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Each day since the Justice Department published 3.5 million new documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case on January 30, we’ve learned of yet another powerful man who was in contact with the convicted sex offender and people in his network. Late last week, the name Peter Thomas Roth surfaced. According to what appear to be emails in the DOJ release, the skin-care brand founder had communicated with Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell from 2004 until 2018. Now, influencers and content creators are publicly disavowing Roth’s brand and—along with some everyday consumers—calling for boycotts in light of this information.
Nothing in the files suggests that Roth was involved in any criminal conduct, but he exchanged many friendly emails with Epstein and Maxwell long after the former pleaded guilty in 2008 to felony solicitation of prostitution and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. In September 2017, Roth allegedly visited Epstein’s home to “explain to all the girls about skin creams, cleansers and such,” according to an email. The same month, Roth sent Epstein 13 gift bags filled with products. In another email, dated August 2018, Roth sent Epstein the link to a New York Post story headlined Steve Bannon Trying to Get on Disgraced Jeffrey Epstein’s Good Side,” saying “Great picture of you!!!” Epstein responded “fun,” to which Roth replied with three thumbs-up emojis. Epstein was subsequently charged with federal sex trafficking in July 2019.
Roth launched his skin-care line in 1993 after struggling to find products to treat his acne. The brand is now carried in Sephora, Ulta, and QVC. In a statement sent to Allure, representatives for Peter Thomas Roth stated that Roth “gave up the day-to-day operations of his eponymous brand in 2016.” According to the brand’s website, Roth “leads all research and development efforts.” He is still the CEO.
On February 8, skin-care influencer Hyram Yarbro posted a 26-minute YouTube video in which he said he would no longer promote the brand. He says he has featured its products in “hundreds” of his videos. “I just figured out today that one of my favorite skin-care brands that I have featured in hundreds of videos since the very beginning of my channel, Peter Thomas Roth, is all up in the Epstein files,” Yarbro stated in the video. “I personally will not be supporting him or the brand anymore.” At press time, the video has more than 230,000 views and over 2,000 comments, some saying they are going to boycott Ulta and Sephora as long as they continue to carry the brand.
J.C. Dombrowski, a content creator, also posted a video to say he’s severing any connection with the brand, deleting any previous videos he’s made featuring its products, and requesting to be taken off its public relations team’s mailing list. “I feel especially let down, violated, and appalled that my content helped bankroll someone and some brand like that,” he wrote in his caption, where he also described himself as a survivor of abuse.
People across the internet with far smaller followings, including on Reddit, are also denouncing Roth and his brand, calling on others to stop purchasing his products. “I’m genuinely disgusted and angry about this. PTR made one of my favorite moisturizers, but after this, I will be buying no more,” one user wrote in the /BeautyGuruChatter subReddit.
When Allure asked brand representatives at Peter Thomas Roth for comment, they pointed us to a statement that Roth posted to both his personal Instagram profile and the brand’s on February 5. In it, he said that Epstein was his physics teacher at the Dalton School in New York City in the early ’70s. “We stayed in touch casually in the nearly five decades that followed,” he wrote. “I’m horrified by the crimes he committed and the lasting impact they have had on his victims, and I deeply regret maintaining any association with him after leaving the Dalton School.”
Roth also said in his statement that he never attended Epstein’s parties, flew on his plane, or visited his island. He did recall once visiting Epstein’s Manhattan residence to “show him some skin-care products” and leaving after what he described as a “brief meeting” in his dining room. Roth previously mentioned a visit with Epstein to The New York Times in 2019. He described it as “an afternoon gathering” where “everyone present was in their 40s and 50s.” He told the publication at the time that he witnessed no “untoward behavior.”
This isn’t the first time that a beauty brand founder has been named in files related to Epstein. In January 2024, Frédéric Fekkai, hairstylist and founder of his namesake brand, was named in unsealed court documents related to a 2015 lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell. Giuffre, a prominent survivor of Epstein’s abuse who died by suicide last year, named Fekkai in the suit as one of the individuals who “has knowledge of [Maxwell’s] conduct.” In one deposition related to the case, an Epstein employee testified, “I heard him call someone, and say, Fekkai is in Hawaii. Can we find some girls for him?”
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that regular appointments for “undisclosed or redacted individuals” in Epstein’s circle were made at Fekkai’s salon on New York City’s Upper East Side. In 2019, former Fekkai employees told The Daily Beast that Epstein regularly brought groups of young women into the salon, where the outlet reported, “He paid for their services and had them sit on his lap and stroke his hair.” In a statement sent to the outlet, a spokesperson said, “Neither [Fekkai] nor the current management team had any knowledge of the incidents described and, in Mr. Fekkai’s limited acquaintance with Mr. Epstein, he never witnessed any of the deplorable conduct that led to Mr. Epstein’s conviction.” Nothing in the files suggests that Fekkai was involved in any criminal conduct, and he has not been charged with any crime. Allure reached out to representatives for Frédéric Fekkai yesterday for comment and did not receive a response before the time of publication.
Leslie Wexner, founder of L Brands (previously Limited Brands), has been in headlines for years regarding a longtime association with Epstein. L Brands once owned Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch. (In 2021, the name was changed to Bath & Body Works. Victoria’s Secret was spun off into its own company, and Abercrombie & Fitch was sold nearly 30 years ago.) Wexner stepped down as CEO in 2020. In the January 30 release of documents, an FBI file from 2019, unredacted earlier this week, referred to Wexner as a “co-conspirator” of Epstein. Wexner has not been charged with any crime in connection with Epstein’s sex-trafficking and denies knowledge of Epstein’s criminal conduct.
A legal representative for Wexner sent a statement to multiple outlets on Tuesday, saying, “The assistant U.S. attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor a target in any respect. Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
While there are many industry players who appear in the files, the release of emails between Roth, Maxwell, and Epstein seems to have sparked sizable outrage from consumers. This may be due to the country’s disgust with the investigation in general—and a perceived lack of consequences—that is growing more intense with the passing of time.
It remains to be seen if this outrage is maintained, if other emails or accusations arise among beauty industry leaders, and what domino effects we might see. Last week, skin-care brand Augustinus Bader reportedly canceled an Upper East Side cocktail event hosted by its cofounder Charles Rosier and self-help author Deepak Chopra just two hours before it was set to begin. We learned of Chopra’s link to Epstein back in November, when another Epstein file release showed that the author had been in frequent email contact with Epstein in the years leading up to his 2019 sex trafficking charges. More of their email correspondence was included in the files released on January 30—among them a 2017 email exchange in which Chopra wrote to Epstein, in part, “God is a construct. Cute girls are real.” In June 2025, Rosier and Chopra launched an AI-based wellness platform called AB Chopra Epigenetics. Chopra has not been charged with any crimes, nor do his emails suggest involvement in any criminal conduct.
In a statement posted to X on February 4, Chopra wrote, “I want to be clear: I was never involved in, nor did I participate in, any criminal or exploitative conduct. Any contact I had was limited and unrelated to abusive activity.” He continued: “Some past email exchanges have surfaced that reflect poor judgment in tone. I regret that and understand how they read today, given what was publicly known at the time.” Allure reached out to representatives for Chopra for comment and did not receive a response before the time of publication.
A representative for the Bader brand told Puck News this week, “Deepak Chopra is no longer a stakeholder or involved in the development of Augustinus Bader’s longevity platform.” Allure reached out to representatives for Augustinus Bader yesterday for additional comment and did not receive a response before the time of publication.
While the possible damage to brands and reputations seems to grow with each new cache of Epstein releases, in the end, it is nothing compared to the actual damage to the lives of countless abuse victims at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.