YouTube “beauty community” meltdown

[bowies]

Can someone give me a rundown on what’s going on? I see videos from those I follow but since I don’t watch the “big names” I can’t put it all together. The gist I have is that Laura Lee is a racist (shocking nobody) and a bunch of the popular YTers are scammers. And somehow Jeffrey Star is involved but nobody wants to acknowledge that he’s racist because he made a documentary.

I’m lost to say the least.

[kittycatlove]

I saw one reference to it from xsparkage, but I was so lost and too lazy in trying to go back and find the backstory, LOL. Otherwise I don't watch any of the more popular "big names" to know too much about it.

[Pippin]

I’m not super involved in the drama but a bunch of racist tweets were dug up from the handful of top influencers. Laura Lee, Manny MUA etc. They didn’t apologize or anything right away/made jokes about the situation. Then made horribly fake apology videos after losing a bunch of subscribers. Now other influencers are making videos exposing how horrible they are in real life. And shocking people are still trying to say Jeffery Star is a ‘changed man’ 🙄 Further Marlena from Makeup Geek released a video saying the big influencers are basically blackmailing brands to pay a shit ton of money for videos or they’ll trash the brands and that’s part of why her brand hasn’t been mentioned much anymore. Smaller/mid sized youtubers are angry about her video because they don’t do that although the ones I’ve watched seem to miss the point of what she was saying.
Honestly the ‘meltdown’ is really just the 10ish shitty top influencers getting what’s coming to them.

[wawa]

Aug 30, 2018 8:38:03 GMT -5 Pippin said:

I’m not super involved in the drama but a bunch of racist tweets were dug up from the handful of top influencers. Laura Lee, Manny MUA etc. They didn’t apologize or anything right away/made jokes about the situation. Then made horribly fake apology videos after losing a bunch of subscribers. Now other influencers are making videos exposing how horrible they are in real life. And shocking people are still trying to say Jeffery Star is a ‘changed man’ 🙄 Further Marlena from Makeup Geek released a video saying the big influencers are basically blackmailing brands to pay a shit ton of money for videos or they’ll trash the brands and that’s part of why her brand hasn’t been mentioned much anymore. Smaller/mid sized youtubers are angry about her video because they don’t do that although the ones I’ve watched seem to miss the point of what she was saying.
Honestly the ‘meltdown’ is really just the 10ish shitty top influencers getting what’s coming to them.

ohhh, I mean, the racist tweet thing, same shit different day.  color me shocked.  I hope they all slink off, but obviously they won't.
(eta: not to minimize their shittyness, but this ride has been going round and round for a while now and I don't expect these people's followers to actually hold them accountable any time soon.  They are trash.  I hope they rot.)

But I feel like Marlena coming out against the youtube top dogs is actually kind of a big deal for the industry. 

Did she name names??  

[robinsbff]

i saw some rumblings about this too, but was too lazy to put in the time to look up what actually happened. if you think i have time to watch your half hour apology videos, then you are crazy.

[Pippin]

Aug 30, 2018 8:55:57 GMT -5 wawa said:

Aug 30, 2018 8:38:03 GMT -5 Pippin said:

I’m not super involved in the drama but a bunch of racist tweets were dug up from the handful of top influencers. Laura Lee, Manny MUA etc. They didn’t apologize or anything right away/made jokes about the situation. Then made horribly fake apology videos after losing a bunch of subscribers. Now other influencers are making videos exposing how horrible they are in real life. And shocking people are still trying to say Jeffery Star is a ‘changed man’ 🙄 Further Marlena from Makeup Geek released a video saying the big influencers are basically blackmailing brands to pay a shit ton of money for videos or they’ll trash the brands and that’s part of why her brand hasn’t been mentioned much anymore. Smaller/mid sized youtubers are angry about her video because they don’t do that although the ones I’ve watched seem to miss the point of what she was saying.
Honestly the ‘meltdown’ is really just the 10ish shitty top influencers getting what’s coming to them.

ohhh, I mean, the racist tweet thing, same shit different day.  color me shocked.  I hope they all slink off, but obviously they won't.
(eta: not to minimize their shittyness, but this ride has been going round and round for a while now and I don't expect these people's followers to actually hold them accountable any time soon.  They are trash.  I hope they rot.)

But I feel like Marlena coming out against the youtube top dogs is actually kind of a big deal for the industry. 

Did she name names??  

She did not name names but it’s pretty easy to tell she was probably referring to Jaclyn Hill and Manny MUA in particular since they both dumped MUG for Morphe. I also saw from a drama channel that Manny MUA did a snap of himself throwing an indie brands products in the garbage saying they sucked and the brand has come out saying that he only did that cause they wouldn’t pay him for a review. I think Marlena’s video was good and while I think youtubers should be compensated for their promotional work, trashing a brand because they can’t pay is not cool.

[tacokick]

Aug 30, 2018 9:33:30 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Aug 30, 2018 8:55:57 GMT -5 wawa said:

ohhh, I mean, the racist tweet thing, same shit different day.  color me shocked.  I hope they all slink off, but obviously they won't.
(eta: not to minimize their shittyness, but this ride has been going round and round for a while now and I don't expect these people's followers to actually hold them accountable any time soon.  They are trash.  I hope they rot.)

But I feel like Marlena coming out against the youtube top dogs is actually kind of a big deal for the industry. 

Did she name names??  

She did not name names but it’s pretty easy to tell she was probably referring to Jaclyn Hill and Manny MUA in particular since they both dumped MUG for Morphe. I also saw from a drama channel that Manny MUA did a snap of himself throwing an indie brands products in the garbage saying they sucked and the brand has come out saying that he only did that cause they wouldn’t pay him for a review. I think Marlena’s video was good and while I think youtubers should be compensated for their promotional work, trashing a brand because they can’t pay is not cool.

This is weird. Surely he didn’t buy the stuff himself just to throw out?

If he required payment to review and they couldn’t do that, why did he accept samples? Did he lie and said he would review for free and then shake them down? If so that’s really unscrupulous. Good for the brand for speaking out.

[Pippin]

Aug 30, 2018 9:43:23 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Aug 30, 2018 9:33:30 GMT -5 Pippin said:

She did not name names but it’s pretty easy to tell she was probably referring to Jaclyn Hill and Manny MUA in particular since they both dumped MUG for Morphe. I also saw from a drama channel that Manny MUA did a snap of himself throwing an indie brands products in the garbage saying they sucked and the brand has come out saying that he only did that cause they wouldn’t pay him for a review. I think Marlena’s video was good and while I think youtubers should be compensated for their promotional work, trashing a brand because they can’t pay is not cool.

This is weird. Surely he didn’t buy the stuff himself just to throw out?

If he required payment to review and they couldn’t do that, why did he accept samples? Did he lie and said he would review for free and then shake them down? If so that’s really unscrupulous. Good for the brand for speaking out.

I think they just sent it to him as PR hoping he would review it and he wanted payment for a video which they turned down so he did the snap.

[lovelyshoes]

I still don’t understand why these reviews are considered unbiased when people are getting items for free! And I stopped watching videos long ago when every month people like Tiffany had 20 “favorites” and mention that they’ve been using the items for 3 months and omg they are amazing only to turn around and have 20 new favorites the following month. I don’t get the whole influencer thing at all and won’t click on affiliate links.
I have always loved Marlena, back in her old days when she was married to a dbag. She was always helpful and nice. I am glad she spoke out. I want to watch that video.
That said, I don’t think these big YouTubers are going to lose their sheep followers. The racist comments have been known forever and they are still popular and making videos. YouTube should ban them.

[bowies]

I did watch Marlena’s video which left me with more questions lol. I get super cautious about YTers who suddenly go pro - collabs, brand ambassadorships, management, PR hauls...they lose a ton of credibility when that happens but, clearly, few care. I’m not their demographic. I really need to go clean up my subscriptions.

[kittycatlove]

So messy, ugh.

lovelyshoes, I don't get the "favorites" thing either. I don't know why it annoys me, but I feel like if someone is going to praise a favorite they should know the name of the product by heart and not have to look and read what it is. It doesn't even feel genuine. At least memorize it for the video?

[tacokick]

Aug 30, 2018 9:55:13 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Aug 30, 2018 9:43:23 GMT -5 tacokick said:

This is weird. Surely he didn’t buy the stuff himself just to throw out?

If he required payment to review and they couldn’t do that, why did he accept samples? Did he lie and said he would review for free and then shake them down? If so that’s really unscrupulous. Good for the brand for speaking out.

I think they just sent it to him as PR hoping he would review it and he wanted payment for a video which they turned down so he did the snap.

But they had to contact him to get his address. It didn’t arrive out of the blue.

[Pippin]

Aug 30, 2018 12:42:06 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Aug 30, 2018 9:55:13 GMT -5 Pippin said:

I think they just sent it to him as PR hoping he would review it and he wanted payment for a video which they turned down so he did the snap.

But they had to contact him to get his address. It didn’t arrive out of the blue.

Not if he has a PO box listed on all his social media. The issue isn’t that he wanted payment for a video. It’s that he trashed the brand only because they wouldn’t pay him.

[tacokick]

Aug 30, 2018 14:04:47 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Aug 30, 2018 12:42:06 GMT -5 tacokick said:

But they had to contact him to get his address. It didn’t arrive out of the blue.

Not if he has a PO box listed on all his social media. The issue isn’t that he wanted payment for a video. It’s that he trashed the brand only because they wouldn’t pay him.

Yes, that’s horrible and I understand that. I was wondering what the communication before that was. Even if your address is available, normally a company is in touch with people they want to push their product.

[beachbum22]

This might help.

www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/beauty-hair/a22807091/manny-mua-jeffree-star-gabriel-zamora/

""" The controversy unfolded when beauty YouTuber Gabriel Zamora shaded Jeffree Starr by tweeting a picture of himself and fellow YouTubers Laura Lee, Nikita Dragon and Manny MUA. In the picture the group were posing with their middle fingers up and the caption read: "Bitch is bitter because without him we're doing better. """

[Pippin]

Aug 30, 2018 15:12:23 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Aug 30, 2018 14:04:47 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Not if he has a PO box listed on all his social media. The issue isn’t that he wanted payment for a video. It’s that he trashed the brand only because they wouldn’t pay him.

Yes, that’s horrible and I understand that. I was wondering what the communication before that was. Even if your address is available, normally a company is in touch with people they want to push their product.

Oh gotcha. I don’t know exactly but from the post I saw he contacted the brand asking for payment after only receiving PR. They might have reached out asking for a review idk. This happened a while ago but it’s being brought up again because it fits with what Marlena said that influencers are demanding upwards of $60k for videos or they’ll talk bad about brands instead. Beauty Sleuth Official has the original posts on her Instagram.

[lovelyshoes]

Aug 30, 2018 15:57:34 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Aug 30, 2018 15:12:23 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Yes, that’s horrible and I understand that. I was wondering what the communication before that was. Even if your address is available, normally a company is in touch with people they want to push their product.

Oh gotcha. I don’t know exactly but from the post I saw he contacted the brand asking for payment after only receiving PR. They might have reached out asking for a review idk. This happened a while ago but it’s being brought up again because it fits with what Marlena said that influencers are demanding upwards of $60k for videos or they’ll talk bad about brands instead. Beauty Sleuth Official has the original posts on her Instagram.

60k? I guess that makes sense based on their extravagant lifestyles, affiliate links can’t be enough to live off. That goes to my point again, can’t trust any of their reviews. And I also don’t get doing this for a living. This can’t take up an entire day, right?

[bowies]

I hope what Marlena said is true - that brands start backing away from essentially buying themselves YT product placement ads by acting as “influencer” patrons. If the subscriber numbers are being propped up by kids (read: not much disposable income) then what’s even the point.

I just purged some of the obnoxious social climber-type gurus from my feed - would love to know of any under-the-radar YTers I should check out that haven’t bought into the culture yet - people in the vein of Emily Noel and Jessica Braun, Zabrena and Lauren Mae.

[bowies]

Aug 30, 2018 17:37:39 GMT -5 lovelyshoes said:

Aug 30, 2018 15:57:34 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Oh gotcha. I don’t know exactly but from the post I saw he contacted the brand asking for payment after only receiving PR. They might have reached out asking for a review idk. This happened a while ago but it’s being brought up again because it fits with what Marlena said that influencers are demanding upwards of $60k for videos or they’ll talk bad about brands instead. Beauty Sleuth Official has the original posts on her Instagram.

60k? I guess that makes sense based on their extravagant lifestyles, affiliate links can’t be enough to live off. That goes to my point again, can’t trust any of their reviews. And I also don’t get doing this for a living. This can’t take up an entire day, right?

Someone in the comments of a video said Laura Lee was bringing in $750K a year on her Morphe code and affiliate links.

[tacokick]

Aug 30, 2018 17:37:39 GMT -5 lovelyshoes said:

Aug 30, 2018 15:57:34 GMT -5 Pippin said:

Oh gotcha. I don’t know exactly but from the post I saw he contacted the brand asking for payment after only receiving PR. They might have reached out asking for a review idk. This happened a while ago but it’s being brought up again because it fits with what Marlena said that influencers are demanding upwards of $60k for videos or they’ll talk bad about brands instead. Beauty Sleuth Official has the original posts on her Instagram.

60k? I guess that makes sense based on their extravagant lifestyles, affiliate links can’t be enough to live off. That goes to my point again, can’t trust any of their reviews. And I also don’t get doing this for a living. This can’t take up an entire day, right?

I’d love to make 60K in an afternoon. Then spend the rest of the day napping and playing with makeup.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

Thank god you asked because I am so lost. I did watch Tati commenting about it, but she’s completely talking out of both sides of her mouth, because she’s like “promote something if you like it, but not for the money” and then 2 seconds later was butthurt because someone she considered a friend supported some other vitamin product instead of hers (likely Manny who apparently made an ad with Sugar Bear Hair, which, who fucking cares because it’s fucking vitamins).

I mean, I absolutely think people need to be held accountable for the shitty things they say, so the fact that people are losing deals over racist shit they said in the past is great, but it also still seems like Jeffree is continuing to bully people out of the community because he thinks they are shading him, meanwhile we are all supposed to not think about the bullshit he has said and done because he’s “changed.” And Tati is choosing to align with him I guess. I call bullshit and I’m frustrated with all of them.

[bowies]

Aug 30, 2018 17:54:06 GMT -5 lyssbobiss, Command, B613 said:

Thank god you asked because I am so lost. I did watch Tati commenting about it, but she’s completely talking out of both sides of her mouth, because she’s like “promote something if you like it, but not for the money” and then 2 seconds later was butthurt because someone she considered a friend supported some other vitamin product instead of hers (likely Manny who apparently made an ad with Sugar Bear Hair, which, who fucking cares because it’s fucking vitamins).

I mean, I absolutely think people need to be held accountable for the shitty things they say, so the fact that people are losing deals over racist shit they said in the past is great, but it also still seems like Jeffree is continuing to bully people out of the community because he thinks they are shading him, meanwhile we are all supposed to not think about the bullshit he has said and done because he’s “changed.” And Tati is choosing to align with him I guess. I call bullshit and I’m frustrated with all of them.

Tati is always trying to have it both ways. I stopped subscribing to her when she brought Jeffrey on her channel. You are the company you keep. And suddenly alllllll the other people Jeffrey used to hang with are being called out as racists too? Shocking! Tati is thirsty and will absolutely align herself with the popular crowd if it boosts her subscribers. I don’t buy her virtuous act one bit. I think she’s savvy enough to know that a plethora of sponsored posts will kill her personal brand and so that’s why she’s picky (ahem, only working with the big offers).

I wasted a lot of time googling this today. Not proud, but not sorry either.

[stephm0188]

emilynoel, Jessica Braun, and Wayne Goss are pretty much the only ones I watch anymore. I used to love KathleenLights when she first started, but she's become too much like the rest of them (and has made her share of racist comments, too.)

[bugandbibs]

Aug 30, 2018 17:43:15 GMT -5 bowies said:

I hope what Marlena said is true - that brands start backing away from essentially buying themselves YT product placement ads by acting as “influencer” patrons. If the subscriber numbers are being propped up by kids (read: not much disposable income) then what’s even the point.

I just purged some of the obnoxious social climber-type gurus from my feed - would love to know of any under-the-radar YTers I should check out that haven’t bought into the culture yet - people in the vein of Emily Noel and Jessica Braun, Zabrena and Lauren Mae.

I really like Jen Luvs Reviews and Morgan on The Beauty Breakdown. I don't follow the big names except I was an OG watcher of Emily Noel years ago, so I'm not sure how they compare to what you watch. I mostly follow Asian beauty channels.

[mortomo]

I usually only watch Emily Noel on a regular basis for makeup reviews. She seems honest and down to earth and she's not a 20something. I feel like her makeup needs/likes align pretty well with mine. I find a lot of beauty YTers to be obnoxious.

I also watch Hot and Flashy, but mostly for her anti-aging tips as I don't really see her as a good source for make-up tips. I really wish that there were more quality older 'beauty gurus'.

I was watching Tati for a while, but she just comes off as fake now. Too bad because I really like her makeup style (not over the top). 

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

I have been following it a bit, but getting distracted by John Maclean videos while reading about it on r/Beautyguruchatter. Missing Kimberly Clark because I think she would have a very good and interesting opinion on this.

[stephm0188]

Morphe's business relationship with Jaclyn Hill definitely gives me pause. I'm not sure I'll purchase anything from them because I find her so slimy.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

Sept 6, 2018 16:09:08 GMT -5 Miss Phryne Fisher said:

I have been following it a bit, but getting distracted by John Maclean videos while reading about it on r/Beautyguruchatter. Missing Kimberly Clark because I think she would have a very good and interesting opinion on this.

I agree! I’m thrilled for Kimberly to have other incredible opportunities, but I really miss her videos on consumerism and I think she’s one of the few refreshingly honest gurus.

[bowies]

Sept 6, 2018 16:09:08 GMT -5 Miss Phryne Fisher said:

I have been following it a bit, but getting distracted by John Maclean videos while reading about it on r/Beautyguruchatter. Missing Kimberly Clark because I think she would have a very good and interesting opinion on this.

I found her today, but if you miss Kimberly check out Abby Williamson. lyssbobiss, Command, B613

[oliviapope]

Been a while since I played over here. I hate Jaclyn Hill even though her videos are what got me into makeup. I absolutely cannot stand her anymore she just seems like an awful person.

I like Katy (lustrelux) Desi, Chrisspy, and Shayla. They all seem to stay (as far as I know) out of the drama.


I have never cared for MannyMUA and never watched Laure Lee (and never understood how anyone listened to her voice anyway).