Juvia's Place Addresses Essence Festival Backlash

Juvia’s Place was doing too much... on purpose. The beloved brand, founded by Chichi Eburu, made its Essence Festival debut this year with a luxurious in-person shopping experience. Fans lined up in groups to visit Juvia’s Place at the heart of the Essence Festival of Culture, the Convention Center, where they hoped to get their hands on what’s now dubbed the “Golden Box,” which included $200 worth of full-size Juvia’s Place products. It was a main attraction at BeautyCon (EFOC Edition).

The highly anticipated activation went viral on social media, with fans sharing their various personal experiences at the pink and gold pop-up. While a majority of customers had positive reviews about their shopping experience, some expressed their frustration and called out the brand for long lines, which were attributed to the hype around the newly named “Golden Box.” Fire marshals ensure safety measures by redirecting lines and cutting them off in sections, leading to misconceptions about the beauty booth. All of which led to the brand receiving some backlash. Juvia’s Place isn’t shying away from the criticism; they’ve embraced it as a learning lesson.

MUST READ: The Ultimate 2025 Essence Festival Recap

“Our goal was to do too much,” said Nayah Harper, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Juvia’s Place. “Black Women are constantly told they are “too much” – and we couldn’t agree more. We want to welcome that energy, give it a place of belonging, and celebrate it unapologetically.”

Juvia’s Place set out to establish its presence at Essence Fest with its “Neverrr Too Much” Movement. And according to the brand, it “ended up doing exactly that: too much.” “Our now-infamous golden boxes – formerly known as our ‘too much’ boxes – with full-sized products garnered a lot of favor. And I think we learned just how much love exists for Juvia’s Place that we didn’t realize before,” Harper explained.

Juvia’s Place Appreciates The Feedback

Various users on TikTok complained about the lines to get the box and even accused the brand of “bait and switch.” “We had a long line before we were even able to open our booth each day, which was exciting. We were so happy people were so enthusiastic about us being there for the first time,” said Harper. “The first day on Friday for the first hour, we had free boxes flowing for our first couple of visitors for our first ever EFOC. We wanted to honor early birds and vip customers! Afterwards, our “too much” boxes with over $200 worth of product were a free gift with a $20 purchase and it was exclusively available at Essence Fest at our BeautyCon booth.” Harper also refuted the notion the brand never ran out of boxes.

Specifically addressing the long lines, she said, “We were so excited that people were spending so much time with our beauty advisors in the booth, learning about products and how to use them, and getting a good shopping experience directly with the brand. At the same time, it caused a bit of a wait. The feedback of long lines was received and we are working internally to improve future experiences.”

Due to the winding lines that had formed, fire marshals had to address safety hazards. According to Harper, “The fire marshal paused a lot of activities all over ESSENCEFest and BeautyCon specifically to keep people safe, and we appreciate that. You never know what could happen, and they are trained professionals who see things we wouldn’t even notice, like blocking the exits and storage access to imperative materials. These overlooked safety measures can have a big impact in the blink of an eye. So despite the way it affected the experience we planned for, we were happy to comply because we wouldn’t want to jeopardize anyone’s health and safety.”

For Juvia’s Place, all feedback is welcome. “We’ve seen videos of people sharing how much they love the product in our boxes and they were super excited to engage with the brand live, in person. Lots of thank yous from people who learned how to blush, how to bronze, and overall how to use the products from our beauty advisors. Some people even got their makeup done at the booth’s beauty bar for the Essence Music Festival that weekend and expressed a lot of joy for that. We’re reading comments about warm experiences with our team. What more could we ask for!”

Get the “Golden Box,” worth $200, with a $20 purchase, here.

What Juvia’s Place Learned From Its Essence Festival Debut  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com