How Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics Created the Perfect PR Storm

For beauty blogging fans and makeup lovers alike, the Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics scandal is as well-known and house-name as the ‘89 Bears was for football fans. However, despite your affiliation to beauty, cosmetics, or YouTube, this brands’ circumstances appear to be a great learning opportunity for companies to come.

Jaclyn’s Start

Jaclyn Hill, a makeup YouTube sensation with over 5 million subscribers, launched her very own makeup brand in 2019. However, fans speculated its creation far earlier due to the genesis of a ‘jaclynhillcosmetics.com’ and matching social media along with it in years prior. For quite a few years, fans remained in the dark. In 2017, Jaclyn promised to ring in the New Year with the reveal of her brand- finally! -after almost three years. Throughout the entire process Jaclyn remained consistent with explaining to her soon-to-be customers that any delay was due to her necessity to make the brand peak quality and absolute perfection. Of course, it is a very unique predicament Jaclyn was in- having millions of people awaiting your infantile independent brand eagerly.

This factor, not to Jaclyn’s fault at all of course, must be taken into account. For example, let’s do a little thought experiment. Jane Doe is releasing her brand, an independent, self-made brand called Brand X. She manufactures the perfect lipsticks and after years finally releases them. She notices that the first batch is not quality. She pulls the first batch for examination and corrects the mistakes for the second batch. For a small indy brand this would be...expensive...however, not very harmful to their name. However, when you already have millions of people ready to purchase batch number 1, any mistake can be futile to your reputation.

JH’s Release

Finally, after a prolonged wait, Jaclyn announced she was releasing JH Cosmetics’ first line- nude lipsticks! Fans were overjoyed. She promised quality, but most importantly she promised that she had worked hard on this brand and that it was entirely her own. She even mentioned that she had stopped collaboration with certain labs or individuals due to them not meeting her standards- a testament to her ethics.

This can be seen as the company’s first mistake. Not to say that product and brand development is not interesting and something fans love to see, however, I believe the teasing could have fueled the distrust that came with customers receiving a not-so-perfect lipstick. It’s almost like when a rapper keeps fueling the flame, claiming his album will outdo rappers A, B, and C. When he releases a less than amazing album… well, disappointment is a little heightened.

Launch and Reviews

On May 29, Jaclyn finally released the nude lipstick line. Feedback began with social media responses, mainly on twitter versus YouTube reviews. One of the first (noticed) customers posted to twitter to point out a strange texture in her lipstick that was very visible in an averagely close-shot photo. Jaclyn’s response was...blameful, and most importantly not apologetic.

The reviews began to come in swarms pointing out air bubbles, gritty texture, melting and reshaping, small allegedly plastic balls, black ‘hair-like’ substances, and white ‘furry’ substances. The first wide-spread and most eye-catching find were the ‘white hairs’, which Jaclyn explained on twitter to be a byproduct of white cotton gloves from product management in the factory.

The backlash to these reviews and Jaclyn’s short and curt response only further fueled the public’s desire to write off her and her brand as untrustworthy and even malicious.

Final Response

After time, Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics recalled the line of lipsticks and gave every customer a full refund… That’s right FULL. They could get a new lipstick if desired, but whether they loved or hated their merchandise they would receive payment to suffice for their purchase’s lack of quality.

This was a wonderful response and I think generally what the public wanted to hear. The brand admitted their faults and took action to please the public. So, all’s well that ends well right?

Not exactly… The largest poison at play here is the irregular and polarizing stances the brand (and/or Jaclyn) took. To go from ‘I fully trust my partners’ to ‘customers are lying’ to ‘my deepest sorrows’ is confusing for the audience. Which statement should they believe, if any at all? And that is what I think the biggest downfall was, not using mango butter in a lipstick.

My humble opinion is that chaos is created when brands and influencers remain unprepared and uneducated on the industry they hope to become a part of. Do I think influencers don’t have a right to dive into the deep end of the business world? No, not at all, i am actually very excited to see how this influences such a borderline devious industry into becoming more humanized. Overall, I think the best advice is to be prepared, don’t dive into the deep end too quickly, and for the sake of humanity have a cut throat quality control team that doesn’t wear furry gloves or social media will wreak its havoc.