- Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson were both considered “canceled” on YouTube in 2020.
- This Friday’s video will feature the return of the duo who sold out their eyeshadow palette in 2019.
- Star stated that they will explain why their makeup line is sold at Nordstrom Rack, a discount store.
Beauty mogul Jeffree Star announced that his next video will feature an old friend, Shane Dawson, who hasn’t appeared with him on YouTube since January 2020. This Friday, the two will address why their 2019 makeup products are being sold at discount store Nordstrom Rack, Star said in a Tuesday tweet.
Star and Dawson were the dominant YouTube duo two years ago. They reportedly sold out of the flagship eyeshadow palette from their first and only makeup collaboration, the Shane x Jeffree Conspiracy Collection by Jeffree Star Cosmetics, in minutes — eventually earning millions of dollars, according to an Insider analysis of the collaboration’s sales — and each received hundreds of millions of views on YouTube in 2018 and 2019. In June 2020, Star and Jeffree lost their celebrity as the internet began to reexamine racist posts and offensive jokes they made about children online.
Star (16 million subscribers) has in the past made fun of beauty brands sold at T.J. Maxx discount stores. However, his Jeffree Star Cosmetics products have been found at European T.K. According to social media posts Maxx stores (T.J. Maxx’s European counterpart)
In a Tuesday Instagram story, Star said that he and Dawson — who has 20 million subscribers but last uploaded on YouTube in June 2020 — will talk about “drama, questions” and “concerns” fans have about their makeup being sold by Nordstrom. In a tweet, Star said he would be “candid” in discussing how his makeup ended up at other stores for a lower price.
Pictures on social media showed a Star x Dawson lipstick that started at $18 being sold for $10.97 at Nordstrom Rack. The listing for this product seems to have been removed on the website of the discount retailer.
Star teased in his Instagram story that he would explain why he deleted his previous YouTube video. It was a collaboration between him and LipstickNick, his long-time makeup artist. Star might have deleted the video to reduce its views. Critics speculated. On Monday, Star tweeted asking if he should reupload the video, implying that he deleted it because he had received “mean” criticism of it.
Screenshot Instagram/@killermerch, @shanedawson
Star’s fans reacted positively on social media to the new Dawson video announcement, but it drew in significantly less excitement than the pair received at the height of their popularity, when they would each create entire news cycles in the beauty YouTube world by collaborating.
As for Dawson, recent appearances on his fiancé Ryland Adams’ podcast have drawn little fanfare. With his most recent interview receiving less than 300,000 views in six days, he is a far cry from his YouTube documentary era, when his videos regularly surpassed 20 million views.
Data from Insider’s 2021 Influencer Index shows that Star lost over 6% of its recognition in the period April to August 2021. Dawson suffered the greatest drop in recognition, dropping 23% over the same time period.
Star and Dawson both began the process of moving from Los Angeles. Star splits his time between his California-based cosmetics offices and his Wyoming ranch, where he raises yaks. Dawson and Adams moved to a $2.2 million farm in Colorado where Adams said he wants to start a family.
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