James Charles Gets Cancelled
Who knew a bottle of gummy bear vitamins could ruin so many lives? Only in the beauty community. Influencers dominate the beauty industry, but all it takes is a few old tweets or shade from an ex-friend to destroy your career. Exhibit A? James Charles.
The 20-year old beauty guru was at the height of his career – with over 16 million Instagram followers, a deal as the first male face of Covergirl and an eyeshadow palette collaboration with Morphe. That all changed in May 2019, when fellow influencer (and Charles’ former mentor) Tati Westbrook posted a 43 minute video to her millions of YouTube subscribers – publicly ending her relationship with Charles. She accused him of betraying their friendship by posting a sponsored Instagram ad on behalf of SugarBearHair – a rival company to Westbrook’s Halo Beauty vitamins – and attempting to manipulate straight men regarding their sexuality, among other things. The video racked up 46 million views, and the result was (ironically) not pretty.
In just a few days, James Charles was – as the kids say – “cancelled.” He lost more than three million followers on Instagram – including Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande and the Kardashian-Jenners – and received tons of backlash from fans and fellow influencers. Jeffree Star tweeted that Charles was a “danger to society,” while beauty enthusiasts filmed themselves vandalizing Charles’s palette in equally creative and disturbing ways. The bottom line? When Kylie Jenner unfollows you on Instagram, you know you’ve made a BIG influencer fail.