James Charles Is Starting His Own Makeup Line. Is That Why He's Been Big On Gatekeeping The Industry Lately?
Beauty YouTuber James Charles has teased his first independent makeup line. Fans wonder whether that's why he's been so vocal about industry newcomers of late.
James Charles has dropped that he’s releasing a makeup line and if you’re wondering why, Morphe collabs aside, one of the biggest beauty influencers in the world didn’t already have his own cosmetics brand – well, same.
“WHEWWW the plans I have for my makeup line are truly… something else,” James Charles tweeted today about the collection.
Speculative fans quickly put two and two together, picking up that this new line may have contributed to James’ recent criticism towards other new beauty brands. He's had well-documented beef with both Alicia Keys and Lauren Conrad over their new cosmetics ventures.
“And now it makes sense why he was trying to gate-keep other people coming out with makeup brands and was so salty about it,” one Reddit user wrote. “Funny how that works.” "Did he ask himself for permission to do that?," another Reddit user pondered. Gotta love Reddit sass.
The timing of James's announcement is interesting, too. It comes after James Charles dropped his latest collection, Classroom, for his Sisters Apparel brand last week. Unlike all of his other collections, it didn’t quite sell out straight away. For someone of James Charles' stature, that's notable in itself.
So why isn't his new collection, cute as it is, as popular as the rest? We had a few theories – and some spare time – the other day.
First, there was the controversy surrounding the collection itself: James had been accused of ripping off designs for it from streetwear brand Teddy Fresh. The brand’s co-founder Ethan Klein shared a conversation between him and James, in which James admitted he saw a resemblance between his new clothing line and Ethan’s, but said there was nothing he could do about it. Receipts below.
There was also the fact fans still supposedly hadn’t gotten their items from the last launch. Which... isn’t ideal.
And then there are of course the many other controversies James has faced that could be slowly contributing to his fans being a little less keen on buying his merch and supporting him. This year alone he’s been enveloped in drama (fairly or unfairly) with Tati Westbrook, Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star, not to mention the aforementioned Alicia Keys and Lauren Conrad gatekeeping shenanigans. Oh, and he was papped blatantly ignoring social distancing rules, too. Not good.
As is now standard in YouTuber world, a lot's been going on. We'll bring you more info on James Charles' makeup line as we have it.
Main Image Credit: Licensed by Getty
