Jaclyn Hill may be in the eye of her faulty lipstick storm but this isn't even close to her first time being at the center of beauty community drama. After all, she's had a long enough career in the beauty industry and it's been full of some noteworthy ups (that first Morphe palette is still a hit, remember?) and some very cringe-worthy downs. From beauty influencer spats to embarrassing launches, Jaclyn Hill has had all kinds of storms on this internet.
That said, here's every single time Jaclyn Hill had major drama that played out on the internet for all the world to see.
Jaclyn Hill and BECCA Cosmetics had a public and confusing fallout in 2017.
BECCA Cosmetics and Jaclyn Hill started off with a pretty positive business relationship in 2015. They created the cult favorite Champagne Pop Highlighter that year which sold out within 20 minutes on the Sephora website, as reported by The Fashion Law. Unfortunately, Hill and the brand hit a snag with its 2016 holiday collection which involved an eye shadow palette recall due to quality issues. Then, Hill found out via the Trendmood Instagram page that BECCA Cosmetics would move forward with a Prosecco Pop Highlighter launch that had nothing to do with her.
"This is news to me! Is this for real?! @beccacosmetics," she wrote in the Trendmood comments section. "I'm literally in shock right now. I had absolutely no idea." Hill hasn't been associated with BECCA Cosmetics since then. People speculated that Hill and BECCA Cosmetics had a falling out that caused this although the CEO, Robert DeBaker, called the beef rumors "classic fake news" in a 2017 interview with Racked.
Despite that denial, BECCA did ultimately release that Prosecco Pop Highlighter ($38, Sephora). It also re-released the Champagne Pop Highlighter ($38, Sephora) in 2019 without any Jaclyn Hill association. More tea, anyone? The alleged cold war between BECCA Cosmetics and Jaclyn Hill didn't end with them quietly parting ways in 2016.
Enter Morphe.
After breaking up with BECCA Cosmetics, Hill found herself at the center of a legal beef between BECCA Cosmetics and Morphe Brushes.
Jaclyn Hill launched the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill co-brand in 2017.
BECCA Cosmetics filed a lawsuit against Morphe Brushes in July 2018 over the product packaging from a Jaclyn Hill collab. According to BECCA, the packaging looked way too similar to the Champagne Pop Palette it had in the works “as part of its own collaboration with Jaclyn Hill,” The Fashion Law reported. Morphe Brushes defended itself, ultimately declaring that BECCA Cosmetics didn't have the rights to the packaging design. Morphe also noted other brands that used a similar style.
Morphe Brushes moved forward with its launch of the Jaclyn Hill Eye Shadow Palette Collection ($49, Morphe Brushes).
Sadly, that same Morphe launch ended with quality concerns, a recall, and a lengthy apology video published to Hill's YouTube channel in 2018.
If you thought Jaclyn Hill's lipstick drama was her first time being called out over the quality of her products, then prepare your hearts. Hill had a lovely launch with her first Morphe eye shadow palette but the next one was a trash fire. The eye shadows received a host of negative reviews by fans who were granted early access to them via Morphe in 2018.
The reviews resulted in a delayed launch and then a product recall. Hill and Morphe ultimately ended up apologizing for the entire situation. She also took a break from promoting Morphe at all and vowed to focus on content for her YouTube channel.
Before the palette problems though, drama ensued after Jaclyn Hill released this Morphe brush kit in 2017.
The Morphe makeup brush kit sold out twice but everything else afterward was pure messiness. Several Jaclyn Hill fans who purchased the brushes complained about the brushes shedding way more than they should. "I regret buying this morphe brush set because they shed ALL OVER MY FACE WHEN I USE THEM," one person tweeted.
"My Morphe brushes shed like crazy and are so scratchy," another person shared. "The quality is subpar and you’re better off getting the new Wet N Wild brushes. They’re better quality and half the price."
The outcry got so loud that Hill disabled the comments on her YouTube video. Many Jaclyn Hill fans questioned her alliance with Morphe and also began to be skeptical of all beauty influencers promoting the brand.
Questionable problems and brand deals aren't where the Jaclyn Hill drama stops though.
Hill also accidentally ignited the Kathleen Lights racial slur drama in 2018.
Jaclyn Hill posted a video of fellow beauty influencer Kathleen Lights saying the N-word while they played a videogame on Snapchat. Lights apologized for saying the word "accidentally." Hill apologized for uploading it and stated that she was drunk and did not hear when Lights and another friend told her not to publish the footage. I guess she was also too drunk to tell Kathleen Lights that she should not be saying the N-word at all.
Unfortunately, that wasn't Hill's first time being involved in a racially insensitive situation.
She wore this appropriative wig to a Halloween party which left a few of her fans perturbed.
Hill decided to be a sexy, sparkly skeleton for Halloween in 2017. Unfortunately, she decided that her costume couldn't be complete without a cotton candy pink afro wig. "And maybe not wear a pink Afro when you don’t do much to help your fellow POC beauty influencers," one person chastised her on Twitter. " “Yo I love Jaclyn Hill. I tried so hard to ignore her husband having lots. But she really had to go and wear an afro. It’s 2017. Can we not?” another critic wrote.
In case you're wondering, the cultural appropriation conversation surrounding hair is longstanding. Being a white person wearing textured hair as a costume is racially insensitive when there are people born with that hair texture being discriminated against because of it. Wear what you want because that's your prerogative but be prepared for some black people to be uncomfortable and offended by it. Some of us won't even be offended by it. We'll just note that behavior and beware of you. Sorry, not sorry.
Jaclyn Hill also seems to keep a love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship going with Jeffree Star.
The pair seemed to fall out when he chastised her for outing Kathleen Lights during the racial slur fiasco. Later in the same month, Jaclyn Hill made a comment about their individual statuses in the beauty community.
“There is a few people like Jeffree Star who are thriving harder than ever and like, who can do no wrong right now in people’s eyes. Other than that, it's like I’m on eggshells and constantly watching my back," she said in a Snapchat post.
Star fired back in a subtweet stating, "I’m too busy thriving and working to give a [redacted] what anyone has to say about me. Middle name: Can’t relate," he wrote in a tweet that was screenshotted by drama channels. Subsequently, lots of her fans and critics called her out for the unwarranted Jeffree Star mention.
It's unclear now if the pair still even have a friendship but we're leaning toward no…
Then, there is the mystery surrounding the breakup between Hill and Makeup Geek Cosmetics.
This one is a bit murky as neither party will confirm anything by way of actual name-dropping. Still, anyone with good sense can see that Jaclyn Hill and Makeup Geek Cosmetics had something and then nothing very, very quickly.
In short, the two parties were supposed to release a palette together and it never happened. Hill attributed the canceled plans to them both having other collaborations that got in the way. Makeup Geek Cosmetics founder, Marlena Stell, refused to state explicitly what happened. However, she addressed the drama on Twitter by vaguely stating that she was backstabbed and that one unnamed influencer specifically cost her $1 million. She also published this video called, "My Truth Regarding The Beauty Community." The video and her vague tweets led fans to believe she was definitely talking about Jaclyn Hill. People subsequently chastised Hill for allegedly dropping Makeup Geek Cosmetics once she found better makeup deals.
On another note, Stell has also been very, very vocal about Jaclyn Hill throughout this entire lipstick fiasco.
