YouTube Beauty Icon Jaclyn Hill Gets Real About Her Earnings And That Morphe Scandal

YouTuber Jaclyn Hill posted a video to her channel on Monday addressing the recent scandal surrounding her makeup collaboration with Morphe. According to Cosmopolitan, the 28-year-old spoke out about the accusations that she and Morphe were doing nothing to rectify the less than stellar eyeshadow that left many users feeling duped.

The drama started after Morphe and Hill collaborated on a series of palettes called The Vault Collection. In June, they received a slew of negative reviews from top YouTube beauty influencers like Jackie Aina and Thomas Halbert. Though Morphe delayed the release of the palettes until August, they were still met with mixed reviews. On user reviewed the product on Ulta Beauty, saying that the eyeshadow was “super hard to work with.” Another reviewer called the makeup “patchy,” while someone else said, “you just cannot blend [them] out.”

Hill initially ignored the negative reviews. After several people tweeted their displeasure to her, she told them to scrape off the top layer of product. In Hill’s video, she addressed the issues with the palette. After apologizing profusely, she acknowledged the issues with production.

“People are getting palettes that are not having good pigmentation, not swatching well. First of all, let me just say that this news broke my heart. It does not matter what I feel, what matters is that you guys are spending money on a palette and it should be exactly what I say, and what Morphe says, it should be what we promise,” Hill said. She added that Morphe’s decision to push back the launch date and re-release the palette has cost the company millions of dollars. She said that the original batch of palettes have been quarantined, and added that she’s tried to reach out to as many people who expressed frustration with the palettes as possible.

Additionally, Hill addressed the claims of fans who feel that she’s little more than a Morphe saleswoman. She apologized to her fans for “shoving [Morphe] down their throats.”

Despite the issues with the eyeshadow palettes, and despite concerns over Hill’s constant pushing of the Morphe brand, it was recently announced that she was collaborating on a brush collection with them.

After addressing the Morphe controversy, Hill spoke about the rumors that beauty influencers are often paid upwards of $60,000 per paid post. She added that she’s never charged brands a fee for speaking about their products, adding that she’s “never taken a dollar from anybody outside of my earned commission. Me talking about it and giving you a code, or a link, that is the only way I’ve earned my money, and then my products and my [YouTube] views.”

She added that though she does not charge for speaking about a product, that $60,000 is “is just the beginning.” She added that she knew an influencer who was making $150,000 for mentioning a product. While she acknowledges this might rub people the wrong way, Hill added that “if you’re charging $100,000 for a video but you’re making that company a million dollars because of your video, that’s 10%. It’s a business.”