James Charles's 'Korean makeup' video called out for featuring Chinese, Japanese influencers: 'He literally used douyin/chinese makeup in the thumbnail'

• Beauty content creator James Charles uploaded the video “Trying a Full Face of Korean Makeup!” on Aug. 26 as the first part of his new series where he tries to do full-face looks inspired by different countries.

• However, commenters noticed the beauty influencers Charles included in the main image for the video are Japanese and Chinese, not Korean.

• Charles has not commented on the backlash from users, and others are questioning why he’s back making videos in the first place after grooming allegations against him led to his YouTube channel being demonetized for several months.

YouTuber Charles, who is no stranger to controversy, caught some flak from commenters after he uploaded a video dedicated to recreating Korean beauty looks but featured makeup references from Japanese and Chinese influencers.

According to the video, he’s planning on growing this into an ongoing series in which he tries makeup from other cultures and countries around the world.

In the thumbnail image for the video, Charles includes two beauty influencers — TikTok creator @koocat, who is Japanese, and Chinese Douyin influencer @lafu911. Douyin is China’s version of TikTok, although @lafu911 is also regularly featured in beauty inspiration TikToks.

“he literally used douyin/chinese makeup in the thumbnail and some of the tiktok references,” one person commented on the video.

“As a Korean, I will say this looks like Douyin/Chinese makeup more than Korean,” another commenter said, “but it still looks amazing!”

Douyin makeup — named after the platform — is a style that’s been popular in China for years that’s just now entering Western mainstream beauty culture. The hashtag has over 40 billion views on TikTok. Douyin makeup is a skin-first and minimalist style with light blush, blurred lips and, most importantly, emphasis on the eyes.

The eye makeup is a major difference between Douyin beauty and Korean beauty. Korean beauty focuses on “barely there” eye makeup, while Douyin encourages glitter eyeshadow and manhua — a word to describe the style of clumping and clustering eyelashes together, inspired by how lashes are drawn in Chinese comic books.

Current Japanese beauty trends favor more natural eyeshadow looks and less matte makeup.

Charles has not publicly addressed the criticisms, yet. Some argue that the exposure he’s giving to Korean and Japanese beauty products is enough justification for not differentiating between cultures in the video. Others are shocked to see he’s still posting, even after he was accused of grooming and having inappropriate conversations with underage boys.

In July, Cosmopolitan published an interview with the YouTuber and his plans to “relaunch himself and his brand” following the allegations. In it, he denied grooming anyone and called the term, used to describe manipulative behavior that convinces the victim to agree to abusive behavior, a “very popular buzzword.”

NBC News argued in a recent article that several “canceled” influencers haven’t necessarily ended their careers but instead have just switched platforms. Charles is used as one of the examples of a YouTuber whose “viewership has trended downward” in recent years as a result of the allegations, but that hasn’t stopped him from posting on TikTok.

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