If you cast your mind back to 2019, you might recall the infamous Jaclyn Hill lipstick controversy.
For those who need a refresher, makeup artist and YouTuber Jaclyn Hill faced heavy backlash after her collection of lipsticks were met with scathing reviews.
Jaclyn ended up responding to the controversy, saying in a statement: “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.”
“I’m so sorry if the product you received was anything less than perfect. If you are unsatisfied in ANY way please contact help@jaclyncosmetics.com & we will be sure to give you a full refund as well as send you a new product. I stand behind my brand & will do whatever it takes to make sure my customers are satisfied,” she continued.
Jaclyn added in follow-up tweets, “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.”
Days later, Jaclyn defended herself further in a video shared to her YouTube page addressing the claims that her products were “hazardous, moldy, or expired.” In it, Jaclyn insisted that her lipsticks were manufactured in May 2019, and that the “black dots” on them were simply “oxygen bubbles.” She also claimed that the “hairs” on the lipsticks came from the “cotton gloves” that were worn by the people manufacturing them.
“All of the products in these vats are 100% FDA-approved ingredients and totally good and safe for you to use,” she stated, before calling the entire thing “very embarrassing” and apologizing.
Jaclyn went on to launch two new brands after the lipstick controversy: Jaclyn Roxanne, which sells jewelry, and KOZE, which sells loungewear and blankets. The brands were launched in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
“Tell me you didn’t mean a word you said in your ‘apology’ without telling me you didn’t mean a word you said in your ‘apology...’ this post is extremely distasteful and disrespectful to everyone who received those contaminated tubes. Grow up and take some actual accountability,” one person wrote.
“Having a whole apology video for them then making a video joking or mocking them years later is really distasteful. Makes it seem like you were never sorry to begin with smh,” said another, while someone else called the entire thing “pure gross and distasteful.”
Now, Jaclyn has addressed the infamous lipstick controversy in a new YouTube video revealing that she’s shutting down all of her brands.
In the 17-minute video, Jaclyn teared up as she reflected on the past scandal. “We all saw what happened with those lipsticks,” she said, before adding, “Although I make jokes about it, it still haunts me all the time.”
“After my lipstick launch happened and things obviously did not go as planned, I honestly became zombie-like,” she shared. “I did the absolute bare minimum as a founder and CEO. I just relied on my team to kind of float me through everything.”
“The way I handled the lipsticks is the biggest regret of my entire life,” Jaclyn went on, revealing that she “fell into such a depression” and “turned to alcohol.” She said, “I felt like such a failure.”
Jaclyn also said that she’s “sick of making jokes” about the controversy. “It’s just a way for me to process and cope with the trauma that it’s caused me,” she said. “There's actually nothing funny about it whatsoever — there’s nothing funny about the way I handled it, there’s nothing funny about what came of it.”
