‘MascaraGate’ has brought controversial beauty guru Jeffree Star out of retirement
Thought Jeffree Star was over in 2020? Think again. The start of 2023 has left the beauty community up in arms following a video last week by influencer Mikayla Nogueira. Nogueira tested L’Oréal Telescopic Lift mascara and allegedly added false lashes before the end of the clip — something TikTok users have now dubbed as ‘MascaraGate’. Many called on Jeffree Star who is known for his brutally honest beauty reviews, and he responded in his own video on TikTok, saying: “You’ve woken up the motherfucking beast and I’ll be reviewing starting again next week. A lot of foundations and mascaras and certain things I hear may be fraudulent.”
“So if y’all want an unbiased motherfucking bitch that’s been reviewing makeup for 10 years that has never accepted a fucking coin from one brand to ever say a product is ‘amazing,’ then stay fucking tuned cause the bitch is back,” Star continued in his response.
The initial clip by Nogueira has received over 39.7 million views and counting. In the clip, she references her brand partnership with L’Oréal, and fans are taking it to mean that she fabricated the mascara’s results. Some of the 65.6k comments read, “Look at the outer corner of her left eye… you can see the drop where her real lashes are”, and “‘This looks like falsies’ because it is”. Speculation is now hailing the cult-fave Ardell Wispies as the synthetic lash in question.
Still, as one of the beauty communities most controversial names, Star’s involvement has led ‘MascaraGate’ followers to re-asses his contentious legacy.
Before launching his own brand in 2014, Jeffree Star Cosmetics, the content creator gained fame through his YouTube content, where he created brutally honest unpaid beauty reviews. Following his rise to fame, though, the Star was then accused of multiple non-consensual assaults on men, using stun guns to intimidate people, and multiple accounts of racism online and in real life. His accusations continued as he branded himself uncancellable, finding himself in the centre of feuds with other online personalities, including Kat Von D, Laura Lee, Jeff Blandino, Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian. He was supposedly cancelled in 2020 as he inserted himself into ‘Dramageddon’, the feud between two fellow beauty creators, Tati Westbrook and James Charles, over the latter’s behaviour towards men. Beauty brand Morphe continued to sever all ties with Star and his company following his involvement.
