YouTube Beauty Community Drama: James Charles and Tati Westbrook
If you are a makeup lover and subscribe to any YouTube beauty gurus, then you’re probably aware of who James Charles (@jamescharles) and Tati Westbrook (@glamlifeguru) are.
James and Tati have been friends for a few years now, and Tati, a long-time and well respected beauty guru helped James get his start. When Tati got married a few years ago, she flew James out to Maui and had him do her bridal makeup. This was before James had the huge following he does now. His fans are called the “sisters” and he now has 16+ million of them subscribed to his YouTube channel.
Tati operates a vitamin company called Halo Beauty Inc. which has hair, skin, and nails boosting products. One of her biggest competitors is SugarBearHair. This company also is known for its hair, skin, and nail boosters and is well known among the influencer community. If you follow any YouTube or Instagram models and influencers, you’ve probably seen them advertise the company through sponsorhips and brand deals.
Tati has made it a priority of her career to not take a lot of sponsorships or brand deals. She tries to promote the most honest reviews she can of the make-up and skin care featured on her channel and focuses on her own company. Meanwhile, James, like many influencers, has taken sponsorships for various products in the past. Tati and James talked about these and despite having differing views, they both agreed that everyone in the YouTube community is entitled to run their brand and channel their own way as long as they are being honest with their fans. And the two have supported each other. James has talked about his use of Halo Beauty and Tati supported the James Charles x Morphe eyeshadow palette.
However, following Coachella, James posted an Instagram story raving about SugarBearHair’s sleep vitamins, which caused a lot of his and Tati’s fans to be confused. That same day, Tati posted an Instagram story crying and expressing how lonely she felt in the beauty community, and even saying she felt used. She never mentioned James’ name, but many have expressed their beliefs about the rant being in response to James’ post about her competitor. You can see both Instagram stories here.
James has since apologized publicly to Tati for the post on his Instagram story. In this apology he said, “[Tati] has been like a mother to me since my first days in this industry…” and “I did not think about the competition, which was a major oversight.” He concluded it by saying, “[I am] devastated that I hurt someone that I truly love and have endless respect for.”
Tati has not yet publicly responded to James’ apology. So what do you think? Do you think Tati was over-dramatic to be so upset by James promoting another company? Or do you think James was out of line for publicly supporting a company that competes with his friend’s brand? Let us know!
