Melissa Leong has publicly blasted a Sydney-based wellness café of cultural appropriation in a furious Instagram comment.
On Monday, the MasterChef judge, 39, lashed out at Orchard St. after they advertised their $45 nephrite jade gua sha skin massage tool and used a video of a white model using the product on her face.
An hour after the footage was posted, Australian judge Melissa – who has Chinese-Singaporean heritage – wrote: ‘Sorry, but that’s not at all how you use it.
Fuming: Melissa Leong has publicly accused a Sydney-based wellness café of cultural appropriation in a furious Instagram comment
‘As a Chinese person, this feels like thousands of years of culture and technique, turned into a prop.’
Orchard St. had written alongside the video: ‘Weave an ancient beauty tool into your daily skincare ritual with our nephrite jade Gua Sha.’
Many fans were quick to agree with Melissa’s comment, with one writing: ‘Spot on. Action and correction over performative bulls**t.’
Another added: ‘Lots of things they can do to correct themselves, the least an apology and offering their space to the experts, from the country of origin. Let’s wait and see, but time is ticking and it doesn’t look like they’re working on it.’
The post itself has since been deleted by Orchard St.
Daily Mail Australia have contacted the company, and Melissa, for further comment.
Hitting out: On Monday, the MasterChef judge, 39, lashed out at Orchard St after they advertised their $45 nephrite jade gua sha skin massage tool, including a video of a white model glazing the product over her face
Agreement: Many fans were quick to agree with Melissa’s comment, with one writing: ‘Spot on. Action and correction over performative bulls**t’
Gua sha is a tool used in traditional Chinese medicine, which has grown in popularity in the western beauty industry in recent years.
It’s used to scrape back the skin, with practitioners believing it helps to stimulate blood flow, promoting cell repair, regeneration, recovery and healing.
It involves repeatedly stroking the gua sha tool over moisturised skin while applying firm pressure.
Indeed, it’s not the first time that Melissa has slammed the beauty industry over their usage of the tool.
In January, she accused the industry of ‘whitewashing’ in a scathing post after a company advertised the same gua sha beauty tool online.
While Melissa blacked out the company’s name, she was clearly furious in her comments about the post, which featured a white model.
Furious: In January, Melissa re-shared a post from a beauty company advertising a jade gua sha beauty tool and was scathing in her comments
‘Yep. It’s just a “skin fitness tool”. Let’s not talk about the cultural and medical significance of gua sha (in this case) in Chinese or Asian culture or how much we largely ignore appropriation in the beauty industry,’ she began.
In a second post on Instagram Stories, she included a link to an article which appeared on UK Glamour magazine titled ‘How wellness got whitewashed’.
Melissa urged her followers to read it ‘if you want to know more about why us women of colour feel this way’.
‘Even though we’re all aware that appropriating cornrows, feathered headdresses and bindis is abjectly wrong, when appropriation veers into the wellness sphere, we just seem to care less,’ wrote author Anita Bhagwandas.
She added: ‘Don’t be that basic wellness b***h – you should care.’
Get woke: In a second post on Instagram Stories, she included a link to an article which appeared on UK Glamour magazine earlier this month and urged her followers to read it