Jeffree Star, YouTube’s most respected beauty guru, found a passion for makeup at the age of 13. In his early adult years, he worked for Mac as a makeup artist for many years, perfecting his skills. He spent a number of years in music, producing his own songs and videos. However, his career skyrocketed when he made his YouTube channel, known as Jeffree Star. In 2014, he founded his own cosmetics company, Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Currently, Jeffree Star has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube and makes over $150 million dollars a year.

In early August, Shane Dawson released a youtube series entitled, “The Secret World of Jeffree Star”. In the video, Star revealed the truth behind his friendships with Laura Lee, Manny MUA, Nikita Dragun, and Gabriel Zamora, other famous and influential makeup gurus. Laura Lee is a 30-year makeup artist, YouTuber, beauty blogger and beauty influencer with 4.4 million subscribers. Manuel Gutierrez, famously known as Manny MUA, is a professional male makeup artist and vlogger with 4 million subscribers. Nikita Dragun is a 22-year-old transgender makeup artist and beauty vlogger with 1.7 million subscribers. Gabriel Zamora is a 25-year-old makeup artist and YouTuber with 808k subscribers.

In the early years of their careers, Jeffree helped his ex-beauty guru friends promote their YouTube channels on his own channel. He also promoted their beauty brands.  However, in Dawson’s video Jeffree revealed how the friendships began to break apart, “Half of the people think I’m the bad guy, when I only loved and cared about these people, boosted them up, and gave them all my connections, but I’m still the… bad guy.” After the web documentary was released, Gabriel Zamora posted a picture on twitter with Laura Lee, Manny MUA, Nikita Dragun, and himself, with the following caption: “He is bitter because we are doing much better without him.” Jeffree Star was quick to respond by posting a Snapchat video laughing and indirectly referencing their comments.

The drama escalated when Gabriel Zamora tweeted, “Imagine Stanning a racist? I would never.” Zamora referred to Jeffree’s racist remarks in the year 2010, for which Jeffree apologized by posting a lengthy video on his channel back on June 20, 2017.

 Star’s fans were quick to defend Jeffree by uncovering racist and offensive posts by Laura Lee, Manny MUA, and Nikita Dragun. Although they all had an offensive hidden past, Laura Lee’s comment on twitter in 2012, enraged fans around the world. Lee’s fans patiently waited for her apology video; however, Laura ignored the tweet and posted a video reviewing a makeup product.

After the tweet, Jeffree Star once again responded to Lee’s comment by mentioning her dying channel and mocking her on a Snapchat video. Laura Lee began to receive hate on all her social media and lost a significant amount of followers. Three days later, Laura Lee released her apology video, including fake crying and acting. Instantly after the apology video, Lee lost 1 million subscribers on her YouTube channel and hasn’t posted again since August 19. Gabriel Zamora quickly uploaded a YouTube video on August 21, 2018, apologizing to Jeffree Star, as well as Manny MUA. Jeffree Star has since accepted the apologies.