On Feb. 1, TikTok star and worldwide influencer Addison Rae announced the release of her skincare line Screen Break. The product claims to protect users from allegedly harmful blue light emitted from screens.
100 Thieves co-owner Valkyrae released an eerily similar skincare line, RFLCT, only months earlier. The YouTube streamer faced immense backlash after the parent company refused to disclose any of its studies in the face of conflicting information. After a heavily-scrutinized launch, RFLCT was pulled only weeks after its announcement.
At the height of the RFLCT controversy, DMs between YouTube streamer Ludwig Ahgren and Valkyrae leaked, wherein Valkyrae expressed regret about the project. Ludwig has now commented on Addison Rae’s Screen Break in a recent YouTube video.
“They got a new Rae, and this time it’s Addison Rae, which is just pathetic,” Ludwig said, “It’s pathetic that she didn’t do a little due diligence, like a cursory Google search and you’d find out that it’s not a good idea.”
During the short-lived run of RFLCT, countless YouTubers, streamers, and news outlets in and out of the beauty world all tracked the sudden rise and collapse of the skincare line. Surely, anyone hoping to recreate the product would be discouraged by their search results.
Ludwig likened the decision to the unpopularity of NFTs,
“It’s like if I launch an NFT tomorrow. Like I somehow just missed everything that’s happened and thought it would be cool to launch a bunch of Ludwig NFTs,” the streamer elaborated, “I don’t get it, I don’t get how you’re that tone-deaf to see that we don’t fuck with the blue light cream anymore.”
Plenty of streamers, including Valkyrae herself, have been shocked at the brand’s sudden revival, albeit under a new name. Although people have found humor in the chaos, Ludwig is firmly against Addison Rae’s new venture.
