This Is Bigger Than Blush (Unfortunately)

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:01]Hello and welcome to my channel. As you can see, I have applied some makeup today because I am talking about the makeup girlies. And to be honest with you, I tried to do um some uh a blush look and I actually didn't understand what I was doing. Now, I do want to know what you guys think. Um, if you think I should go back to my my blue light frames, if this is the look, or is this the look? Let me know in the comments what the hell is happening with my eye. What's going on on this side? I think I think we'll do this. Something's going on with this eye over here. I'm not I'm I'm not a makeup pro, okay? I'm not. But the girls I'm going to be talking about today are in one way or another they are considered makeup pros on the internet and over the past few days their social media accounts and anyone who watches what happens on their social media accounts have been obsessed with one word and that word is blush.

[00:01:03]All hell has broken loose because of blush. Well, it's bigger than blush, hence the title of this video. So, let's back up, shall we? Till about two weeks ago. Okay. Around two weeks ago, I first me Stephanie as a non-makeup person. I mean, I can put a little bit on here and there, you know, uh, but my days of learning styles and learning tech techniques and and being obsessed with all that stuff, you know, I like to watch a good tutorial, but it's just not it's not the same as it was for me back in the 2010s when every single thing these girls were doing online, I was watching, I was trying to recreate, I was going out and buying everything.

[00:01:48]It's not the It's not the same. It's a little bit different. And so I don't always know or always follow when there's a new makeup girl in town and she's making a splash on on the scene.

[00:01:58]And so about two weeks ago when I started hearing the name Makeup by Esther, I was like, who? What's going on? And then I saw she was associated with Alandria and some looks that I call myself, if I can if I can give them a name on my own, I look at it as like romantic futurism. That's what I want to call it. Okay. It's very romantic, you know, with all the blush and the bright colors, but it's very intense and it looks like something from the future or what we were told the future would look like back in the days of, you know, when when we had things like Robocop in the Jetsons and like so that idea of things being very sleek and very um very uh you know, modern, very aerodynamic. So she it's like she paints romanticism on top of that idea and that theme. I don't know. That's what I get from her. But immediately I recognized her as an artist. She's not somebody who's showing you how to do an everyday makeup look in my opinion. Uh these are elevated looks.

[00:03:01]These are editorial looks. These are uh fashion campaign looks. And I was like, "Okay, now I know who Makeup by Esther is. Great." Or Painted by Esther is great. and I moved on with my little life. A couple days later, I saw some posts from a young woman who goes by any given Sunday um over here on YouTube and on Tik Tok. She was a lawyer, I think a corporate lawyer before she quit to become an influencer full-time.

[00:03:28]And now she is living that influencer life and she's doing makeup tutorials and she's doing lifestyle and she's a brand events and she's on brand trips.

[00:03:34]Like, she's really living that influencer life. And I saw her come on and say, "Hey guys, I learned the painted by Esther technique and I'm gonna show it to you." I took notes and she turns herself into one of these romantic futuristic looking young women and I was like, "Oh, okay. This is very cool. This this woman painted by Esther.

[00:03:54]She's doing stuff and people are excited about it." It seems like a lot of black women are excited about it, which makes sense because Esther is black. And um All right. Something else to watch when I want to watch makeup. Okay. In general, I did not really see the big deal. Uh because I guess over in other parts of the internet, there's another makeup artist taking the world by storm and her name is Shelby Shelby Anne or something like that and she's known for teaching people how to do their face in a certain way using drugstore makeup and she's gained a lot of followers and she's doing big things. So I feel like for me every once in a while on the internet there's somebody who comes out with a technique with a style with the way of doing things and it gets them a lot of followers and it gets them interest from the industry and it happens and they get their career started and then people go back to something else and they find something else. To me it's very cyclical. And so while I was interested and excited to learn about Painted by Esther because she's a black woman doing this to me she's just a part of that cycle of makeup fame. I didn't really I I I was not I was just like this is something that's happening. There are other things happening though. You know what I mean?

[00:05:11]Like it wasn't it wasn't that big of a deal to me. Okay. Then a couple days later I see Jackie Aa the YouTube guru the old school YouTube makeup guru.

[00:05:24]Okay. the one that back in the 2010s I was checking her page weekly to see what she was posting to see what new launches she was talking about. The one that introduced me to Fenty and to Dior and to Nars and to Too Faced and to um just to so many different makeup brands and ways of putting makeup on. The one that I used to put her videos on in the background just to be watching something even though I didn't plan on doing nothing that she was doing with her face. the one that did what I consider one of the most important makeup popculture videos of the 2010s. And that was after Jordan went on to Red Table Talk to talk about what happened with her and uh oh dude Tristan, okay, and the Kardashians and Jackie gave her opinion on the interview while replicating Jordan's look. I remember thinking, "She's got it. This is brilliant. This is genius.

[00:06:25]Also, what the hell is soft glam? Why is everybody um obsessed with it? At the time, I was a middle school teacher and all I needed was a foundation product that could last me majority of the day that was good with oily skin. And that's what I found with Fenty. So, sorry for you ladies who have dry skin who didn't like that first round of products that Rihanna did because because of Jackie, I found out about Fenty. and Fenty Foundation saved my little face when I was teaching. Okay. Anyway, uh I have known Jackie for I want to say about 10 years and followed her on YouTube and then followed her over on to Tik Tok.

[00:07:05]Now, I do know that when she got to Tik Tok right around the pandemic, her content changed a little bit. She really stepped into more of her she had a uh account, an Instagram account. Um, I don't know if she still has it and I'm not going to look because I don't be on Instagram like that anymore unless I need to do some lurking and I don't feel like it for this video. But, um, she had an Instagram account called Lavishly Jackie where she really like indulged in, you know, the uh the the black girl luxury era of her life. Um, nice things, nice home furnishings, um, white flowers, hosting, uh, you know, things of that nature. and I, you know, was saw that she was doing that and I was like, "Okay, I think there's a couple things that she's done with that type of content that has influenced me."

[00:07:54]Uh, for one thing, I sleep with my dogs on the bed and getting up and trying to, you know, when they leave hair behind or whatever. If you're a dog owner, you won't think this is weird. If you're not a dog owner, you'll think I'm a disgusting slob. But if you sleep with your dogs in the bed and they shed, sometimes they leave hair behind. And normally I would try and go after it with like a little dustbuster, but Jackie showed me a mattress vacuum and I was like, "Shut the front door." So, I got a mattress vacuum and I love it. But that's pretty much the only thing I picked up from this era of her life, her her Tik Tok era. Uh, if I see her videos come up on my timeline on TikTok, on my FYP, they are mostly videos about her getting her hair done and occasionally she does a makeup look or she might tap into a conversation that's happening with pop culture. I don't really see her content that much on my Tik Tok for you page, but I did see it a couple days ago. And this was not Lavishly Jackie.

[00:08:48]This was not makeup Jackie. This was not um getting my hair done Jackie. This was Jackie in a sports bra with her hair pulled back, leaning real close to the camera. Um and she had something something to say.

[00:09:02]>> So, here's the thing. I'm never going to support Juvia's Place. There's never going to be a scenario where I will turn on my camera or my phone, recommend the products, endorse the brand ever. I don't even really like mentioning the brand because they've proven before they can not take constructive criticism from me spec from me specifically.

[00:09:25]I'm also never going to tell you guys collectively as consumers and as viewers to use or to not use a brand. If you feel a way about Patrick Ta, Patrick's cool, but that's your business. It is not my job to fight his battles and it never will be. If you guys collectively don't want to support Patrick as a brand, you absolutely have that right.

[00:09:50]>> Now, I who hadn't even seen anything having to do with anything had no idea what the hell she was talking about. I was like, why are we talking about Juvia's Place today? What is going on?

[00:10:04]And she does say in that video, this is in relation to my last video. So, I went and watched the last video and I saw blushes. All right? And they were being called transition blushes. She was trying them on. She didn't seem to be a fan of them really. And they were from Pat Patrick Ta. And what I was gathering through the powers of deduction was that Patrick Ta had released this product and he had possibly stolen the idea for the product from a black woman. What black woman would that be? painted by Esther, the woman that I had just learned about about two weeks ago, whose techniques for applying blush specifically are making her incredibly popular right now in the makeup industry. And so I was like, ooh, this is a sticky situation.

[00:10:47]This is a sticky situation for Esther and her technique because Patrick Ta has been around for at least a decade and he's had his makeup line out for at least seven, eight years. I'm just throwing out numbers right now, but he's been around. He's an established makeup creator. He's an established makeup artist. And while I think what Esther is doing is amazing, and she's obviously making her stamp on the market, she does not have the name recognition and social or monetarial capital monetarial monetary capital that Patrick has. So, if he did indeed steal an idea from her, this is very very sticky situation. um and it's disappointing and he should be ashamed. That was that was the first thing that came to my mind. The second thing after reading Jackie's comments in her video that she made in her sports bra talking from her gym, I was like, people are pissed. People are pissed that she chose to work with Patrick knowing that he stole from this black woman. And then I had some questions.

[00:11:52]Jackie wasn't the only person that I ended up seeing post about these transition blushes. In fact, Annie, the content creator I mentioned earlier who had done I think I'm saying her name right, Annie, cuz she says any giving Sunday. So, I think and is a nickname.

[00:12:06]Um, I just want to point that out. So, but I do think it's Annie. I I think that's it. But anyway, Annie, she ended up doing a video about the transition blushes. Tony Bravo, who is my favorite Tik Tok makeup girl right now. Uh, most of my makeup that I have in my collection at this point in my life is because Tony Bravo t told me about it.

[00:12:32]She recommended it. She did a tutorial on it. I watch her videos and not just because of her makeup application, because of the way she talks, because of the way that she lights her videos. I mean, her whole aesthetic is just beautiful to me. And she also did a video promoting or talking about these blushes. And I want to say none of these women that I just named that are all black women, none of these women promoted the blushes necessarily. None of them were happy. None of them were pleased. And it's because the blushes did not really have um very intense pigmentation. That's what I was picking up from all the girls. And they're all darker skinned girls. And so it doesn't look like it's a product that would work for people their complexion, my complexion. And also, especially in Annie's case, they kind of acknowledge that it's not necessarily a new product.

[00:13:25]Um, this type of blush tradition, this type of whatever has been around for a long time. And uh, all of them said this is not necessarily something that you need. I mean, if you want to go out and get it, great, but it's not something that you need. And now I've told you about the blushes. It gave very much all three women that I watched. It gave very much here. Damn. We got we signed this thing to work with this man and so we're going to present these blushes, but we're not impressed. And if you want to try it, try it. Not going to tell you what to do. In fact, I think Jackie did say that in her video. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You know, you do whatever you want, but this is what he has if you're interested in this look.

[00:14:06]And I also want to say that in her original video pointing out the blushes, she talked about the soft glam era, the era that I, you know, one of my favorite videos of her is from when she did the whole Jordan interview, uh, and and replicated that makeup. And she talked about remembering seeing this technique for a while. And what I got from the issue, just from the outside looking in, was that this was not a new technique that Patrick had decided to capitalize on the fact that it was gaining popularity. and it was gaining popularity because of painted by Esther, but it was gaining popularity. He decided to capitalize on that fact and released some items that people can use to possibly do this technique. That's what I gathered from it, you know, from where I was standing. And so when the anger and the vitriol started coming at anybody who worked with Patrick, specifically Jackie, I was a little confused. I was like, how how did we get here? So I had to dig a little further.

[00:14:59]And what I found was a video that Esther had posted a couple days prior to people posting their videos about the blushes.

[00:15:07]And she was in tears because apparently when she found out what Patrick was doing, not only did she feel duped, not only did she feel stolen from because of some interactions that had happened with her and Patrick that were very sneaky, make him look like a snake. I'm not going to lie. You know, she talks about him booking her to actually come out and do makeup on like his assistant or something like that and then them asking, "Can we film you while you do this?" And her saying, "No, I'm here to do someone's makeup. What do you need to film me for?" And realizing then that something might be up and then hearing that he's come out with this product that could be directly related to the fact that she is popularizing this look.

[00:15:50]So, she had she has some beef with him.

[00:15:53]Also, she was tired of people coming to her and saying, "Why didn't you release something? Why didn't you move faster?"

[00:15:59]And she's like, "Listen, I'm an artist.

[00:16:00]I'm going at my own pace. I have things in the works, but I wasn't ready right now." And she was, her voice was shaking. She was crying. She was upset.

[00:16:10]And I was like, "Well, damn." And so, then a timeline started to uh formulate for me. And I started to understand all sides of a very real conflict. You have Jackie Aa, OG makeup guru. She has definitely positioned herself as an activist in the makeup space before, but she's also in a situation where she recognizes cuz she's been around the game for a while. She recognizes that when it comes to makeup, there really is nothing new under the sun. How many blushes do we have? How many contour products did we have back in the day? I remember I remember watching video after video trying to learn how to contour.

[00:16:52]Never learned. I have right now a powder contour palette from One Size, which is Patrick Star's company. And I have used it maybe once. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:17:08]We have so many bronzers. We have so many mascara, so many lash products. I think when you've been in the game for a while, you know that copying can be seen as another way to innovate and what these people love to do is jump on a trend. So, I can definitely see her being like, "Yeah, I don't mind. I'll promote these blushes." I don't know that she knew what Patrick Ta's background was with Painted by Esther.

[00:17:35]And some people argued, well, when she found out, she should have stood 10 toes down for Esther. She should have said, "I posted these blushes, but there is some sneaky stuff happening, and I want to acknowledge that I'm aware of that, too." Which is exactly what this creator did. This might be the most controversial beauty launch of 2026.

[00:17:56]Now, before putting these on my face, let's go ahead and talk about the discourse. Makeup artists have been blending blush into the under eye area for a long period of time. I know it's pretty common in Asian makeup looks and I'm sure Patrick Ta has his own version over the years as well, but I think what Esther did do is she popularized this technique online in a way that made everybody actually start doing it. And that's a fact that I honestly can't deny because I was also doing that too and I learned that from her. So, I completely understand why some people feel like some credit or acknowledgement or inclusion would have been nice because honestly, as black women, we have seen this happen over and over and over again. A black creative make something popular. Everybody starts doing it.

[00:18:40]Everybody's hopping on the trend and then suddenly it gets repackaged, renamed, and sold without the person who even pushed it forward being included in that conversation. So, even if she didn't invent the technique, I do think it's valid for people to say that her influence should not be erased in this conversation. So, these are the brightening liquid blushes. So, I got sent over two shades and I'm like, which one should I go with? I think I'm going to use this one. So, apparently you're supposed to place it at the back of your hand. Pick it up with a brush and then just gently tap that at the center of your face. This is really where you're going to start that transitional blush part. and then going in with his cream blush palette and then picking it up on four transition blush. I'm using the dense side and just packing that right on my cheekbones. Now, this is normally where I used to apply blush and just bringing it up towards my temples. What it's doing here is it's blending in with that liquid blush to create a seamless look and then set it properly with a setting powder. Now, the part that's supposed to make this launch groundbreaking is this powder transition blush. So, there are two shades here, a darker pink and a lighter pink. Now, according to Patrick Tai, you're supposed to mix these two together, create a nice transitional shade, and then use this shade to blur out the inner part around just to allow that blush to transition. I got sent over three shades. I do wish they sent me their darker shades because this other one, it's a little light, ain't going to lie. It's a little It's not giving pigment. I'm not really seeing pigmentation. Now, on this side, I'm going to show you how you can achieve this look with products that you probably already own, just to see if we can achieve the same type of look and whether this launch is really necessary for you to purchase. So, we're going to start with a very popular blush, which is the Rare Beauty blush, and just place that at the center. Blend it out like we did with the transitional liquid blushes on the Patrick Toss side. And you can build up the blush to your liking till you get the pigmentation that you're looking for. and then setting it with that same setting powder that we used on the other side to set the concealer and the blush in place. And then going in with a powder blush. Now, this one's a little pigmented, so we're just going to diffuse that at the back. And then placing it right where I applied that cream blush on the other side. I'm just going to build this up. And then what I would do is take the setting powder and just go around this area with that setting powder to diffuse those harsh lines instead of adding more pigment.

[00:21:00]Then just going back in with that powder blush. And I'm just building this pigment up so it can actually show up my skin. Going back in and diffusing the harsh lines. So here's a Patrick Ta side. And here's the other side. Now here's what I think. Two things can be true at the same time. Patrick Ta could have been doing this technique for years, but Painted by Esther still deserves the acknowledgement for how she popularized it online and made so many people start doing their blush differently. Now, do I find these products revolutionary, innovative? No.

[00:21:29]Because I already know Juvia Place has made blush palettes like this before.

[00:21:32]We've seen this before in YSL and other brands that launched just regular liquid blushes. I think creating a different category for this is a little bit of a stretch because these blushes and these could be just regular liquid blushes. No cap. But I really want to know what you think. Is this unnecessary, innovative, or should Painted by Essa have been part of this conversation from the beginning?

[00:21:52]Comment down below.

[00:21:58]But there's a very clear reason why Jackie did not do that. It is because painted by Esther, Esther is a person who heavily promotes the use of Juvia's Place, a blackowned beauty brand that I've used for years. I love Juvia's lipsticks. I love Back in the day when I used to wear eyeshadow. I don't wear eyeshadow no more. You know, these blue light frames are my eyeshadow now, okay?

[00:22:21]But uh back in the day when I used to wear eyeshadow, I loved Juvia's eyeshadows. I love Juvia's powder products. I loved Juvia's very highly pigmented blushes. You want to talk about blushes that are going to give you a darker skin person a dramatic look?

[00:22:39]Juvia's Place. Juvia's Place. They have I mean the pigmentation cannot be beat.

[00:22:45]What I wear right now is road blushes because Tony Bravo told me to. But I definitely still have some Juvia's blushes. I absolutely do. I don't wear them as much because I don't need that dramatic look, but if you were going to do it, I can understand why Juvia would be the company you would go with. And so Esther talks about them and she likes working with them. The problem with that is that about 10 years ago, the owner of Juvia's Place attacked Jackie with such vitriol and such hatred and came at her just ferociously and then also partnered with Jeffree Star, a creator who is known for being racist, who's known for being terrible to black women. And Juvia's doesn't have clean hands either.

[00:23:32]And so if I'm Jackie and I know that there might be some sneaky snake going on, but I also know that I can't necessarily say, "All right, well, you know, I'm going to promote this creator. I'm going to stand behind them because that creator is supporting a company that publicly denounced me. I'm in a tricky situation." Not to mention, the past few years on social media have been rough for Jackiea. everything from the don't call me auntie issue when she decided, you know, I called myself Aunt Jackie when I was younger, but now that I'm getting older, I realize I don't really want to be parentified. I don't want to be looked at as an old stiff auntie. Um, I just want to be me. And so, I don't want to be Auntie Jackie anymore. What's interesting about that is people push back against that so hard, but I grew up in the 90s with Prince. And I remember when he didn't want to be called Prince anymore. He just wanted to be a symbol. And so, we had to say the artist formerly known as Prince. I grew up in a time where people, you know, they add things to their names. They take things away from their names all the time, you know. Um, we had Beyonce Nolles, then she's Beyonce Nolles Carter. She goes on the Miss Carter world tour. We get in the show, we have to say, "Hey, Miss Carter." I grew up in a time where people change their names. They change their alien. They do it all the time.

[00:24:52]So, I didn't really see a problem with her saying, "I don't want to be called auntie anymore. Don't don't don't call me that." But the people did. the people did and it got to be real nasty and rude on social media. Um, there was also blockgate where you may or may not have been blocked by Jackie depending upon what you said in her comments.

[00:25:14]There was also that uh there was also some other things that I kind of understand and don't understand, but I know the past couple years just watching her relationship parasoccially with her audience, it's been rough. And so when this whole thing happened, there were people predictably that had a lot of bullets in the chamber ready to fire them off. I never liked her. She's weird. You know, she stands 10 toes down for some things, but she picks and choose what she wants to stand for. Uh, you know, she's always being so rude to her supporters. I don't want none of them funky candles anyway. I don't want The anger was swift. The uh vitriol was swift. Uh, people did not like Jackie's video saying, "Hey, if you want me to support somebody, but they support Juvia's Place, I'm so sorry. I'm not ever going to be able to do it." People ain't like that. And all in all, I was just left thinking Patrick Todd needs his ass whooped. He He really does because at the end of the day, that particular man knows he moved so sneaky.

[00:26:17]At the end of the day, that particular man knows that he sort of set these black content creators up. And at the end of the day, he's the one that may have prevented Esther from making money in a certain way. Now, I personally don't think he did for the reasons that I stated earlier. Number one, can't nobody see them blushes on dark skin that he has. Number two, this roll out went so comically bad because of how he was moving that Esther has so much goodwill on her side that she could come out with a sticker tomorrow and sell more than Patrick is going to sell of these blushes. And I also want to say I saw in her comments uh because she is Alandrea's makeup artist, someone wrote in her comments, "Allandrea's fans are with you, Esther." And I don't already told y'all I'm scared of them people. I am scared of the Alandrians. I'm scared of the Nickeloans. I'm scared of them all. I don't like to get get back, you know. So, um she's got support and when it's her time, I don't doubt that she will produce um some amazing products that really sit well with the black community. And speaking of the black community, I have watched I have sat back and watched so many people attack Jackie um over the past few days. So many people bring up things from years ago. I mean that is one thing I I will always know and remember about this internet world.

[00:27:42]People are always holding on to what you did and what you said in laying in weight to use it against you when the time fits them because I swear to you last week nobody had a problem with Jackie. Nobody was bringing anything up or they may have but it laid dormant.

[00:28:00]And then this week happens and them damn transition blushes and all of a sudden you would think that she knocked down the Rose Garden to build a UFC ring and grabbed kindergarten kids out of their classrooms and threw them into prisons.

[00:28:12]Like you would think that she you would you would think that she's somebody that she's not and has power in this world that she doesn't really have. That is something I hope nobody ever forgets when you see things like this. Like if you're online, if you're on the internet, if you're a public figure, if you're a person and something has gone down between you and another individual, they might be holding on that. They might be holding that and so they can use it later when it best suits them.

[00:28:37]Speaking once again of the black community, the the biggest thing I picked up on watching this whole thing go down because initially I thought I was on one side. I was like, "Oh, I get this. Yes, I understand." And then I was like, "Wait a minute. No, I And then I was like, why am I so frustrated? It's blush. What's going on? And I'll tell you what's going on. First of all, when you're dealing with the black community, specifically black women, every single space that we're in, we constantly have to fight for representation. We have to fight for opportunities. We have to fight to be seen. We have to fight to be respected. And as a result of that consistent fight, there is a hypervigilance that exists within all of us and a hyper sensitivity.

[00:29:20]We will take something to the moon. We will drag it out. It will become, it may look like just blush on the surface, but in the hands of black women specifically when it comes to the concepts of being properly represented and not discriminated against, that blush becomes just as important for a moment as the damn voting rights act.

[00:29:44]You would think, right? That blush becomes just as important as the right to an education. That blush becomes like that blush becomes about so much more.

[00:29:53]It's not just a blush. It's a political symbol. It's a radical political symbol and it's everything that's wrong with every experience that black women have ever had. That's literally what I was seeing. And I see this every time. Every time something happens on social media with black women, it becomes so much bigger. And uh I sometimes understand.

[00:30:17]I'm like, that makes sense. So, for example, with the Cheyenne Bryant thing a couple weeks ago and her saying, "Well, I don't really need a license.

[00:30:23]You only need a license if you want to bill insurance and uh you know, I have all these doctorates." And wait a second. You are saying that you are working as a therapist. Wait, you you don't need like you you're speaking on a profession that a lot of people, particularly a lot of black women, take very very seriously. You're speaking on an education process and a lensure process that a lot of black women hold really close to our hearts. And we're in a time and a place where black women are being told, "Hey, no matter what you've done, you're not needed here. We don't have DEI anymore. Go sit down." And you are making it look like they have a valid reason for doing that. We don't even care about being licensed. We don't even care about having the right education. Our record of representation is not strong enough for you to come in here and be acting like this. When it comes to black community, so many times, it's never just you and only you. It's us. All of us. Right? And I see this with a lot of different things.

[00:31:18]Representation is huge. And so that being said, it should just be blush, you know. Uh I see all the time road the the blush I'm wearing. Road will come out with something and then a company will rip it off. Okay. Well, we have these now. Okay. Well, ours look like this.

[00:31:36]Okay. Well, this is what we're doing. In fact, I remember two years ago, the big blush project or product was Selena Gomez's little dot blush in about 2024.

[00:31:48]And then last year, Haley Bieber came out with the little pocket blushes, right? And so to me, that's someone saying, "Hey, I see something as a trend. I'm going to dial in and I'm going to innovate it and I'm going to do it my way." And when I think about things like that and I think about how those types of situations are treated, I say, "Where's the fanfare? Where's people calling Haley Bieber, you know, and they did." And you know, they did, but that was mostly because people were really against Haley Bieber and Justin Bieber being together and they want him to be with Selena still. And you know, that that was mo that was most of that stuff. But when it came down to looking at the product, a lot of people just allowed themselves to love the products in general. There's been so many new blush products and so many new things that have come out over the past few years. And I feel like me personally, Selena Gomez with Rare Beauty kind of popularized that, popularized the whole like, how can you package blushes? How can you make them cool and fun to use?

[00:32:44]You know, again, we had her little her little blush dots, then we had the pocket blushes. Now, Fenty just came out with the shake blushes. Like, to me, it's a whole trend, and it's people figuring out how they can innovate and get in the game. And it's treated differently when you're dealing with people who are participating in the trend that don't have a history of having to fight so hard to get through the door. So when it comes to black women, it will never just be a blush. It will never just be a makeup technique.

[00:33:11]It will never just be anything. It will always be a political movement and a and a political statement. And I need for businesses and companies that partner with black creators, I need them to realize that. Be careful. Be careful how you work between them. Be careful you're not, you know, telling one person one thing and doing one thing to another person and then reaching out to other creators because they're not going to necessarily have to answer to you as the business owner. They're going to have to answer to their audiences. Their audiences who are ready to remind them that when it comes to black women in a public space, it's never just blush. It's never just a movie roll. It's never just a purse.

[00:33:53]It's never just each and everything can be taken to the absolute extreme, absolute political symbol extreme at any moment, at any time. So, companies that work with black creators have to be absolutely careful. I say companies that work with black creators and not black creators themselves because I don't know specifically what Jackie did or did not know when it came to Patrick's relationship with Esther and what Patrick had done to Esther. And a lot of people assume that she knew and that she just didn't care. I'm not going to assume that about her. I also really quickly want to speak to her weird behavior online. There were a lot of people who were like, "I'm unfollowing her. I see her talking in the comments.

[00:34:38]I don't like her tone, you know, etc., etc." And uh it's funny to me because as a creator I think your life can be made or broken with that very very tricky tricky tricky aspect of being online which is engaging with your audience. I made a video a couple years ago where I said I realize that the most important thing sometimes is not necessarily how I feel.

[00:35:05]The most important thing is the environmental reality I create by the things I choose to say. The the emotional response. I may feel a certain type of way, but I have to be worried about the emotional response. And just last night, I was making a video to respond to a comment that I saw in my last comment section for my last video I posted. And I did it once and I went back and watched it and I was like, "Oh, Stephanie, you know, you're a tone." Mm- And then I did it again and I was like, "Okay, I like this better, but I'm going to go to bed and we'll see how I feel about it in the morning." And I I uploaded it, but I put a time on when I was going to post it.

[00:35:50]And this was a video for Patreon. It wasn't a video for YouTube. And by the time I got to when the post was scheduled to go, I had decided, nope, it's not worth it. The emotional response that you're going to get back from your audience is not worth it.

[00:36:04]Because one thing you will learn as a creator, not only do people hold on to things to be able to use them against you later, but even though there's so many more of people that are watching you than you, so for example, Jackie has over a million followers over on Tik Tok. a million people, just one Jackie.

[00:36:24]Even though that's the case, for some reason, they will always assume that you have the most power in the situation.

[00:36:30]So, it reminds me of being a teacher in a classroom, you know, in in a way because people assumed, oh, well, you're the teacher. It doesn't matter how many students are in here. You set the tone.

[00:36:41]You set the reality. It doesn't matter that so- and so threw a chair. It doesn't matter that they won't sit down.

[00:36:46]Anything those children do is going to come back and it's it's a reflection of you. they're not going to act a certain way if you don't do certain things. And I think that that's completely unfair, but that's how it's looked at a lot in classrooms. And I'm going to tell you, some of my most successful classrooms were not based on me at all. It was based on how the kids had already decided to treat their teacher before they walked into the room. I could relax. I could be a different person because they had also made a decision.

[00:37:15]Some of my hardest classrooms were classrooms where I knew that people were not or the children were not going to practice that civility. I had to worry about little Johnny throwing a chair. I had to worry about old girl popping off.

[00:37:25]So I had to constantly be playing this game of I had to figure out how to manage it because at the end of the day when there was a disturbance, when something went wrong, the eyes were going to be on me.

[00:37:38]The same thing goes for being a content creator. While there are so many valid things that you can get mad at your audience about coming at you with the wrong receipts, saying the wrong things to you, trying to prove a point about something you said that you didn't say.

[00:37:50]So, for example, with Jackie in this whole situation, somebody said, uh, she said that being black has never been profitable.

[00:37:59]You know what to do. Let's sick them, girls. Let's unfollow her on everything.

[00:38:05]Let's And that's not actually what happened. What happened, I went back and looked up the comment was someone said, "You only want to be pro black when it's profitable for you." And Jackie said, "Babe, being pro black is never profitable. Where have you been?" And in to me, I could I could read the tone uh the sarcastic tone. I understood what she meant. Um if you don't understand, I'll explain it. Coming across as political, coming across as difficult as a creator is not profitable. you want to be profitable. I brought this young lady up in my Coachella video, but I think she's one of the most successful creators right now and she just happens to be black. Her name is Mickey and Mickey has over a million followers on Tik Tok. Mickey got taken to Coachella by Poppy. Mickey just graduated from college and old girl is going straight into big budget commercials, big budget opportunities. Mickey has never once spoken up about politics. Mickey has never once taken a stance on specific social issues. Mickey is just cute and she's really, really funny. She's funny and she has all the opportunities in the world. One thing I noticed when I was sitting around licking my wounds after this spring had passed and I saw all the creators that were invited to sacred events and Coachella and all these other things that were going on that were so great. None of those creators are anybody that you will see speaking up about anything political. They're not going to be telling you who to vote for.

[00:39:39]And if they are, they're not black.

[00:39:42]There are no black creators that are invited to be a part of these events and to be in the industry in a specific way that take a stance on the hard issues.

[00:39:52]That's just not how it happens. Now I may see sometimes creators who are in the makeup space like Jackie. Um an example is Gloria and she does talk a lot about you know her activism of of makeup shades being the right shade and you know etc etc. So you know you will see some things but at a certain point I think it was like a year and a half ago or something she had to take a break from the internet because she did a review on something and it it it fired back on her. Um, it can be a very hostile and volatile environment when you stick up and stand up for things.

[00:40:28]And I can imagine Jackie knows about that because, well, she's one of the first to ever do it. And I can imagine that she's had to turn down opportunities and she's seen herself left off of certain lists because she's seen as difficult. And you can see this a lot with creators. None of my favorite um, pontificators and pundits are ever invited to They're not doing anything. I don't see them doing anything. And so when I was licking my little wounds, I was like, you know, Stephanie, you're in good company. We're not in these spaces. You want to be in these spaces, you got to figure out how to have a very milktoast vibe on the internet. Come across as non-threatening. You're going to bring a brand vibe to the internet. That's what people want. Being pro black is not brand safe.

[00:41:17]It's not. Not if you really get into it.

[00:41:20]Okay? So that's what Jackie meant by that. But people took that another way.

[00:41:24]And I've experienced that before as a person where I've said something and people are like, "You meant this."

[00:41:34]And they take it another way, right? Um people calling you all kind of names, people digging up your tea from years ago. Like that I can imagine that sucks. But as a creator, you can't respond. You can't engage. you can't or you risk making things worse.

[00:41:54]It's so it's it's a very very tough situation to be in. And um I think that because of there's that constant you're constantly trying to manage I think it damages you a little bit. I think it's extremely traumatizing. And uh if you are a therapist and you wanted to make a lot of money, I would be a trauma therapist for online creators, people in the online space, writers, vloggers, bloggers, YouTubers, Tik Tok people.

[00:42:21]There's a lot that goes on up here trying to manage the relationship between you and your audience, especially when your audience thinks they can throw and say anything at you and you're just supposed to be, "Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for watching, sir. Yes, sir."

[00:42:37]And anything that pushes back slightly on the things they say, people are going to take it wrong. People are going to take it wrong.

[00:42:44]This has been a very interesting thing for me to watch. Um, especially because at the beginning of the year, I was thinking of becoming a beauty creator.

[00:42:52]Now, I don't know nothing about no beauty, but I actually love watching creators who are just putting on makeup for the day like, and they're just like, "Get ready with me." And it's not really fancy and it's not um you know uh truly like excellent beauty. It's just you get to see them make up their face. I love it. I find it really like soothing. And so I was looking into buying a vanity and getting a whole little setup and bookmarking all of these, you know, okay, this is how she has her makeup set up, blah blah blah. And it was because I viewed the makeup space as a safe space.

[00:43:24]I was like, how tough can things in the makeup space be?

[00:43:29]I no longer think that way. I no longer think that way. Um the makeup space, like a lot of spaces where black women are trying to get in and make sure they have representation and make sure that they have a fair share is um a political is a political space and people are going to expect you to play a side and they're going to expect you to do this and they're going to expect you to do that. And it's very easy to get in situations where you're not making the decisions people want you to make.

[00:44:00]And it's very easy to get in situations where people are saying you should do certain things you and I don't I don't want that smoke. So I don't know that I'll be venturing into that space. But I have uh been just watching what's been going on online and it's just been so interesting to me that when it comes to black women with really anything we decide to do, there's always so much more to it. You know, it reminds me of that picture of the iceberg where it's like there's that tiny tip on top and then that huge piece of ice on the bottom. That's everything with black women. That's food content.

[00:44:33]That's makeup content. That's clothing content. That's everything that we do.

[00:44:37]Movies, music, everything at the top. It may look superficially shallow, but it always leads back to our incredibly complex existence in this country in some way, in the world in some way. I am wishing the best for both Esther and Jackie. Um, I think definitely uh it will be interesting to see how where Esther goes after this because she definitely has people on her side, especially the Alandria fans, and there's a lot of them, and they are very serious. And it'll be interesting to see what next month looks like for Jackie.

[00:45:13]I'm a big believer in things do roll over and you know, whatever. But this tends to happen to her every 3 to 5 months. there's some kind of thing where people are blowing up and upset with her and I don't know how she's been in the industry this long and continue to withstand this. Um, that would mess me up. Uh, you know, but I don't know. So, so we'll see. I hope I hope the best for both women. And like I said earlier, Patrick Todd needs his ass whooped. So, that is all I have to say about that. What did you think about the uh whole Sherrod? Please feel free to let me know in the comments below. And as always, thank you for watching.