Malaysian influencer faces boycott after comparing Kuala Lumpur airport to Singapore's Jewel Changi

Hygr co-founder Ivor Lim is seeking legal advice and facing boycott calls after a selectively edited clip of her Kuala Lumpur airport video made it appear she had belittled Malaysia.

On June 17, Lim posted an Instagram Reel of herself walking through Rimba, a nature-themed space in the transit area of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1, Singapore news outlet Mothership reported. In the caption she wrote: "Malaysian version of Jewel Changi in KLIA 1, catch your last breath of Malaysian tropical air before your departure, even tho some birds are fake."

In the clip she passed replicas of a Rafflesia flower and a hornbill and a waterfall sculpture, and ended it by calling the space "good for tourists" wanting to experience a Malaysian tropical forest, according to Mothership.

Rimba opened on Jan. 1, 2026, as an upgraded version of the terminal's long-standing nature feature, previously known as the Jungle Boardwalk, national news agency Bernama reported.

Spanning 970 sq.m in the terminal's Satellite Building, the space was launched as part of Malaysia Airports' service enhancements for Visit Malaysia Year 2026, the operator said, and showcases native species such as the rhinoceros hornbill, the national bird, and the giant Rafflesia.

The post drew fire after a social media user clipped and re-edited it to suggest Lim had criticized Rimba, alleging she had said Malaysia was lagging behind and that the attraction copied Jewel Changi, Mothership reported.

The reworked video, since deleted, was reposted on Threads alongside calls to boycott Hygr, while others defended the original as honest and positive.

A view of the indoor waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore April 4, 2024. Photo by Reuters

Comparisons between the two airports routinely reignite a long-running Malaysia-Singapore rivalry over which neighbor does things first and better, and some Malaysians argued online that Rimba was never meant to compete with Changi but to showcase the country's own biodiversity and rainforest identity, Malay-language outlet BuzzKini reported.

In a statement on Threads on June 18, Lim said the circulating clip had been "selectively edited, with key parts of the conversation removed, resulting in a misleading narrative that does not accurately represent my views."

She said she had at no point used the words attributed to her and "never said or implied that Malaysia is bad, inferior, or incapable of creating world-class experiences."

"I apologize if this video has given any wrong impression that I never intended," she wrote, adding that her aim had been "to discuss customer experience and areas for improvement from a constructive perspective, not to put down Malaysia or any Malaysian business."

She urged people to watch her full, unedited video before judging, and said she was seeking legal advice to protect her and her brand's reputation, Chinese-language Malaysian daily See Hua reported.

Lim co-founded Hygr in 2020 with fellow law graduate Chew Hoi Meng, The Star reported. The natural deodorant and lip balm label has since grown from a roughly RM1,500 ($360) pandemic side hustle into a business with eight-figure ringgit revenue, now stocked in hundreds of Watsons outlets across Malaysia, according to English daily The Sun.