This can’t be how YouTube star Jaclyn Hill wanted things to go!
The beauty vlogger — who boasts nearly six million subscribers on her YouTube channel — is coming under major fire on social media after launching her new lipstick line only to find out that a significant portion of the product sold is apparently damaged or otherwise “compromised.”
Related: Kylie Jenner Becomes A YouTuber… For A Day!
Social media has been on fire all weekend over Hill’s 20 new shades of nude lipstick — most specifically about what buyers are arguing is the poor quality, the damaged orders, and the broken lipsticks that arrived in the mail after many shelled out hundreds of dollars to purchase them from Hill’s brand, Jaclyn Cosmetics!
Still other users have taken to Twitter to complain that their orders didn’t arrive on time — with some claiming they didn’t arrive at all — and pointing out that Hill’s customer service team with the brand has been unresponsive and slow to account for all the mistakes. Others claim refunds have come quickly, though, even with the damaged merchandise.
It all goes back to May 23, when Hill publicly announced in a video posted to her YT channel (which you can watch, below) that she was offering a line of 20 nude lipsticks for purchase at the end of the month:
Happy times there, indeed — with no sign yet of what was to come…
The lipstick lines were available for purchase from Jaclyn Cosmetics beginning on May 30, and that’s when things started going downhill. Customers rushed online to buy the lipstick lines — often waiting hours in checkout only to find products had been completely sold out — and over the next week or so, buyers started to notice weird deficiencies in the actual lipsticks themselves.
Very quickly, some took to their own YouTube channels (like you can see from YTer RawBeautyKristi, below) to analyze and explain some of what was so bad about the lipstick products and hypothesize what might have gone wrong for Hill’s brand along the way:
The reaction like that was swift, and strong, and even though a rep for Hill’s brand told INSIDER that “less than half of one percent of orders were impacted by compromised product,” buyers very clearly were seeing major problems with the line.
Worse yet, at first, Hill struggled to reconcile some of the issues at play here, and got defensive on social media with buyers in several (now-deleted) tweets responding to complaints.
Eventually, beginning on Friday, she began to figure things out — at least as far as being more polite to her customers was concerned (below):
I want to thank you all for the unbiased feedback on my lipstick collection. The good, the bad & the ugly. Every comment or concern that has been brought to my attention has not been taken lightly. My team and I are working nonstop to address any & all issues you may be having.
— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) June 7, 2019
Later Friday, Hill continued working to mend the situation with her fans and followers (below):
I stand behind my brand & will do whatever it takes to make sure my customers are satisfied. I am so grateful for your constant love & support & patience that who have given me!❤️
— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) June 7, 2019
And by Saturday, it appeared that she was hard at work trying to diagnose the root issue regarding what exactly went wrong with the lipstick lineup (below):
My team and I are working very hard on finding out EXACTLY what is causing the “grittiness & bumpy texture” on some of my lipsticks. I am so sorry to see some of you dissatisfied with my product. I will make it right for you & learn from this mistake! That’s a promise❤️
— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) June 8, 2019
Also, I have apologized to the first girl who tweeted me about her lipstick not being perfect. I reacted very unprofessionally & that’s never my intention. I always want you guys to be comfortable sharing your concerns with me.
— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) June 8, 2019
She also tried to explain away some of the more ‘WTF’ moments that came with the initial product line of purchase (below):
If any of you are receiving lipsticks like this…. please know that this is NOT hair! My factory used brand new white gloves to do quality control & they shed all over my product!???? We switched to rubber gloves 2 days ago & will make sure this never happens again. https://t.co/qn6UTUJzRE
— Jaclyn Hill (@Jaclynhill) June 8, 2019
Hmmm…
Fortunately for Hill, the damage to her brand hasn’t been too significant. It appears a considerable amount of buyers have requested (and are receiving/have received) refunds, and while that may hurt the bottom line for Jaclyn Cosmetics, it appears the worst of the storm may be over for the YouTuber.
She hasn’t seen a huge drop in followers on the video platform, either, though there has been a little backlash; according to the social counting website Social Blade, Hill has average more than 2,000 new subscribers every day over the past month; on Sunday, she lost nearly 200 subscribers in total. So while there has been some push back, it certainly isn’t a career-ending move — and most of the complaints have died down a bit on social media.
Still, just as it was with the James Charles–Tati Westbrook–Jeffree Star drama of a few weeks ago, this just goes to show you: beauty YouTubers are under a LOT of pressure to produce for their viewers and subscribers, and when they don’t, the social media firestorm can get UGLY! Hill just managed to walk away from this one relatively unscathed, at least compared to the last YT drama we followed!
[Image via YouTube]
Related Posts
