You may hear terms being thrown around that you don’t quite understand, like “tea,” “cancelled,” “snatched,” “periodt,” “snapped,” “shade,” “expose” and the list goes on. If any of the above makes no sense to you, pay attention. I’m about to educate you about a terrible, messed up and toxic online community. This is Beauty Guru culture.
YouTube started in 2005, and quickly a number of people on the platform made videos solely about makeup. Today, with billions of views, what started as fun and fast tutorials has evolved into a problematic community that has tons of influence on young viewers. How is the community toxic? Instead of going through each controversial event since 2005, let’s concentrate on the biggest names in the game—the most problematic gurus who source the community’s toxicity, chosen by two of Etown’s students who know all the tea.
James Charles. Only 20 years old, Charles has had too many controversies to count for making others uncomfortable in person, overcharging fans, flirting with straight men and being a bad friend to other influencers like Tati Westbrook and Emma Chamberlain. Junior Lizzy Zonarich quickly named Charles as a problematic guru,
“He just needs to go back to his roots as an artist, making things creative and original,” Zonarich said. To Zonarich, the beauty community isn’t even about makeup anymore, with drama earning more clicks and money.
Nikita Dragun. Junior Kaitlyn Hamilton, who gave Dragun the title as the most controversial guru, claimed Dragun “starts a lot of drama, never apologizes for what she says, and doesn’t hold herself responsible for her actions” when she was rude to other influencers and racist.
Kat Von D. Hamilton claimed she is controversial because of “the fact that she won’t vaccinate her kids. I can’t support someone who doesn’t support the safety of her children, and puts it online. She vaccinated her pets, but considers it vegan so she won’t vaccinate her kids, which makes no sense.” Kat Von D also had drama with long-time best friend Jeffree Star.
Laura Lee. Hamilton claimed that Lee was called out for “her racist tweets and terrible apology for them.” Hamilton went on to explain, “She was sobbing in a video about nothing instead of owning up to her mistakes. It’s very clear she used other people to gain clout for her career before dropping those people.”
Jaclyn Hill. After releasing products with company Morphe, Hill began her own makeup company and sold expired, contaminated and ruined lipsticks to customers. Instead of answering customers and recalling the products, Hill deleted her social media, just to return and deny it was her fault that her products were harmful and contaminated.
Gabriel Zamora. “Anytime there’s any controversy he adds his own two cents, but he has his own scandals. Like his new branding is ‘keeping it 100’ though he never apologized for his own past problems,” Hamilton said.
Kylie Jenner. Although her products have had flaws, and fans claim she releases too much too fast, Jenner has become a successful makeup brand owner. Customers only buy her products because she puts her name on them without actually making them or accepting negative feedback. Jenner has had public controversies with guru Jeffree Star and others over her bad products.
The drama caused by these gurus and others involved have evolved the beauty community into something it shouldn’t be. Once drama arises against someone, all followers cancel them and vow to never support them. Cancel culture is so prevalent that people cancel someone before accusations are even proven. This ruins the guru’s subscriber count, product sales, sponsorships and possibly their careers. Multiple drama channels exist just to report on beauty guru controversy, and many, like Zonarich, only watch the drama channels and not makeup videos. “Tea,” the drama that has poisoned a harmless love for makeup, has become entertainment for viewers, while the gurus involved suffer, especially mentally. Teenage followers are comfortable bullying after seeing gurus being bullied and bullying others, so it’s time makeup artists stick to makeup and act like adults.
