Morphe Cuts All Ties With Beauty YouTuber Jeffree Star
Morphe, a popular makeup brand, has decided to part ways with beauty YouTuber Jeffree Star.
Earlier today, Morphe revealed that their brand is cutting ties with the controversial YouTuber. This announcement came as no surprise, due to the accusations against Star in the past few weeks in the YouTube beauty community. The influencer has been accused of racism and offensive language from other beauty gurus, creators, and close friends.
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.
— Morphe (@MorpheBrushes) July 10, 2020
Star is also currently at the center of several major controversies. His close friend and business partner Shane Dawson, another popular YouTuber, received public backlash for making racist jokes, disparaging black women, performing in blackface on numerous occasions, as well as recently being exposed for a video he created sexualizing Willow Smith when she was a preteen. This is not the first time Dawson has been criticized for his inappropriate behavior surrounding children and minors. Star and Dawson also collaborated on a beauty product that was recently sold by Morphe.
Morphe is recognized as a physical retailer for several well-known YouTube beauty brands, and is one of the only in-person stores that stocked Star’s products. While there have been numerous accusations of Star’s problematic behavior for many years, spanning over the course of his career, Morphe’s decision to distance themselves from the influencer comes following a barrage of criticism from several distinguished figures in the YouTuber community. Most notably, prominent beauty guru Jackie Aina stepped forward and voiced her concerns over Twitter, as detailed in the tweet below.
hey boos, as some of you may know as of this week I will no longer be a @MorpheBrushes affiliate.
code “EDGES” has deactivated. 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!— Naira Banks (@jackieaina) July 2, 2020
Jeffree Star Cosmetics responded to Morphe’s decision, their address to their fanbase detailed in this Instagram post.
Many individuals have tweeted in support of Morphe’s decision, announcing their own decisions to stop patronizing and supporting Star’s brand. Others have even defaced their Star palettes, demanding that the YouTuber must be held accountable for his behavior.
