Morphe Cuts Ties With Jeffree Star
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Morphe has severed its business relationship with Jeffree Star.
The makeup brand on Friday afternoon revealed via Twitter its decision to cut ties with the disgraced beauty YouTuber, who along with fellow YouTuber and collaborator Shane Dawson, has the spent the past several weeks weeks embroiled in Internet controversy and allegations of racism that included several examples over a number of years.
“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. As we look to the future, we will continue to share updates on what lies ahead for the Morphe brand,” the tweet read.
The announcement was met with a broad range of reactions from Morphe’s followers. “Thank you for doing the right thing,” read one tweet. “So there’s no point in buying Morohe’s [sic] cheap s–t anymore, the only reason people go in morphe [sic] stores is for JSC,” read another.
Morphe has been under pressure from fans to stop selling its popular Jeffree Star Collection products, after frustration with Star, who is often at the center of YouTube drama and regularly contends with allegations of past racist and anti-Semitic behavior, seemed to boil over following frequent collaborator Shane Dawson’s fall from grace after a video of him sexualizing a poster of then-11-year-old Willow Smith circulated the Internet. Star and Dawson collaborated on The Conspiracy Collection, launched last year. As of last week, when fans noticed it had been removed from Morphe’s web site, it had been sold through Morphe and on Jeffree Star’s web site.
Dawson issued a “Taking Accountability apology video expressing remorse for a range of serious gaffes, including racial slurs, playing racist stereotypes and joking about pedophilia on his YouTube channel. The video is one of a growing number of apologies issued by YouTubers who are being asked by their followers to address past racist content in light of the global antiracism movement. Dawson’s mea culpa, however, came too late — the influencer’s book, “I Hate Myselfie,” has been pulled from Target shelves, his content is no longer able to be monetized on YouTube, and he’s announced he is leaving the beauty industry.
The Morphe x Jeffree Star Collection is said to have been a driver in the brand’s success in recent years. The Conspiracy Collection alone is said to have done $20 million in sales. As of Friday afternoon, Jeffree Star Cosmetics was still available on Morphe’s site.
For years, Star has been plagued by allegations of bigotry, ranging from racism to anti-Semitism to xenophobia. His comments, which are frequently dredged up and recirculated online, have included use of the N-word, remarks about “poor Mexicans,” and a mention of “throwing battery acid” on a Black woman — which he later claimed was a joke. At one point, Star operated a web site called Lipstick Nazi.
Despite the frequent outrage over Star’s behavior, the beauty industry has continued to work with him. And while Star is now out at Morphe, some of the brand’s fans on Twitter wondered what it will do about the other influencers it has worked with who have also been accused of racist allegations.
“Well tbh if the reason is racism and everything that’s [sic] Jeffree did you might as well take everyone that collabs with Morphe off like James and manny and Laura lee and etc because everyone has had their fair shade of tea and drama and racist comments,” read one tweet.
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