. Not only that, but everyone has different brain chemistry and DNA, so no diagnosis or treatment is "cookie cutter". Treatments also don't interact well with recreational substances, which many people will not be open about to heathcare providers. I've been through all sorts of medication switches, treatment programs, etc. and it's not easy when your body and mind don't react favorably to treatment. It's a constant struggle and I feel for anyone who suffers from mental health issues.
Just to answer your confusion, CVS & Walgreens are both basically the Same thing, just different companies. They have pharmacies, extensive drug store makeup sections, they sell hella marked up foods as well & a bunch of random stuff. They’re basically interchangeable
I came here to say this also
Yep. Only difference is Walgreens went on an acquisition spree a few years agoand bought up some other chains including Boots.
Rite Aid used to be included in that “conglomerate cornerstore” group. I think they filed for bankruptcy at some point
@@kcototheyoyoyoWe still have Rite Aid in NYC and Duane Reade as well as Walgreens and CVS.
Idk bout cvs, but walgreens and boots are owned by the same company now. Same way yall have Walmart and we a supermarket owned by them but it's called Asda
I had a friend who passed earlier this year by suicide. She was schizoaffective and a year and a half before her passing she had jumped from a window during a psychotic episode and was paralysed from the waist down.
I recognise Brandon’s behaviour as it is very similar to my friends during psychosis. A radical shift in personality, beliefs, behaviour, and erratic and/or cryptic social media posts along with rash decision making are typical signs of psychosis.
I can only speculate, but there are several reasons why one would avoid alcohol and some of them include a family history of alcoholism/mental health issues or an inability to handle your liquor. In these cases you have to be EXTREMELY careful with drugs. Ideally you shouldn’t do them. Drug induced psychosis is a very real and common thing. I also think it’s important that more people can recognise the signs of psychosis/schizophrenia cause many times it’s written off as being an asshole all of a sudden. Anyway, that’s my two cents.
Absolutely. I wish it was talked about more (in general) that even something as “harmless” as marijuana can have disastrous effects on people with certain mental illnesses or predispositions, and you won’t always know if you’re at risk. If you’re predisposed to a psychotic disorder but haven’t developed symptoms yet, weed can trigger an episode and then… you just have to live with a psychotic disorder. I can’t even imagine what other drugs could do to a person.
I had a really similar experience with my best friend, and I immediately recognized that Brandon was having psychosis. My friend is fortunately still alive, but I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you're okay, I can't imagine if that happened to my friend.
I already left a long comment explaining the situation with my friend, so I will just copy it under this comment, in case you or anyone else is interested.
Almost from the beginning of the video I was thinking "this must be psychosis", and now I'm 100% sure I was right.
A couple years ago, my best girl friend experienced psychosis and had exactly the same symptoms as Brandon, but fortunately she survived. She had a lot of hard stuff going on in her life, and her mom was schizophrenic almost all her life, but the family was too ashamed to seek help, which meant that my underage friend had to deal with her talking to herself, having delusions, kicking her out of the house and not opening for 6 months, breaking down walls with a hammer, even pulling a knife on my friend on multiple occasions. Her mom was really unstable and couldn't take care of herself and her daughter, and no one else was around. One day her mom threw out my friend's dog out of a window of their apartment, and my friend took it really bad especially when she couldn't find the dog. The same day she tried mushrooms for the first time. Later I found out that for people who have family history of schizophrenia or psychosis- psychedelic drugs can sometimes trigger psychosis, especially when combined with stress, which I assume was the case for Brandon as well. It started with nonsensical speech and ideas, weird social media posts, hearing voices, having delusions, paranoid (usually about someone following them) etc. For example she would listen to the radio or commercials and somehow conclude from that that her lost dog is in another city, and she would travel to that city alone to search for her dog, and no one could stop her. She lost a lot of weight because she didn't eat, she didn't shower or brush her teeth, and she slept maybe a couple of hours every few days. Multiple times she told me that a famous singer (Beyonce, Taylor Swift etc) came to a bar we frequently go to, to wish her a happy birthday and sing for her, and that the waiters served ecstasy and cocaine in there instead of water. She couldn't see that there's no possible way any of this could happen. The morning of her arrest went something like this:
At 3 AM she went to the same bar I mentioned with a knife. Fortunately the bar was already closed but there was a cleaning lady who was terrified of my friend and locked herself in the bathroom. She then got in a taxi threatening the driver with the knife to take her to my home. She got outside of my house at 6 AM and started banging on the door, crying, laughing, yelling nonsense and I was too afraid to open especially when she told me she would stab me with her knife because my mom is her mom. Idk what that means. I called her dad and begged him to come. When he came eventually and asked her to go to the hospital, she replied " dad you just want to see my p*ssy*" (also nonsense). Then the neighbors called the police and while they were arresting her, she was yelling "I will kill those who raped me, snorted cocaine of me, and stabbed me in the vein with h*roin" (again, none of this is true, she read some articles in the news about women who experienced those things and she imagined it was her). When they took her to the hospital she refused to eat or drink anything because she believed they were trying to poison her, and she just went up and down the room yelling nonsensical stuff. All of this (and a lot more) happened and escalated in a month. She is okay now as far as I know. She's taking her meds and finishing college.
Sorry for the long post, I never talk about this because it left me with a lot of trauma, but since Brandon's case reminded me of it, I wanted to share and hopefully help or educate people who are dealing with this, or have a loved one who is dealing with this, so you could recognize the signs. I feel so sorry for Brandon, despite his success and wealth no one stepped in, helped him or even gor him to a mental hospital in time. It is so unfortunate, because this could've been prevented.
As far as those offensive posts that he made, I just wanted to say that my friend also sent threatening messages to animal shelters because she believed that they stole her dog (even though I mentioned that her mom threw him out of a tall apartment window and he got lost), but before this happened she would never, and I mean never be rude to anyone, I've known her since we were children and we never even had an argument, and I've never seen her have an argument with anyone else, even if they were bullying or abusing her, unfortunately. I believe it's the same case with Brandon, especially when everyone described him as a kind person, and I think it was just the psychosis talking. My friend was completely the opposite person before her psychosis, so much so that it even felt like she was possessed by something. The pain Brandon caused people in that state is, of course, real and valid and I'm not denying that. It's just that I don't want him (or anyone) to be remembered by stuff they did while they were seriously mentally ill, especially if they were the opposite of that when they were healthy. I hope his family is aware of that and that at least they remember him for who he actually is, but it's so sad to see that a society which is supposed to be more progressive or more aware of mental health issues today, still doesn't recognize and respect a clearly mentally ill person (the same thing as with the airplane lady which was also having a mental health crisis).
Again sorry for the long post to anyone who's reading this
@@elonmusk921honestly, even mindfulness meditation can cause problems for certain people.
Wow. This story is so tragic. It's heartbreaking that even though he was so clearly struggling so publicly, and presumably had many resources potentially available to him, he didn't get the help he needed. 💔
People attacked him online, while he very much clearly having a mental health episode
A lot of people in the Industry tried to help Brandon
Because of his mental state he turned on everyone and vilified them publicly. Brandon was totally off the rails but he refused to let anyone help him
He was not left to sink!
It's very sad that it became a spectacle of sort. That people couldn't see a man suffering just thought of it as entertainment. It's sickening.
One of the worst things about mental illness is that people can be too ill to take care of themself and still be judged too 'sane' to be commited against their will or forced to take their meds. And then there is not really much friends and family is able to do. It happened to my family and it may have happened here. In our case our family member stopped taking the meds, became increasingly angry and paranoid, and then died of completely treatable heart issues because they refused to go see any doctor for any reason.
@@MsHedgehogWatching someone close to you struggle with their mental illness is very difficult. I’m so sorry for your loss.
People really do forget that it’s not “just makeup/skincare”. It’s someone’s life, someone’s passion/love. That’s why soo many talented people are scared to start businesses because once you do it’s like signing yourself over to the public which is soo scary.
As someone with bipolar I can absolutely see Brandon having it. The amount of impulsive and bizarre things that I did in manic episodes (as well as saying things that I’m not proud of or identify my beliefs with) really match up with his. I hope he’s resting in peace and everyone who’s lives he’s touched is healing
That's exactly what I was thinking. His symptoms sound very much like a manic episode. And unfortunately the other side of mania is a big depression.
He also sounds like he's suffering from psychosis often linked with bipolar disorder.
Omg I had NO idea he had died, I'm so shocked. I remember in 2018 (I worked in skincare at the time) seeing stuff about him going off the rails and it seeming like the brand was going under, but I thought that Estee Lauder had just stepped in and acquired it and everything went back to "normal" 😐 What a horrible sad story.
I didn’t know either!! So terrible 😢
It was terrible watching it all play out on social media. You could see his mental state tank. His followers were worried they were calling the police asking to help him. I remember watching his last post then seeing news of his death the next day.
19:44-20:26 This is what stuck out to me too at the time, the people treating the situation as a spectacle... truly awful. While I appreciate you covering this topic, I do wish the title could be slightly modified...seems some people are assuming that there's a current "downfall" of The Ordinary skincare, not something that happened with the brand's former owner
Exactly.. I followed it when it happened and was really sad for what happened to Brandon and all the nasty politics at the heart of it all. The caption used is slightly misleading as it makes people think The Ordinary is in distress which is not the case.
Yes! There were even people encouraging him and playing along with his thought process! Idk if they were trolls or well meaning, but it definitely didn't help him in any way
yeah, i thought there was a scandal when i read "downfall"..... this isn't a scandal it's a tragedy
it’s on purpose, as “empathetic” as these people seem, at the end of the day, he’s an influencer and wants his bag.
hence an ambiguous, slightly provocative title
I think it might be because this way it fits in some series. Robert has done alot of "the downfall of *insert make-up brand*". So maybe James is creating something like that but more skincare-y?
I've been wanting to hear a summary of this. I just got into skincare just when The Ordinary started and lived in Toronto at that time too. Brandon was enigmatic in their IG until the posts started getting crazy and disturbing. He was such a forward thinker and it's so heartbreaking that he ended up dying so tragically.
The full video is worth the watch
Didnt know anyof this just that I love their buffet and other products. still buying
this is so sad. thank you for opening up a conversation about the mental health struggles this individual went through and your compassion towards his struggles 🖤 it means a lot as someone with mental health issues
Exactly! It's not as if he WANTED to have mental health problems. We don't do these things on purpose! (Yes, I'm one of the "crazy people" - bipolar disorder)! I just wish the "normies" realized it's not something we can control 100% of the time. Sometimes, I wish that they could see just what it's like to not have complete control over your thoughts and/or actions.
great point! my biggest mental health issue is OCD, and much of the time it seems I don't have control over my thoughts. even though we may be deemed ''crazy'' by the general public, please know that we very much so fit the definition of ''normal''- just as much as other people, even without mental illness. this is something I'm trying to remember.. thanks for your reply to my comment; it really gave me insight into this situation! I wish the best for you and yours :)@@samanthafairweather9186
Didn't know the Ordinary had a downfall 💀
Me too, and it just became available in stores in my country 😂
Same thought I had.
I bought something from them yesterday 💀
Hint: they're trying to get rid of their deadstock because no one in the US/Canada are buying them anymore
Neither did I.. and I use a bunch of their products. Time to learn why I need to stop I guess 😅
I knew nothing of this. I feel so silly but as a person with almost no social media I can’t believe I didn’t hear about this because The Ordinary got so big and I’ve always used a few of their products since their launch. I did see that there were some changes made to the company itself and it really took off, I just wish I had known the full story. Thank you so much for shedding light on this. Rest peacefully Brandon, it’s very unfortunate that nobody had intervened in time and that he never truly got the help he so obviously needed. There are products I still use to this day from The Ordinary and I’ll continue to buy them but I will definitely be paying more attention to the brands story. I try to stick with cleaner brands but knowing the full story behind the products you buy and companies you support is so important. Thank you James you’re absolutely lovely. ❤
I had no idea about this. It is so tragic and horrible. The poor guy was obviously struggling, it is such a shame that someone this talented couldn't get or accept the help he needed. Such a tragedy.
The thing about mental health is that we all talk about it and bring 'awerness'. But in reality it is so bad. Getting appointment to psychiatrist is so difficult and even of you want to go do the hospital it's very difficult to find a place that would take you. And it's only when you realize that you need help. If you're in bad mental state but you don't want to go to the hospital. They can't make you to do so. Then the only possibility to help that person is going through court which is not easy. We're all like...awww mental health is so important but in reality there's not much we can do because of system being broken. It seems like we can talk gibberish about it but then nothing happens. And it's sad
I agree..
I feel like the ordinary really helped westerners understand their skincare. Over in Asia it’s common to be clued in with ingredients etc but because skin treatments and skincare has always been expensive and less important over here (west/uk/America) it really helped people navigate their skin concerns and how to help their skin on their own instead of relying solely on expensive treatments
People start off with what ingredient sounds interesting if the product isn't specifically targeting a concern in its title. A cleanser with Marshmallow Root + Calendula may be more exciting than Ceramides. It's definitely important to become more familiar with the actions of each star ingredient.
I loved learning the processes of Asian skincare, and some of their quirky ingredients like pig collagen (controversial for a variety of reasons), swiftlet extract, snail mucin, and donkey milk. My routine has expanded from a cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen to inclusions of glycolic acid, retinol, and red light therapy. It's such a delight to have something so nice to do for yourself twice a day. ☺️
Yeah, the west really had/has a weird market niche for skincare--insanely overpriced, mystical and opaque branding to make you feel like it's a magic potion while telling you really nothing at all, in combination with a degree of general cultural apathy toward the importance of skincare in a beauty or even skin health regimen. We apparently care very much about getting a magical potion, enough to shuck out hundreds of dollars, but only if our skin is already concerning enough for us to do so, and then we're desperate and we still don't know what we need and how to find it because no brand will educate you on what anything does lest they lose money by not pushing their most expensive product.
ANYWAY. Lol. It's been interesting over the past few years seeing how east asian skincare culture (and products) has been changing that landscape
@@ZestyBison00 most people didn't understand ingredients, they just went for what they thought did everything but most people now know that it takes more than cleanser, thick moisturiser, and spf to keep your skin in godly condition. There's a whole community of weirdos on Tiktok who follow an infulencer (she isn't qualified in any sort of science) that preach only using retinol and spf, they didn't wanna hear how that combination alone would ruin some peoples faces even though their own faces were okay, they didn't even know what type of retinoid they used. My mother is thai and is trash at self care, she literally doesn't understand basic and common sense things and says "you're too young" when i use anti aging or anything of the like. she smokes a pack a day, done so for like 30 years and gets mad when i tell her she looks terrible for her age after she asks if she looks young. Fortunately she has beautiful and knowledgable friends who I stuck to as a child because they would give me mini facials and let me use their big girl expensive creams lol I am glad that brand are now putting their key ingredients on their products with descriptions of what they do
@@alexia3552 its not just east asian skincare culture but the entirety of Asian cultures. I've seen people "discover" "hacks" even though the methods were used in India for millennia, I think Korea and Japan are leads in the field only because they're 1st world countries compared to the majority of south and south east asian countries being developing countries, the techniques and knowledge they have now comes from hundreds of years of Asian countries adopting and adapting their neighbors skincare.
I think another thing is that Korea and Japan are OBSESSED with appearance so I'm not surprised they are constantly churning out new skincare since they have to keep adding to this impossible standard of beauty they have.
But with the expensive niche wester brands... YES. I remember being a kid and seeing clarins or other brands with these "magical anti aging creams" which we all know now are just overpriced heavy moisturisers with a brand name slapped on them 😭 idk how people still buy from these expensive brands when there are cheaper brands who do products BETTER
I was an art director here in Toronto for Deciem back when they first kickstarted Hylamide and worked with Brandon for just a little under 2 years. A genuinely very kind person, and very eccentric. Always wanted to do a million different things a minute and didn't necessarily always explain things vividly. It was hard to capture his vision lol. Always felt like his mind was racing 24/7 and he couldn't keep up. Anyway, his loss was quite surreal when it happened. It felt like it came out of nowhere, but it also reallllllllly didn't, if that makes any sense.
PS. It's pronounced "DEH-SEE-YUM"
PSS: I completely forgot about the ESHO chaos until this video. This one broke my heart as I was literally counting down the days for the release of the line and 2 of the products from launch ended up being my two holy grails of all time. I left Deciem at this point to join my old ad agency, but I definitely vividly remember scrolling through social to see Brandon's infamous "we are too busy to love your brand" post and just being in complete utter shock and disappointment. Also, the new products are not anywhere as good as the original launch products under Deciem, so yeah, still heartbroken.
Do you have dupe for Hylamide SubQ Skin? I don't like Buffet.
This has provided enormous insight for me. I’d almost bet that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. That flight of ideas, and everything being the next greatest thing to take on the world is sadly a very common experience for many with bipolar when they’re not medicated/not balanced.
In fact I remember seeing an interview with another very successful exec, I can’t remember who, who suffered with bipolar his entire life until finally receiving a late in life diagnosis. How you described Brandon is exactly the experience this man spoke of.
Your comment makes complete sense in both the shock and simultaneous non-surprise.
Thank you for sharing your little insights & anecdotes. I think so often, especially in the corporate and the creative world, mental illness is ignored if not encouraged so long as it’s _functional_
We’ll happily accept the ‘eccentricities’ so long as that person is creating phenomenal art, music, writing, or generating millions of dollars.
We’ll say _Oh that’s just Brandon, he’s always like that! There’s method to his madness!__ etc.
It’s only once the person succumbs to their mental illness, and/or crashes in their work product, that it becomes an issue.
Being an art director I suspect you’ve seen more than your fair share of such personalities over the years:
Thank you for sharing. I followed Brandon on instagram and remember him wanting to connect with customers and I thought he was so kind and even had a few conversations in the comments with him. He was such a genius when it came to skincare and it was so heartbreaking to see him go in a downward spiral and clearly needed help. I really wish he got the help he needed…I’m no professional but my husband has bipolar disorder and I seen the signs in Brandon.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I have to second the other two commenters. I have type 1 bipolar disorder. My Grandmother, Aunty and Mum were all diagnosed with it too. Both my Aunty and Mum died by suicide well before their time. My Aunt in 1998 and my Mum just a year ago.
Suicide rates for bipolar disorder are very high. Based on numerous studies, researchers estimate that 25% to 60% of individuals with bipolar disorder will attempt suicide at least once in their lives and between 4% and 19% will complete suicide. These rates are far higher than the total population. Worldwide, suicide accounts for 1.3% of deaths.
Your description of Brandon also matches a lot of mania symptoms; high energy, confidence, exuberance, racing thoughts, forced speech, euphoria and a desire to connect with people. Severe mania can also lead to psychosis.
I know both the pain of living with this disorder and the pain of losing loved ones to it. I'm so sorry for your loss. Thanks again for sharing and I hope you're doing well.
@@ScoobyDoozy when people say "that's just the way they are" about creatives with mental illness, I wouldn't say that amounts to ignoring their mental illness until it interrupts their work so much as it's really not their place to control that person or forcibly intervene. It's not illegal to be mentally ill. You only get your freedom taken away from you if you break laws or can't keep yourself alive. You can't force someone else to behave or think the way you'd prefer them to. We can't assume we know what's best for other people, and even if we do, there's no way we can rightfully make them act "appropriately"
Almost from the beginning of the video I was thinking "this must be psychosis", and now I'm 100% sure I was right.
A couple years ago, my best girl friend experienced psychosis and had exactly the same symptoms as Brandon, but fortunately she survived. She had a lot of hard stuff going on in her life, and her mom was schizophrenic almost all her life, but the family was too ashamed to seek help, which meant that my underage friend had to deal with her talking to herself, having delusions, kicking her out of the house and not opening for 6 months, breaking down walls with a hammer, even pulling a knife on my friend on multiple occasions. Her mom was really unstable and couldn't take care of herself and her daughter, and no one else was around. One day her mom threw out my friend's dog out of a window of their apartment, and my friend took it really bad especially when she couldn't find the dog. The same day she tried mushrooms for the first time. Later I found out that for people who have family history of schizophrenia or psychosis- psychedelic drugs can sometimes trigger psychosis, especially when combined with stress, which I assume was the case for Brandon as well. It started with nonsensical speech and ideas, weird social media posts, hearing voices, having delusions, paranoid (usually about someone following them) etc. For example she would listen to the radio or commercials and somehow conclude from that that her lost dog is in another city, and she would travel to that city alone to search for her dog, and no one could stop her. She lost a lot of weight because she didn't eat, she didn't shower or brush her teeth, and she slept maybe a couple of hours every few days. Multiple times she told me that a famous singer (Beyonce, Taylor Swift etc) came to a bar we frequently go to, to wish her a happy birthday and sing for her, and that the waiters served ecstasy and cocaine in there instead of water. She couldn't see that there's no possible way any of this could happen. The morning of her arrest went something like this:
At 3 AM she went to the same bar I mentioned with a knife. Fortunately the bar was already closed but there was a cleaning lady who was terrified of my friend and locked herself in the bathroom. She then got in a taxi threatening the driver with the knife to take her to my home. She got outside of my house at 6 AM and started banging on the door, crying, laughing, yelling nonsense and I was too afraid to open especially when she told me she would stab me with her knife because my mom is her mom. Idk what that means. I called her dad and begged him to come. When he came eventually and asked her to go to the hospital, she replied " dad you just want to see my p*ssy*" (also nonsense). Then the neighbors called the police and while they were arresting her, she was yelling "I will kill those who raped me, snorted cocaine of me, and stabbed me in the vein with h*roin" (again, none of this is true, she read some articles in the news about women who experienced those things and she imagined it was her). When they took her to the hospital she refused to eat or drink anything because she believed they were trying to poison her, and she just went up and down the room yelling nonsensical stuff. All of this (and a lot more) happened and escalated in a month. She is okay now as far as I know. She's taking her meds and finishing college.
Sorry for the long post, I never talk about this because it left me with a lot of trauma, but since Brandon's case reminded me of it, I wanted to share and hopefully help or educate people who are dealing with this, or have a loved one who is dealing with this, so you could recognize the signs. I feel so sorry for Brandon, despite his success and wealth no one stepped in, helped him or even gor him to a mental hospital in time. It is so unfortunate, because this could've been prevented.
As far as those offensive posts that he made, I just wanted to say that my friend also sent threatening messages to animal shelters because she believed that they stole her dog (even though I mentioned that her mom threw him out of a tall apartment window and he got lost), but before this happened she would never, and I mean never be rude to anyone, I've known her since we were children and we never even had an argument, and I've never seen her have an argument with anyone else, even if they were bullying or abusing her, unfortunately. I believe it's the same case with Brandon, especially when everyone described him as a kind person, and I think it was just the psychosis talking. My friend was completely the opposite person before her psychosis, so much so that it even felt like she was possessed by something. The pain Brandon caused people in that state is, of course, real and valid and I'm not denying that. It's just that I don't want him (or anyone) to be remembered by stuff they did while they were seriously mentally ill, especially if they were the opposite of that when they were healthy. I hope his family is aware of that and that at least they remember him for who he actually is, but it's so sad to see that a society which is supposed to be more progressive or more aware of mental health issues today, still doesn't recognize and respect a clearly mentally ill person (the same thing as with the airplane lady which was also having a mental health crisis).
Again sorry for the long post to anyone who's reading this lol.
Thank u for this long post.. I really appreciate u did… making ppl aware that mental issues r actually vry serious.. n sud b taken care of immediately n carefully.. thanx agin👍
Thank you for sharing this and I think you are exactly right about the psychosis. Completely changed a person and they shouldn’t be held to the same standards as someone in control of their facilities.
Glad your friend is doing better but I’m sure that stuff haunts her every day poor thing. I would probably have a breakdown if my dog was thrown out a window too
Thank you for sharing this story. No matter how many celebrities or social media posts speak about removing the stigma around mental illness we still have a long way to go. Getting people's stories out there helps. I am glad your friend got the the help that Brandon unfortunately didn't despite having the means to. There are so many people who need help and can't afford with Brandon that wasn't the case unfortunately nobody was able to get through to him in time to get him the help he needed.
Sadly there isn't a lot that can be done for adults in mental distress if they refuse help. Unless they are posing a threat to themselves or others they can literally do what they want.
I'm so sorry your friend experienced that and that you too could do little for her beyond be her friend and love her.
It's not until someone experiences mental health issues that the lack of provision becomes evident. I'm so very glad she is progressing well and I hope that you are well also.
When you experience it, you can spot it immediately, it's too bad no one could help him
What got my attention about the brand The Ordinary was reading how the makers said most brands did work, a little…but there wasn’t enough of the active ingredient to initiate a significant benefit. The article went on to say they - or he- was frustrated at the corruption and deception in skin care and they wanted to give the consumer the full benefit without paying the “ luxury tax” and that thinking has my vote every time.
Watching everything that went down with Brandon was a really strange experience. The company had an incredible trajectory and then it just seemed to go off the rails and now it's just.. there. It's nothing great, it's nothing terrible. It's just.. there.
You could say it’s pretty Ordinary
Hahahaha, perfect
I really love the ordinary to this day. Why would I pay £30 for niacinimide dew drop when I can buy the ordinary one for a 1/4 of the price and it works just as well ?
@@Fwootgummi Ayyy😂
Downfall?! 😮 I discovered the Ordinary just this year! They changed my skin and I get two holy grails from them right now. ❤
You're a tad bit late 😅😊
You aren't too late. It's still great.
@@dashnja.9202 i meant she's late in discovering them. It's one of my favourite brands. 🙏🏻❤️
@@DebbieTDPyoure a tad bit mean.
@@Osuzyque I was joking, I wasn't mean.
Mean it's different.
Mean would have been a comment like.."did you live under a rock until now?" Or something like "are you from Mars?"
I'm sure she is capable to reply by herself anyway, if she gets huffed up like you!!🤌🏻🥴
I vaguely heard whispers of this story when I got into skincare in 2020. Didn’t know how deep it went. Thanks for sharing this.
The Ordinary Niacinamide and zinc changed my world. It was the first product that actually reduced my acne and oiliness and didn't irritate my skin. I have tried other brands over the past years (even though it took a while for other brands to lauch a similar product) but this is still my favorite. This was a very interesting video, tnx James.
Just wrote a comment saying this! The product changed my skin forever and I saw the benefits almost instantly! Staple in my lineup now..
The Diary Of A CEO interview with Nicola:
ruclips.net/video/PDg7m489d1M/видео.htmlsi=jOpZlEY2sN66xUPQ
Thank you.
I highly encourage people to watch this episode, but make sure you are in a good head space because it's pretty raw. That said, the discussion is an important one and I am so thankful that the topic was presented.
@@goddessnocturnasthank you! I was going to listen to it now, before I go to sleep but I can have some incredibly disturbing dreams that leave me literally traumatized when I wake up. I’ll keep it for the morning instead
This was such an interesting podcast.
Whenever we feel we need to speak badly or idly chat about other peoples problems it's a good idea to check with yourself what your motive is. The problem generally starts at home and is a careless, completely uninformed knee jerk reaction to a total strangerd private issues. If it is a mental health crisis is not gossip it's hate and it is exponentially felt by the sufferer. James, you handled this really well, all round 🧡
That’s such a sad story. My younger brother also died similarly, he was in poor mental health and impulsive. It’s very hard to process. Thanks for covering this.
I’m so sorry to hear this. It’s devastating to lose someone like that.
@@jessamineprice5803 Thank you ❤️🩹
I remember watching that Instagram live the day it came out because my colleagues were so into The Ordinary, and a bunch of them went on a panic buy. We knew something wasn’t right, but it’s sad that on looking back that this outcome seemed inevitable.
I remember all this happening in real time. I followed Brandon's personal ig and he was so active and responsive to any questions you asked him. He was so sweet and helpful. It was so shocking to witness everything until the very end, I remember being in disbelief. I truly hope he's at peace.
Same. It was watching someone spiral in real time and so sad and concerning. I was so saddened but not surprised when he died; this person was ill and needed help and the whole thing was tragic.
Gosh, this is actually one of the saddest videos that you've done. What an awful situation and how harrowing it is to watch those videos and posts. I can only imagine how much pain he was in and how terrified he likely was. Poor man 😔
I remember watching every single Instagram story Brandon Truaxe made and as a former addict, I immediately knew he was using amphetamines. No one can change my mind on this. I now work with addicts and see a lot of people in psychosis from methamphetamine and other substances and it is very obvious. I felt so bad for him and just wanted to reach through the screen and slap him silly because I could feel what he was feeling. Just horrible that a genius like this went down the way he did.
Does it supercharge your brain may be that's why he took it but succumbs to it's sideeffects. Much like a short term euphoria followed by haunting depression.
It’s crazy how fast it can make someone become mentally unhinged. It happened to my ex just after 3 months of use. He became extremely paranoid that the CIA was following him, had hacked his computer, hacked his car, sending brain waves to mess him up, etc.
You might find this interesting. I think Brandon was experiencing severe bipolar mania. The manic brain and the brain on meth have very similar chemistry. Basically, during mania the brain releases tonnes of dopamine, just like with meth.
I have type 1 bipolar (the most severe type) and I have also tried meth in the past. I was shocked to find that mania and meth feel identical. The same euphoria, increased self-esteem, forced speech, lowered inhibitions, racing thoughts, insomnia etc.
I've had to take drug tests while manic and they're always surprised to see that I'm "clean". Yeah I'm clean, just very mentally ill...
Just like meth, severe mania can also lead to psychosis - which I have also experienced.
Meth and bipolar mania are very similar which is why I think Brandon may have been bipolar and experiencing a manic episode but it is also possible he was using meth too. The effects are basically indistinguishable without a drug test.
Out of curiosity, what line of work are you in? I ask because I work in education and recognize (from personal past psychiatrist prescribed medication) that many of my cohorts definitely use stimulants.
@stancexpunks My ex-hubby was shooting meth, unbeknownst to me, & suspected me of trying to have him killed (I was 7 months pregnant at the time). He would sit in the apartment & shoosh me, saying "The walls have ears." He was paranoid & delusional, & ended up getting piss tested & kicked out of the Army.
I remember this all unfolding - I’m in Toronto and our news outlets were constantly updating on it. The Deciem store on Bay and Bloor was closed for a bit and we all just waited to see if they would reopen at all. I was so sad to see what happened to Brandon!
The Ordinary is still highly popular in the States. Thank you for these great informative videos. ❤
James I think that has to be one of the best videos you have ever done. You can see your compassion and humanity and concern come through for what you do and for other people. I just had to tell you that. I don’t normally comment on social media but I felt compelled to. I love all your videos but this was some of your best work.
What an incredibly compassionate gentleman you are James. It's healthy to shine the light on the truth of our lives, not just gloss over the seriousness of mental health and how common it really is in society today.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The thing I always remember about Brandon’s final months were the influencers that jumped on condemning him without taking into account he may have been having a MH crisis. This overview was so informative thank-you.
I remember watching Brandon's mental health issues through his Instagram posts on the ordinary and it really concerned and scared me for his well-being. He was literally having and going through drug induced psychosis episodes in some of them
I've heard about it at a time...just so sad. I'll always have a soft spot for the Ordinary. They tought me about ingredients. I always have at least 1-3 the Ordinary products in my stash.
I had no idea! I loved TO and would stock up during their once a year sale. When they sold off and almost all the prices increased, it felt like a betrayal of what TO was created to be; quality, AFFORDABLE skincare. But I don't really follow social media and had no idea all this was happening to the creator behind the scenes... it's really sad, both he and his vision had such a tragic end :(
Especially as Brandon was passionate about cruelty free yet Estee Lauder test on animals..
“It is nice to know that there is more than just ingredients that go into your skincare” ~James Welsh 2023
Spoken with such truth and with much love 🩷
I use some of the products from this company but had no idea about the tragic story of its founder. How incredibly sad
Thank you James for bringing Mental health into this discussion😇! It's very sad to hear that he didn't receive more help..and I'm also shocked to hear that the Ordinary had a downfall🙄? 💜👏💜
his story is so tragic, I remember his posts on Instagram, there were email screenshots and a lot of stuff that didn't make sense but it was obvious it was private matters and that he needed help
I really got into skincare properly around 2022 so missed all this. What a tragic story 😢
Same. Wecxe0t for me it was probably 2021
Me too! The Ordinary was my first retinol
I was following the Ordinary's Instagram in 2018, and when their posts started getting weird, I was so confused. I figured they were hacked or something and unfollowed, but I always wondered what had happened. Now I know, lol, and it's crazier than I could have ever imagined.
I remember this well, I was a part of "the ordinary cult" per se. We had a very busy facebook group where we would comment on everything that was going on. What you haven't mentioned is that Brandon wasn't just posting on social media, he was sending us bizarre emails (through the newsletter), and he would publicly BASH anyone who commented anything against him (whether telling him to get help, or asking the team to get him off the official account). He also liked to make it clear that he was the owner of the brand, and no one would get him off the account. If I'm not mistaken he said he changed the passwords so not one else could login. It got worse when he started to publicly bash Estee Lauder, and then he was served a lawsuit - he posted the entirety of the papers he received, and victimised himself. That was when he was removed from the ordinary and the official social media channels of the brand.
I'm not gonna lie, in the group everyone cheered on the news. We were just happy Brandon wouldn't be allowed to continue to run the brand we all loved into the mud.
I also remember that last livestream, he was complaining about the noise on the street (if I'm not mistaken) and even stated his full address a few times during the transmission. Then the news broke that he had passed. At the time it wasn't said that he fell off his window, so everyone was speculating on his cause of death and many people thought he had overdosed.
Watching your video was a trip down memory lane, because I watched it all so closely. I hope Brandon is resting in peace now, very sad ending to such a talented man.
thank you for being so respectful when talking about these sensitive subjects. your content is very well researched and enjoyable to watch!
I'm still buying and using The Ordinary 🤷♀️ Cuz I still like the whole choosing my own ingredients
You handled this with so much sensitivity and insight, exactly why all these years I still love your videos ♥️
This is a surprise to me. I only discovered the brand about 4 months ago when I decided I finally needed more skincare than just cleanser and sunscreen. I appreciate The Ordinary's commitment to science-based, no-hype, fairly priced products as I'm looking into serious skincare. So much of the industry seems like pretension and puffery.
That WAS the original thought and creative start with Brandon. Since 2018, it’s been a Totally money grab shit show. Save money anyway they can cut every corner until you’re left with a circle.
I really appreciate you using your platform to cover this especially during #mentalhealthswaness month. I remember when The Ordinary ( Deciem ) was new and Brandon owned Deciem. I followed him on Instagram & even have had a conversation with him a few times. I watched Brandon make videos on instagram watch thing’s goes downhill & I just really wished that the ppl around him would’ve helped Brandon out more. It was really heartbreaking to watch him struggle online & not truly get the help he needed 💔 RIP Brandon ❤️
Very sad story, but presented with such heart and sensitivity. Thank you, James💜
I remember watching this unfold and being concerned for his mental health and seeing comments on the videos he posted of people lashing out at those that were saying they were concerned, saying they were making accusations and shouldn’t be making diagnoses and to let him be.
Ty for your considerate words. It’s so hard with a mental health crisis to know what to do for loved ones and sometimes all you can do is hang on for the ride. Ty for bringing a human face to the story.❤
A sad yet interesting back story of The Ordinary. Many of us have or have had friends derail similar to Brandon.
Concerned individuals try to reach out, try to help friends going through a harsh emotional or mental patch and are frequently pushed away. At least that has been my experience. It's heartbreaking.
"Nice knowing that there are more than just ingredients that go in your skincare", so true...
the ordinary actually opened my way into the world of skincare and to hear such a sad story is so horrible.. i had no idea THAT actually happened
Everything EL touches dies.
what other things EL destroyed, could you tell me please? Idk much about EL.
I can't believe how fast people forgot about this. I remember him using Deciem's insta as his personal, and all the weird things he said and did on there. He wasn't well, and anyone could see that, but what did people do? What people do. There were so many horrible comments mocking and berating him. And when he died it took like a month, and people acted like he never existed.
I too had no idea this happened. How horrible for this to have happened. He clearly needed help and gossip overshadowed his trouble with mental health. I hope he is at peace now.
i'm bipolar and it breaks my heart to think that that might've been what he was struggling with. mania is truly horrible and i wouldn't wish it on anyone. with proper medication, i've been able to lead a normal life. i do feel like this is a case where he didn't have very much support from those around him. without my support system of my family, fiance, friends, and therapist, i definitely wouldn't be where i am today. sad case all around. we definitely have a long way to go with mental health awareness and access.
I remember the downfall of Brandon but this was after I got into The Ordinary. Some of the stuff he was doing before his death reminded me so much of my brother having a highly manic episode before he passed away. BP is still not as well understood and I imagine the drugs made it worse. Thank you for showing compassion to someone who was clearly suffering. ❤
Thank you for addressing this in the way you have. People don’t really take mental health seriously, still even now.
I feel so sad for the guy that died! It sounds like he was so alone😢
Hi James, Did not realize they had a downfall. I like The Ordinary and began using some of their products after you reviewed it quite some time ago. Looking forward to watching this.
In India too it's most affected brand for syrum
*James:* What a thoughtful episode and summary, honoring the people behind the brands. Please do more like this about different skincare companies.
As a long awaited newcomer to the brand, I'm right there with everyone else when I say I had no idea all of this went down 😱 RIP to Brandon, I can imagine how his success made it all the more easy to succumb to his addictions 😢🙏🏽
I love that the ordinary gave us an opportunity to learn exactly what product does what, then making it easier to figure out what product or product combinations will work best for our individual skin. They did great
Am so moved by this . I watched Nicola’s interview a few months ago. A very big part of me feels like Brandon was let down. He needed more help than he got. I feel weird…. I have struggled with depression since I was 16 and have such a soft spot for those who struggle with their mental health.
I remember the sheep post and thinking "Oh my, they're going the PETA route." I didn't know all of this and the mental health issues behind the scenes. I also 100% agree with getting to know who is behind a brand and their stories. I like to find out who and what I am supporting, voting with my money.
Thank you, James for another great and informative video 🥰🥰
I didn’t know about the downfall at all. I decided just the other day that I needed an Vitamin C serum and looked for The Ordinary because I expected it to be under $10, but that is not the case anymore with their pricing. However now there’s The Inkey List which seems to have filled the void.
I was following Brandan on Instagram as things unravelled. He was the most sensitive beautiful soul. It's always been an unfinished story to me too. Just so tragic, this tortured genius. It did seem like no one was looking after him, but maybe they just couldn't do anything. Thanks for your gentle respectful telling of the story ♥️
I love the Ordinary. I like the affordability. I think i use 3 of their products. The retinol in squalene is so nice and has really made a difference in my skin.
Well done. This man was in an obvious crisis, and his ending is truly tragic. I love the humanity you brought to this story.
Their prices have gone up several times from when they launched first. Now I know why: a large brand name company gobbled them up! It’s a shame that smaller companies are taken over by greedy large corporations.
The fact you had to clarify they weren’t a literal umbrella company 😂😂😂
I've said this before, you're like the Bailey Sarian of the skincare community with these videos. I love it so much, and this was such an interesting story! Really nicely put together, and presented in a very respectable way. So sad that nobody was able to help Brandon, when there were so many clear signs that he really needed it.
Seeing his instagram posts just made me concerned for his mental health. So sad to hear how it ended for him & that no one was concerned. How the media reacted to it was also awful. I was actually off social media when all this happened, but were using The Ordinary everyday.
Thank you for telling Brandon’s story. Like so many others here, I had no idea. I definitely agree that there is value in knowing about the people and stories behind the brands we support. I actually love to shop on QVC because many times the actual brand owners/ founders come on and tell their stories while explaining their products. It’s meaningful to be able to connect that way.
What an eye opener. I was so excited when The Ordinary first appeared. It was a revelation that a quality product didn’t have to break your bank account. I’m afraid, however, that I stopped using it soon after because the distributor seemed unprepared for the demand and it was always sold out before I could get my hands on it. I switched to The Inky List and have been really pleased with their performance and price point. I’ll be with them for however long they stick around.
I still use multiple ordinary products depending on what I need/feel like and especially still when I feel like I need to budget more with skincare. I remember going into the Deceim store after his death and they were giving out free products?? It felt a bit strange to be like “oh our CEO died here’s some free stuff in his honour” 😞
The Ordinary is a special brand to me. When I first got sober a few years ago I had to find a new interest that could make me feel good about myself and give me something to do with myself honestly. So I started learning about skincare and watching your channel and others on RUclips. And I remember thinking ok I’m going to go buy one product that I keep hearing about and it was The Ordinary’s Niacinamide and Zinc. My skin took to it really well and it’s a staple in my skincare line up now. So I will keep buying the brand even knowing all this now. It’s incredibly sad and I hope he has found some peace somehow now. 😔
Man, this feels like a case of engineer brain meeting the esoteric. I knew a couple students back at uni who fell into the same hole. In my experience, the issue is that people with engineering backgrounds tend towards very binary thinking and grow used to the idea that answers to problems are either correct or incorrect. They then take some mushrooms or whatever and have a metaphysical, surreal experience that cannot be contained or expressed by that kind of binary thought. Most will either violently reject the experience and never go near hallucinogens again, or will come to a less binary, more nuanced way of seeing the world.
Some, however, react as if they have been challenged to solve what is clearly an error in the way the world has been designed, and so dive head long into esoteric/occult philosophies and altered state techniques in order to find the correct answer to the problem that the first trip presented them with. The problem here is that they do so with no guidance or preparation from either medical professionals (i.e. therapists who specialise in using hallucinogens in a therapeutic setting) nor from philosophers or practitioners of esoteric thought and altered state practices. In fact, they often wholly reject these experts because the experts will tell them that there are no correct or incorrect answers to the questions they have, and this particular type of engineer brain will never accept that.
So you basically have these people who keep hurling themselves into these metaphysical experiences, all while stubbornly refusing to let go of a binary mentality that is incompatible with the experiences they keep putting themselves through. The result is a destabilisation of personality and chronic mental health problems almost every time.
(This is also, by the way, why engineers are more likely to have more authoritarian social attitudes)
Fascinating and insightful, thanks for posting 😊
Appreciate your kindness in telling this story. I too, am sorry he didn’t receive the help he needed😢
I like the ordinary a lot, it helped my skin so much during breakouts from using proactive 😭. I can’t replace them since I really love their products
Could not agree more that knowing the stories behind the brands can really matter. It can sway me in favor of or away from a brand, no question.
Wait what?! I love their products 😢 how come this wasn't more in the news?
Maybe you just missed it because it was a big loss
I remember being in a very active Deciem group on Facebook when this was happening and I was very disappointed to see that I was apparently one of the only people pointing out that this seemed like a psychotic break. I was so sad to hear the news of how it all ended. 😔
Thank you for covering this and for emphasizing how important it is to take into account people's mental health when there is an erratic shift in personality/actions. There will always be those who refuse help in those situations, but it's important to try.
I remember being so obsessed with this story and Brandon .....watching his posts come up on Instagram and other places was so strange.....but I still feel like we will never know the whole story and there was something very sinister about the way it all ended. #ripbrandon
Those types of behaviors are very consistent with bipolar disorder, bipolar 2, and cyclothymia. There is always an first onset breakdown and it really looks like that was very likely in his case. People suffering from these conditions can also be very resistant to seeking medical care because they cant tell that something is wrong. I have know own people who went through years of manic and depressive episodes before they decided to seek treatment. Its a very difficult condition.
Rest in peace Brandon... Addiction and mental health struggles are a heavy weight to carry. Thank you for your work.
🙏🏽This video is everything I hoped would be addressed a long time ago. Brandon publicly screaming for help…and then, nothing. This was a truly sad situation and I’m glad that you have addressed it here. Thank you James.🫶🏽
Brandon was a shooting star that burnt out too quickly. I was with Niod from the start and what a rush it was, I remember him saying the only way he could lose Deciem was if he was declared insane!
Food for thought.
Nicola was the Yin to his yang, a beautiful human being.
Last i saw of Brandon was his ashes on a bare table with some Niod.
A very stark end to a man who turned the beauty world on its head
Feels like there is so much more to his story, too sudden an ending.
I love you sharing these behind the scenes of brands stories. While this one was tragic, I still want videos like this.
I remember when Brandon took over the Instagram and was talking about Nicola. I commented that he should just call her and the next post was him texting her. It was a very strange time
This was 100% brand new information for me, thanks for reviewing it! Wow..I don’t love all Ordinary products, but their squalane cleanser is a tried and true product-only thing not to burn my eyes but still gently remove all makeup/sunscreen. And so I love the brand for that product alone. But what a history, and having taken a turn I wasn’t expecting!
I will forever be thankful to The Ordinary for the revolution they brought in skin care. This brand has changed my skin care and my skin
Love this brand ❤❤❤❤❤
I remember following when these Instagram posts were up and it was so sad to see.
What disgusted me was people in his comments encouraging his erratic behaviour and feeding into his paranoia and hysteria.
People were telling them to stop and to encourage him to get help (lots of other comments were telling him to seek medical help too).
Just so tragic all around
Just ordered their barrier serum for my rosacea I’m very excited to see the Ordonary to try and go in the multi active direction :)