Well, folks, 2019 has been quite a tumultuous year for the beauty YouTuber community. From the firestorm that was the saga of James Charles, to Jaclyn Hill's hairy lipsticks, there has surely been enough drama to go around for the rest of the year. So when Alissa Ashley blasted cosmetics brand Juvia's Place this weekend, we can't say we were really that surprised.
However, what came next was something none of us were expecting. In a turn of events, Ashley announced that she's even more at odds with the brand now because an attorney reached out to her sister Arnell Armon on its behalf. Immediately, fans began to speculate if Juvia's was planning a lawsuit against Ashley but just didn't understand why.
Alissa Ashley and her sister Arnell Armon are in fact twins.
But they're not the same person. And though it can be hard to tell the two apart, they've managed to create their own unique personal brands. So this weekend when the Juvia's Place drama took off it was Ashley, not Armon, who was at the front of it all. Her alongside Jackie Aina and other black influencers called out the brand for icing out black beauty YouTubers in favor of others like Nikkie Tutorials and Jeffree Star.
But Juvia's Place was clearly a little confused.
Ashley posted a screenshot of messages she received from someone on her team stating that an attorney for Juvia's Place reached out with a letter. However, it was made out to the wrong person, Arnell Armon. Fans immediately began to speculate that the brand might filing a lawsuit against the influencer, possibly for defamation.
Not long after, Ashley deleted her tweet implicating that Juvia's Place had sought legal action against her.
"Had to delete my tweet, bad Alissa lmao," she tweeted after wiping the proof from her page. However, at that point thousands of fans had already seen it, and the screenshots has circulated en masse. And while some have responded saying that Ashley shouldn't have backed down, we're almost positive that she was advised to do so for legal protection.
But she did say in definite terms that the brand had sent her a cease and desist letter.
And it was in a response to a fan who inquired about the contents of said letter. When the fan asked her if it was a cease and desist sent, Ashley simply responded, "Yeah lol." And though the response put minds to rest about an impending lawsuit, it made us all ask what legal basis Juvia's Place even had to send such a thing.
Considering the Juvia's Place founder went back and forth with Ashley on Twitter off the bat, the grounds for a cease and desist seem... well, thin.
And the things she said weren't too pretty, either.
"Alissa you ask us for products years ago. We failed to deliver based on your timing. You throw a tantrum on Twitter, it backfires. You come back crying for a statement from us, we say no and that’s the reason for all these? Then we get blocked because we said no. #entitled," founder ChiChi Eburu tweeted to the influencer.
So the questions remains... what exactly is the brand trying to accomplish?
"A cease and desist letter is not a lawsuit. She just had a lawyer basically write 'stop it!' on their stationery. It doesn't actually do anything but scare people," said someone on Reddit.
However, someone disputed that with a quick response. "It’s a mighty powerful tool for people who don’t know their rights or the law, though. Like…80% of the time, a C&D will accomplish what you want without ever pressing forward to a formal lawsuit," they said.
Ultimately, it seems like it's the brand that's fueling all of this drama.
"If they hadn't responded to every stupid tweet on Twitter the criticism would have just gotten lost in the rest of the noise. They gave life to this drama and elevated it in a way that is now harming their brand," another Reddit commenter emphasized.
"Really bad PR strategy to have someone emotionally invested posting off the cuff online. Now they are using legal to make people stop commenting when they engaged with those same critics to begin with. These small brands need to invest in professional PR. They make things worse with every tweet."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
