Meet Kim Thai. She's a YouTuber with half a million subscribers. You might recognize her as one of Nikkie Tutorials' closest friends.
Over the last week, she's become VERY well-known in the beauty community, thanks to an alleged text message from a very popular brand.
As you might already know, Kim Thai had a collaborative moisturizer called Wanderlush with Ofra Cosmetics.
The product — which was originally intended to be limited edition but was restocked quite regularly — launched in January, and a portion of its proceeds were being donated to St. Jude's Hospital.
But, about two weeks ago, Thai abruptly tweeted that she would be discontinuing the fan favorite product due to a "lack of respect."
And in a series of now-deleted tweets, she alluded to "trash talk" directed at her.
Meanwhile, close friend Nikkie de Jager (aka Nikkie Tutorials) was announcing her second collection with the brand. Thai wrote at the time that she still supported de Jager, but refused to continue featuring Ofra.
This all seemed to come out of nowhere, and it left the internet questioning what really happened between Thai and Ofra.
But Thai revealed details exclusively to YouTube channel Here For the Tea — and the situation appears a little more clear now.
In text screenshots provided to HFTT, Thai claimed to have received a text message — censored by Thai herself — allegedly from an Ofra representative that was not meant for her to see.
The representative apologized profusely immediately after sending this message. Thai simply responded with a request to discontinue her collaboration with the brand.
Thai then forwarded this text to de Jager and, according to HFTT, the pair FaceTimed to clarify the situation.
After the phone call, Thai allegedly texted de Jager to tell her that she would no longer be supporting Ofra due to the text in question, and de Jager thanked her for her support.
Side note: Thai told HFTT that in hindsight, she felt Ofra had collaborated with her solely for the purpose of getting closer to Nikkie.
According to Thai, brand representatives told her to "put in a good word" with de Jager in their very first meeting, but Thai brushed it off.
Keep in mind that de Jager has been labeled one the most powerful beauty influencers in the world — brands seeking to connect with her are quite common.
But Kim and Nikkie are still close, and their friendship lives on regardless, which might be the only possible silver lining in this story.
When asked for statement, Ofra Cosmetics issued this apology, identifying the anonymous representative as social media manager Carine Trezza, daughter of the one of brand's presidents.
"We apologize for the delay in addressing the Kim Thai matter. Our headquarters was recently impacted by Hurricane Irma and we were not able to operate normally for over a week.
This letter serves as a formal notification that OFRA Cosmetics will be discontinuing the OFRA x KIM THAI Wanderlush product effective immediately. Kim Thai AKA Kim Thai Nguyen has publically [sic] requested the item to cease being sold. OFRA Cosmetics is glad to comply. Further, Kim Thai no longer wants to earn commission from each sale of Wanderlush or from her affiliate code.
We are a family owned business and we are lucky to build positive relationships with influencers who we love to work with. Unfortunately, the relationship with Kim Thai ended publically [sic] which we would never have wished for. We are glad we were able to collaborate with her on such a project early on in her influencer lifecycle while also giving back to the community.
Our President and Vice President, Ofra and David Gaito run the business with their two daughters and son in-law. Carine, Ofra’s daughter and the Social Media Manager, admits to making a mistake and speaking out of frustration and has since apologized personally to all involved parties. OFRA Cosmetics has addressed the situation internally. Carine further apologizes to anyone impacted by this situation. We are all human and make mistakes."
Revelist has reached out Kim Thai for comment and will update this post as informations rolls in.
