Morphe Cosmetics has severed ties with beauty influencer, Jeffree Star, after weeks of public acrimony in the YouTube beauty community.
Cosmetics company Morphe announced on Friday that it would “cease all commercial activity” with YouTube personality Jeffree Star and his brand Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Their official statement reads, “Today we’ve made the decision to cease all commercial activity related to Jeffree Star and affiliated products. We expect this to conclude within the coming weeks,” the statement continued. “As we look to the future, we will continue to share updates on what lies ahead for the Morphe brand.”
Star’s personal beauty brand, Jeffree Star Cosmetics, responded to Morphe’s announcement with a statement of its own. “We are shocked and extremely saddened by the decision of our former retail partner Morphe Brushes on parting ways with our brand and Jeffree. Over the past 5 years we’ve accomplished amazing things together and released iconic products. We are proud of everything we’ve accomplished with them.”
Morphe’s announcement comes after several beauty Youtubers demanded action from the company amid mounting criticism against the makeup mogul.
Morphe, a makeup brand that regularly partners with beauty YouTubers, served as the primary retailer for Star’s popular cosmetics line. Morphe even hosted events at shopping malls around the country for Star’s launches. Most notably the Shane X Jeffree Conspiracy Collection, which Morphe stopped selling at the end of June.
Tati Drama, Where it all started
YouTuber, Tati Westbrook, uploaded a video titled, ‘Breaking my Silence,’ on July 1, which ironically ended up breaking the internet. In the now viral video, Tati went on to accuse Star and Shane Dawson, who “manipulated,” “gaslit,” and “used” her to start a feud with James Charles in 2019. Tati apologized to her fellow youtuber and friend James, for all the insensitive claims she made against him in the infamous ‘Bye Sister’ video.
Westbrook went on to expose both Star and Dawson who fed her ‘heinous lies’ against him. Tati revealed that the reason why the duo badmouthed Charles to everyone was because they were jealous of his success and wanted to bring him down. Back in 2019, Charles had lost nearly 3 million subscribers as a result of their petty scheming. However, it seems like karma catches up with you sooner or later.
Backlash and problematic pasts
Tati’s video seemed to open up the floodgates and very soon, people started holding Star and Dawson accountable for all that they had done.
Shane Dawson
Shane Dawson addressed Tati’s video in an problematic Instagram live which did not go down well with fans.
Morphe and Target have recently discontinued carrying Dawson’s products after his history of racist and predatory behavior came to light. Celebrities like Jada Pinkett Smith and Jaden Smith publicly called Shane out for his disrespectful content, referencing a video where he sexualized then-11-year-old Willow Smith.
YouTube has also demonetized Dawson’s three YouTube channels.
Jefree Star
Jefree, who has largely remained silent since the backlash, is now facing the repercussions. Up until now, Star appeared to have escaped much of the criticism that befell Dawson. Although he too has had quite a controversial past. Star has been criticized for making racist statements, including saying the “N-word” slur on camera and directing it toward Black people in public on camera.
Most recently, he has been accused of using anti-Semitic and xenophobic slurs in private. Other creators have accused him of blackmail, manipulation, making abusive comments toward them, and gaslighting them.
Star has yet to make any public comments about Westbrook’s video or about Dawson. However, he restocked Dawson’s hoodies through his Killer Merch company and relaunched makeup through Jeffree Star Cosmetics.
He also appeared on Blac Chyna’s Instagram and was seen relaxing in his pool on YouTuber Cole Carrigan’s Instagram story.
Is Jefree a Co-Owner of Morphe Cosmetics?
One of the things that fans picked on from Westbrook’s video was when the youtuber said she has reason to believe that Star is a partial owner of Morphe Cosmetics. However, a spokesperson for Morphe later denied the allegation. “We can confirm that Jeffree Star has no ownership of Morphe. He’s not an investor. He’s not a co-owner. Our only relationship is through retail distribution of Jeffree Star Cosmetics and our 2019 MorpheX collaboration.” Which has now been discontinued.
Jackie Aina’s affiliation with Morphe
Tati had publicly apologized to Jackie Aina in the video as well. Aina had previously accused Star for exhibiting “blatantly racist behavior” in 2018.
Now on July 2, the beauty vlogger announced that she will no longer be affiliated with Morphe. Though she did not actually name Star as her reason for cutting ties with Morphe. She wrote, “I refuse to align myself with a company that continues to retail antiblack racist beauty brands. I strongly encourage other influencers to do the same!”
Also Read : News Highlights From July 2020
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