Jeffree Star *finally* responds to Twitter Backlash over the Cremated Palette

On May 15, 2020 makeup guru Jeffree Star released the newest collection in his makeup line. The Cremated collection included an eyeshadow palette, four lip glosses, two makeup bags, and metal straws. This was the ninth palette released by Star since the launch of his brand Jeffree Star Cosmetics in 2014. 

However, the collection was definitely not an immediate hit like some of his other past releases. Almost immediately after it’s release the internet fired back at the unfortunate timing and theme of the palette. 

The Cremated collection consists mostly of grey tones and has an overarching aesthetic and theme of death. And at a time where thousands of people are dying amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a makeup collection all around death felt a little distasteful for some people. 

Twitter certainly had a field day with the new palette. Jeffree Star was trending for a day and a half and the response was a healthy mix of love and hate around the release. The hate revolves around the naming of the palette, labeling it as insensitive, and accused Jeffree of capitalizing on the pandemic for his own gain. 

On May 20, quite a few days after the drama started to fizzle out, Star released a video responding to the controversy. He cited a previous series that he and Shane Dawson co-created following the steps of the release of the Conspiracy Palette (released in mid-November of 2019), and how the process of creating a palette isn’t something as quick and convenient as people across the internet thought. 

Jeffree generated the idea for the palette earlier last year and received a trademark for the Cremated Palette in September of 2019. The paletted was allegedly set to release even earlier in the year to

 maintain a release schedule with the remainder of the 

Jeffree Star Cosmetics products that are launching this year. 

The biggest point that Jeffree wanted to hit home in his response to the backlash around the palette was that it was never meant to be offensive. And that for him ‘this is art, and [it] never came from a negative place’ 

‘In no way was this created to be offensive. Ever’ Star said in his latest video.

Only time will tell as to whether or not the controversy around the palette will affect its sales. 

The Cremated Collection will be released on May 22nd at 10 am PST.