A Sephora employee is begging customers to stop stealing Dior lip oils and lip balms from the store in a viral TikTok that’s accrued over 789,00 views as of Saturday. In it, the worker in question, Chris (@beauty&chris) blasts the thieves on multiple fronts, not only for falling for the “hype” of Dior’s lip oil, but also that there are drug store brands that cost less and are better.
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever stolen a Dior lip oil,” Chris begins his video by asking, smiling into the camera as he raises his hand.
It quickly becomes evident that this was a bait-and-switch as he says, “Ha, got you! Stop stealing the Dior lip oils. As an employee at a cosmetic store that sells these, I would like to move on and not spend 8 hours of my day protecting the Dior section. And if you think I’m kidding, on Black Friday I literally spent my whole shift guarding these and the one hour I went on break, three were stolen.”
After informing these Dior cosmetics heist enthusiasts that they’re making him spend the majority of his shift ensuring they aren’t stealing, he goes in on their obsession with the product. Chris claims that there’s a slew of other lip balms and oils at their disposal that they could be buying that don’t carry the Dior branding.
“If you can’t afford the $40 on either of these three products, there’s gonna be something at the drug store that is better for cheaper. Believe me,” he says. “Literally, at this point, every brand has come out with their own version of lip oils but these are still the hot commodity. You’re telling me that none of those other lip oils are better? Girl, bye. I want to stop being harassed at work by little girlies that come up to me and ask me, ‘Do you have the Dior lip oil?’ No, I don’t!”
Chris shares the hassle it creates for the store whenever he discovers that these items have been pilfered.
“Then when the truck comes, they don’t know that they’ve been stolen so then we don’t get them because they think that we have them and then the cycle just continues,” he explains. “And then when you leave the boxes behind, now I have to do more work and report this as a known theft and then I have to tell my LP guy that there’s someone that’s stealing the Dior lip oils and then he has to go review the cameras and then you’re just causing more work.”
The TikToker says that Dior cosmetics theft is so bad at his store that it’s completely changed how he views people while at work: he sees thieves attempting to steal products at every turn, quickly analyzing their behavioral patterns for any sign of them possibly nabbing the beauty products.
“And now I am triggered and traumatized because every time I see someone open a cosmetic box, I immediately think that they’re stealing,” he shares. “And I walk up to them and I say, ‘Hey, are you finding everything OK?’ And they say, ‘Oh no, I just want to see what it looks like cause there’s no tester.'”
Why is there no tester? “Because it’s being stolen!” Chris fumes. “And now I’ve picked up so many cues on what it looks like when someone is stealing—there’s people who do a far glance, do a side peripheral of who’s around them.”
He’s even broken down these behaviors in the clip, saying, “There’s a quick-glancers. There’s a don’t look at me, no-glancers. And now if I’m with a client, and we’re all busy and I see you doing those cues, opening those boxes, huddling around your friends, I’m gonna tell my LP guy, ‘Look at Dior.’ And now do you want a big scary man to escort you out of the Sephora? Do you really want that embarrassment?”
“Let these people enjoy their products. These things are not sold out,” he concludes. “But you are the reason they’re not in store.”
@beautyandchris PLEASE! #dior #diorlipoil #diorlipglow #diorlipglowoil #diorlipmaximizer #sephora #fyp #viral #sephoramusthaves ♬ original sound – Beauty&Chris
Several viewers commented that they were guilty, themselves, of securing themselves a little five-finger discount when it came to cosmetics.
“That’s why I steal the haus labs lip oil,” one person penned. Another remarked, “They’re just so small and snatchable.” At the same time, someone else commented that they weren’t going to heed Chris’ advice and planned on stealing the stuff for themselves despite his exhortation to stop doing so on TikTok.
“Idc I’m literally going to borrow one rn,” they said.
Commenter after commenter verbalized that they had no qualms with stealing cosmetics from the store.
“Gonna go steal one and name it after you,” someone said. Another wrote, “I just borrowed one yesterday,” while one TikToker joked, “Fine I’ll take the box too.”
But it wasn’t all thieves poking fun at Chris’ frustration in the comments section of the video—some people seemed to sympathize with his plight as well.
“Former Sephora loss prevention here they are relentless, I feel your pain,” they said.
Another commenter agreed with Chris’ sentiments about other branded lip oils that cost less money. “The elf oil is literally the exact same if not better and cheaper,” someone wrote.
In November 2023, Sephora purportedly locked up all of its fragrances in a bid to stop retail theft; according to New York Crime Lawyer, millions of dollars each year (in product) are stolen from Sephora stores. The Los Angeles Times wrote that in December 2023, right before Christmas, a raid of a warehouse owned by one 48-year-old woman was said to have contained around a million dollars worth of finagled makeup and cosmetics from Sephora, CVS, and 99-cent stores.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Sephora via email and Chris via TikTok comment.
