Is Jeffree Star a liar? Inside the beauty guru’s latest Twitter scandal

Jeffree Star returned to YouTube after a brief hiatus due to controversies surrounding his past online. But just as quickly as he’s come back, the controversies have returned. Instead of hinting at Star’s racist past though, Twitter is coming for Jeffree Star’s claims of robbery.

Jeffree Star’s side of the story

Star came out with a video on April 2nd, 2020 –“My Concealer Line Was Stolen & Leaked ($2.5 Million of Makeup Hijacked)” in which he explained that he had seen footage of “a team of people” breaking into the warehouse through the roof. 

Star described this “very professional job” by which thieves stole “thousands” of eyeshadow palettes, “thousands of lip liners,” and “an entire shade of concealer”. Star reports that he hired an investigative team to work with the FBI to catch the robbers, who were able to catch one of the thieves who is now in jail. 

In Star’s latest video, “Addressing RUMORS About Me While Testing New Makeup”, he deemed the theft at 30,000 units of concealer stolen. 

Was it all faked?

Strangely, for a $2.5 million robbery, there hasn’t been any major news coverage about the theft – other than websites discussing Star’s videos. USA Today’s coverage merely states “Jeffree Star revealed” the robbery; it appears their only source was Star himself on the YouTube video addressing the theft.

In July, YouTuber D’Angelo Wallace speculated Star timed the robbery perfectly with the release of his new concealer. Prior to the robbery, Star hadn’t announced his new line of concealer – but Wallace found the timing of the robbery conveniently & suspiciously timed with Star’s new product launch. 

Furthermore, Wallace points to Star’s advertisement-like reveal about his concealer line in the middle of the video about the supposed robbery. 

Wallace compared the robbery to another warehouse theft of makeup for Anatasia Beverly Hills. The Los Angeles Police Dept. reported the thieves stole 100,000 eyeshadow products by sawing through the roof. Wallace pointed out that this $4.5 million robbery is considerably similar to Star’s story.

Wallace also noted how the LAPD issued a statement about the ABH heist, while neither the LAPD nor the FBI made a comment about Star’s alleged robbery. 

Here is the last of the @JeffreeStar #Theft records. Total value of the theft was $10,000, with an additional $30,000 in physical damages according to LAPD. #PublicRecords pic.twitter.com/LIp0ucefSu

— Good Citizen Records (@RecordsCitizen) July 22, 2020

Per LAPD: $10,000 theft

The person behind the Twitter account @RecordsCitizen made a public records request to learn more information about the robbery. The LAPD responded with a summarized incident report, confirming the incident at Jeffree Star’s warehouse. 

However, unlike Star’s claim, only $10,000 worth of cosmetic palettes were stolen according to this official report. In fact, according to the report, more monetary damage was done to the building – amounting to $30,000 worth of damage. 

Even if the LAPD based this amount on production costs, it’s a huge jump from Star’s claim of a $2.5 million crime. 

The math doesn’t add up

Given Star’s new claim of 30,000 concealer units being stolen, the cosmetic entrepreneur’s original statement still doesn’t make sense. According to Jeffree Star Cosmetics, his concealers cost $22 per unit, so 30,000 concealers equal a retail value of $660,000. Even excluding the palettes & lip liners also stolen, the total doesn’t approach $2.5 million. 

Regardless, $660,000 is a much larger sum than the LAPD’s report lists. Perhaps Star’s critiques of other cosmetics companies marking up their product have come to backfire on him, but on the opposite side of the balance sheet: in apparent losses.

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This is all speculation, and Jeffree Star has yet to comment on the Twitter theories yet. It’s far from the first time Star has found himself in the middle of a Twitter controversy; relive all of Jeffree Star’s top controversies in our article here.