Beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill has been under fire from fans who say the lipsticks they ordered from her new makeup line arrived full of holes, bumpy, covered in what looked like hair, or generally looking less than stellar.
Hill, who has 6.2 million Instagram followers and 5.9 million YouTube subscribers, launched her makeup brand Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics on May 30.
The brand so far features a line of nude lipsticks in a bunch of different shades. They retail for $18 each.
Fans, however, soon began to complain about the quality of the products. One purchaser posted to Facebook, saying the lipsticks were arriving damaged.
Another wrote on Twitter that hers immediately crumbled.
Used my lipsticks or the first time today and it crumbled. 🥺 @Jaclynhill @jaclyncosmetics #SoUpset
One girl showed that her lipstick had small bumps inside, which she called "plastic."
@Jaclynhill @jaclyncosmetics .... tried to email and it wont even send and this is just one I applied another lipstick and it has plastic.. btw I did try the plastic one on my lips 2 times ....
Others looked "lumpy"...
Why is my @jaclyncosmetics Decaf lipstick lumpy?? @Jaclynhill This cant be ok right?? #jaclyncosmetics #jaclynhill
I'm so confused. I just received my @jaclyncosmetics lipsticks today and after 1 use noticed all these lumps. I'm scared @Jaclynhill WTF is this!!!
And even covered with little "hairs."
yes the lipstick is sweating because it just got delivered and it’s 80+ out today...but @Jaclynhill @jaclyncosmetics my sofia and one other shade in my order had this fuzz/lint on my bullet fresh out of the component i’m not trying to shade you like I think some other people are
Finally, another beauty YouTuber, Raw Beauty Kristi, decided to deploy SCIENCE to see what was really going on.
In a 52-minute video, she said she ordered the products herself and immediately saw the same issues.
"I noticed that what people were saying was true, that there were some issues with the outer appearance of the actual lipstick themselves. Upon further inspection, I noticed fibers, hairs, beads, and pitting in a bunch of the lipsticks," she said.
Kristi decided to check out the lipstick under a microscope. One shade, she found, had some "black dots" in them and another had hairs and dots.
She also showed "normal" lipsticks under the microscope as a control.
"All I can say is WTF," she tweeted, sharing a photo of her "hairy" lipstick.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Kristi said she has always admired Hill, "so naturally when she announced she was coming out with her own brand, I had to see what it was all about."
"The majority of my position online is to review cosmetics to my audience," she said, "so I sat down with the entire collection ready to dive in and see how they wore.
"I did not go into this review with any malice or ill intent and I fully did not expect to go AS in depth as I did. When I opened up my package I immediately noticed a lot of inconsistencies. Lots of fibers, holes, spherical beads throughout etc. That is what made me go even further and use my microscope to see up close what these issues really looked like. On my YouTube channel, it is always my goal to give up front and completely honest feedback, no matter the result.
"The response from the public has been more than I ever could have anticipated. I feel that most people are just looking for a clear explanation of where the issues are coming from and if the products are safe to use. I’m hoping those answers come to light soon, for both the public and for Jaclyn & her team.”
After a few days of drama, Hill responded to the allegations in multiple tweets.
Omg!!! Gross beauty YouTube @briannafoxmakeup posted this when she got her Jaclyn hill lipstick! What is going on video up on my channel now keep it locked in to the hottest beauty drama 24/7 news now
She wrote:
I want to thank you all for the unbiased feedback on my lipstick collection. The good, the bad & the ugly. Every comment or concern that has been brought to my attention has not been taken lightly. My team and I are working nonstop to address any & all issues you may be having. I’m so sorry if the product you received was anything less than perfect. If you are unsatisfied in ANY way please contact help@jaclyncosmetics.com & we will be sure to give you a full refund as well as send you a new product. I stand behind my brand & will do whatever it takes to make sure my customers are satisfied. I am so grateful for your constant love & support & patience that who have given me!
In follow-up tweets, she said her team is investigating the "bumpy" issue, and blamed gloves for the "hairs."
"My factory used brand new white gloves to do quality control & they shed all over my product! We switched to rubber gloves 2 days ago & will make sure this never happens again," she wrote.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, a spokesperson for Jaclyn Cosmetics said "believe less than half of one percent of orders were impacted by compromised product."
They called the launch of the brand "incredible."
"We love our customers and are proud of our successful launch," they said.
These explanations didn't stop people from speculating on what could have happened.
My Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics conspiracy theory: the lipsticks are old, I think they were ready for release ages ago but Jaclyn delayed the launch of her brand so that her ex wouldn’t get any $ from it during the divorce, so they’ve been sitting in a warehouse somewhere
The lipstick issue also became a meme.
Jaclyn hill’s new lipsticks have more hair than Dr. Phil...
me trying to explain the jaclyn hill drama to my my boyfriend boyfriend
Many fans said they were really upset because they felt they could no longer trust that the lipstick was safe.
@Jaclynhill Two out of four of my lipsticks had these fibers... they are all gritty now, the more I've used them. I'm so so, so sad. I was so in love with Isla. I wanted to use it forever because it was my exact lip shade but better. Now i don't know if they are safe to use. 💔
One fan wrote it was "not acceptable."
"People are putting this on their lips and potentially ingesting it. You need a better quality control team. Rubber gloves? What about people who have a latex allergy? This is not good. I would completely shut down production," she wrote.