James Charles and Tati Westbrook Are Having Big Beauty Beef

May 4, 2019:

Naturally, everyone and their mother on YouTube decided to cash in on the drama and post their own opinions on the nascent issue. Most of them aren’t worth mentioning, save for MUA Gabriel Zamora, because he makes an appearance later in this explainer.

Zamora, who you may remember from the Laura Lee/Jeffree Star YouTube drama from August 2018 (I won’t get into the details here, just know that he and Star don’t get along because… both of them have been really racist on social media in the past), posted a vlog titled “Makeup and Opinions” in which he accused Westbrook of “fraudulent behavior.” He said, “All these videos are being made where James is being made out to be this horrible human being and I’m just confused as to what happened,” and argued that Westbrook shouldn’t have expected Halo to have an exclusive deal with Charles simply because they were friends.

Westbrook would later address that in her own video, saying her friendship with Charles “was not transactional.”

May 10, 2019:

Tati posted a 43-minute YouTube vlog titled, “BYE SISTER,” on Friday to address the ordeal. “Sister,” for those blissfully unaware, is an obvious reference to James Charles’ fanbase, whom he refers to as “sisters.”

In it, she said James Charles always assured her he didn’t like Sugar Bear Hair (and said it would be inappropriate to sell to his teenage audience) and that he would only ever use her product. When he did do the sponsored post around Coachella, she said, he only texted her after the fact to explain that, “I’m stressed… it’s no big,” completely catching her off guard. She explained that his thing about security is a “blatant lie… a very clever story.”

She began the clip by establishing their relationship: he did her makeup for her wedding; she flew him out to the ceremony, and he’s featured prominently in her wedding video. She says her husband helped him get a “boutique manager,” and taught him how to monetize his videos. She says she promoted him all the time and “never asked for a penny.” Twenty or so minutes into the video, she zeroed on Charles’s bad behavior, which she said “is over[ly] sexualized” for his audience “of 12- and 14-year-olds, dominantly.” She accused him of trying to seduce straight men and harassing them because he believed their “sexuality” doesn’t matter because he is “a celebrity.” It’s that last bit that seems to really have fans up in arms:

Tati concluded the video by addressing him directly:

“You’re a phony. You’re easily bought. I know that now… You sold me out, but you threw away our friendship. You lied to me, made up a story, you knew this would be embarrassing for me. No our relationship is not transactional. I have never asked you for anything in return.”

In the vlog, she also admitted to speaking to two drama channels (YouTube channels dedicated to YouTube gossip,) and said things like, “I always like to say, just because the person next to you is in a full body cast, doesn’t mean that your broken arm doesn’t hurt. Pain is pain.” So we can expect more on this in the future.

After her video went live, she tweeted the following:

Seven hours after her upload, James shared his own eight-and-a-half minute vlog, titled “tati.” In it, Charles is uncharacteristically makeup-free. He said:

“I hate knowing that I disappointed not only [my fans], but two people that have been role models for me doing this… What sucks the most is that I know there’s nothing I can say or do to ever earn that friendship or trust back but I don’t blame them for it. A lot of the time when I’ve had to address things in the past, I’ve acted out of impulse and I’ve gone off and tried to pull receipts or facts or screenshots and play the victim and I’m not doing that today, I’m not. That is all I have to say, I’m sorry.”

He also said he’s “already said my truth twice” about the Coachella Sugar Bear situation and doesn’t need to again. Has anyone ever told him to apologize you have to… actually admit to being wrong?

May 12, 2019:

According to CNN, James Charles has lost 2 million subscribers since the Westbrook drama/apology video stuff went down. He had nearly 16 million, and that number dropped to 14 million by Sunday afternoon and appears to be declining still. Westbrook’s subscribers, conversely, have been exploding: She hit 8 million on Sunday. Last week, that number was close to 5 million.

Jeffree Star, who loves to enter drama that doesn’t really concern him, jumped in Sunday to tweet and delete, “There is a reason that Nathan [Schwandt, Jeffree’s boyfriend] banned James Charles from ever coming over to our home again. There’s a reason why I haven’t seen him since [Tati’s] birthday in February. He is a danger to society. Everything Tati said is 100% true,” according to Hollywood Life. Ian Jeffrey, James’s 17-year-old brother, sub-tweeted Star with, “Why does everyone act so tough on the internet,” which Jeffree Star quote-tweeted (and once again, deleted): “Why is your brother a predator? Why’d you really have to move back up to NYC? Exactly. Shut the fuck up.”

Star is 33 years old.

May 13, 2019:

A little after midnight on Monday, Tati posted this note to her Instagram explaining that a reaction video to Charles’s apology video isn’t gonna happen right now:

Something tells me this is not the end. But it could be for Charles’s career?