With all the horrific things going on in our world (and there are a ton of horrific things going on in our world), it seems silly to be focused on what is now being referred to as #lipstickgate. Still, as both a makeup artist/addict and as a publicist, my mind is absolutely boggled by what has happened and how Jaclyn Hill is handling it.
Who is Jaclyn Hill, you ask? (assuming you don't watch hours of Youtube beauty influencers like me). Although, let's be honest, Jaclyn pretty much only posts a video these days if she has something to sell. I discovered Jaclyn Hill while I was in makeup school. Everyday, we did a makeup look on one of our classmates and our teacher would critique it. No pressure or anything. I definitely relied heavily on Youtube tutorials for extra techniques and inspiration. Jaclyn is beautiful, vibrant and in her early days she really taught her subscribers how to apply makeup. So because of that, I've continued to support her in spite of all the red flags (and there have been many red flags).
Pretty much all of her collaborations with brands have been shady AF. First, there was her Becca eyeshadow palettes. When customers complained about poor quality, Jaclyn was very quick to take zero responsibility and throw Becca under the bus. She was only responsible for ONE shade in the palette. Becca used a different factory without her knowledge. The samples she tried were perfect. The eyeshadow palettes were recalled, Becca lost tons of money and Jaclyn went on buying Birkin bags.
Then came her first eyeshadow palette with Morphe. Morphe is Jaclyn's favorite brand to collaborate with because she makes a LOT of money with them. More money than with any other brand. So much money, that she's screwed over other brands so she could just collab with Morphe instead. Morphe doesn't have the best quality products. They also have pretty lousy customer service. I've pretty much liked 1% (this is Jaclyn's favorite percentage) of all the Morphe products that I've tried. Having said that, I did like her original palette with Morphe. I did not like that she upgraded the packaging shortly after hearing critiques so that everyone who rushed to grab the palette was left with the original and fairly shitty packaging. Still, it was overall her least problematic launch and the palette is really good.
Then came the Vault. The Vault, in a nutshell, was all of the amazing shades that didn't make it into her original palette. In other words, the leftovers (or a way for them to continue to capitalize on this collection). Jaclyn assured all of her subscribers that it was the same incredible formula as her original palette.
Spoiler alert: It was NOT
After receiving some negative reviews, Morphe recalled the palettes. In an alarmingly short amount of time, "new" palettes were made. Jaclyn let us all know the original palettes were "destroyed." She would later clarify that the palettes were not actually destroyed. Per usual, she was given "false information". The new palettes were not better than the old palettes. Many people speculate that these palettes were not actually new at all. I bought a couple palettes from the Vault collection and let me tell you...they were terrible. I didn't even want to give them to friends and returning was such a hassle (have I mentioned Morphe's customer service sucks?) I threw them in the trash. As a certified makeup artist, I can make most eyeshadows work. There were patchy, did not blend, the shimmers had no pigment. Still, it wasn't Jaclyn's fault because it's never Jaclyn's fault. It was Morphe's fault. To this day, Jaclyn continues to use and recommend the vault palettes.
Note: This is a photo of Makeup Shayla. Her channel is awesome.
It's also important to note that Jaclyn has been caught in many lies. Her lies are fairly dumb (like she will say she's afraid of flying so she can't do a meet and greet that requires her to fly, but then talk will about the luxurious vacation she is planning, which requires her to fly). So while she's not lying in the incredibly alarming and life altering way that say our President lies, she does lie. Still, it's easy to forgive her because she always comes off as really caring and genuine on camera. She's recently been through a divorce. She suffers from anxiety. There's always something going on in her personal life that she will bring up to make us feel sorry for her and forgive her. And many of us have. So she continued to live her best life and buy Birkin bags.
Jaclyn finally launched her own brand of cosmetics. I say "finally," because she's been talking about it and teasing it for YEARS. Literally, like five years. Say what you want about Jaclyn Hill, but her makeup always looks great and many of us had high hopes for brand. As a self proclaimed perfectionist, there was no way anything could go wrong with HER brand. The brand she's been working on for five years. Additionally, if something did happen to go wrong, this would be the first time she'd have no one else to blame but herself.
Jaclyn launched 20 nude lipsticks. I love nude lipsticks. I, along with many fans and influencers alike, rushed to get our hands on these rich, luxe, buttery lipsticks. They sold out incredibly quickly. One strange thing was that no influencers had received PR packages. Generally, influencers receive products in PR prior to a launch. This is so they can review the products and their subscribers will know whether or not they should purchase based on the trusted opinion of their favorite beauty guru. Not one influencer received PR prior to this launch. Jaclyn would go on to say it was a mistake in shipping, she was so upset, blah blah blah. In the words of one of my very favorite beauty guru's Bailey Sarian (who also talks about true crime while doing her makeup and is my spirit animal) this is very SUSPICH.
People seemed to like the lipsticks at first, but then one unfortunate soul named Veronica posted a picture of her lipstick, which has weird bumps and hairs. She tagged Jaclyn Hill, who basically told her that it was most likely Veronica's dry lips that caused this because it certainly was not her lipsticks. But then more people started finding horrific things in their lipsticks. Holes, moisture spots, glass/plastic, hairs in all shapes, colors and sizes! One of my fave beauty Youtubers Raw Beauty Kristi examined her lipsticks under a microscope and it was not pretty. Not pretty at all.
This picture is from Rawbeauty Kristi and the link to her amazing video is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWedI5Csjhw
WTF? Also, ahhhhhh
Jaclyn made a statement that the hairs (or fibers if you will, but really hairs) came from new white gloves that her lab used without her knowledge. They instantly switched back to latex gloves so this would never happen again. Trusted brand owners who are familiar with makeup labs such as Makeup Geek founder Marlena Stell and Emmy award winning makeup artist Kevin James Bennett, would later say that this is not possible, no lab would do this and even if they did, was some lab worker just running his hands all over the thousands of tubes of open lipsticks?
What Jaclyn Hill should have done is immediately recalled these lipsticks. She should have gone on camera and said she was horrified by this situation, that no one should use these lipsticks until they had solid answers and that her company would be issuing full refunds.
What Jaclyn actually did was continue to maintain that her lipsticks are 100% safe to use, in spite of the fact that there have been multiple reports of people having reactions, bumps on their lips, in extreme cases even cutting their lips from whatever plastic or glass is embedded in these little tubes of death. OK that is dramatic, but here is the thing: we ingest lipsticks. Pregnant people are using these. If there is mold or contamination, this could actually cause legitimate health risks.
Many people suspect these lipsticks are old/expired, which isn't such a stretch considering she's been working on this for years. She's had the lipsticks ready to go for years. She's teased these lipsticks on her channel for years and even worn them. Also, there's MOLD. Still, Jaclyn maintains they are safe. She's sticking by the glove story. You know someone else who stuck by a shady glove story? OJ Simpson.
In a statement given to news outlets (this has actually hit major news outlets) Jaclyn Hill maintains that less than 1% of the lipsticks have been compromised (remember I said she loves that statistic?) If Twitter is anything to go by, it's a lot more than 1%. It's more like 99%. People who haven't had any issues with these lipsticks are definitely the minority here. Jaclyn herself has yet to really publicly address this, she's only been making vague statements through her company website or on Twitter. Recently her company updated their website to say "Don't pout, we will be restocking soon." Phew. I would love to add more hairy and potentially contaminated lipsticks to my collection.
It seems that as s far as Jaclyn Hill is concerned, she sold out. She made her money. She doesn't really seem to care that people's health is at risk. My mind is boggled. I'm assuming she thinks this will be like all of her other failed launches. It will blow over, people will forgive her and continue to buy her products. If you take a look at her closet tour, this assumption is not so far off.
However, perhaps this time she has finally gone too far. Touting patchy eye shadows is one thing, but putting people's health at risk is another. Major influencers and long time supporters (including, but not limited to That Girl Shae, Nicol Concilio, Jen Luvs Reviews, Jackie Aina, Babs Beauty, Samantha March and many others) have had enough. I am still curious as to who she will blame this time. She will definitely blame the lab. Perhaps she will blame a homeless dog who wandered into the lab and shed on all of her lipsticks because you can't be mad at a homeless dog. Maybe the people who broke into Jeffree Star's lab broke into her lab. They didn't steal anything, they just contaminated her lipsticks! From a PR standpoint, I grade her an F. From a makeup standpoint, I grade her an F. From a personal/human standpoint, I grade her an F. It's sad that someone millions of people looked up to and learned from, has turned out to be a scam artist. I believe that once she may have been a good person, but that money, greed and fame have taken over. She lies so much, she may even believe her own lies. I hate to ever bash a person or a brand, but this situation is way too hairy for me (pardon the pun).
PS If you are looking for some great lipsticks, I'd recommend Bite Beauty, Pat McGrath, Charlotte Tilbury, Becca and Colourpop luxe lipsticks (Colourpop is amazing and affordable). They are all creamy, buttery, hair/mold free and all have a great variety of nude shades! An influencer I love and trust named Alisa Ashley posted her favorite nude lipsticks to buy that are NOT Jaclyn Cosmetics. She has great recommendations for all skin tones!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqzBCd93Qak
Also, while I know I injected this blog with humor, the health risks are not funny. If you purchased these lipsticks, I'd strongly suggest NOT using them until there is solid evidence that they are safe.
