Somewhere, in the windowless filming rooms of their respective Calabasas mansions, beauty YouTubers Jeffree Starr and James Charles breathe simultaneous sighs of relief that some other messy bitch is distracting attention away from their “problematic” brands. Bella Thorne, actress/raver/tipi-owner, fumbled her way into the makeup biz last week and it’s already a spectacular disaster sure to make her bank. Basically, Thorne is selling ridiculously expensive, tiny eyeshadow palettes that may or may not rip off a black-owned beauty brand.
What happened?
In March of this year, Bella Thorne launched Filthy Fangs, what appears to be a largely disorganized, scenester multimedia brand offering merchandise such as neon track pants, $12 cotton thongs emboldened with the word “filthy” on the crotch, t-shirt collaborations with controversial YouTube personalities and $5 Bic lighters. In April, Thorne announced that FF would launch a record label component, which has since blessed us with such memorable bangers as “Bitch, I’m Bella Thorne” and “Pussy Mine.” As of at least July 14, the brand has ventured into the makeup industry, when Thorne teased an upcoming “pallet” with this Instagram:
Fast forward to August and two eyeshadow palettes—the $50 “Ocean Drive” and $60 “South Beach”—hit the market, each with only nine shades. (Comparatively, Kylie Cosmetics 14-color eyeshadow palettes retail for $44 and Rihanna’s Fenty 16-color palettes are $59.) Thorne took an Instagram video of the latter set, announcing that both “sold out in a day.”
Both are currently online and available for purchase.