November 1st 2019, the long awaited Conspiracy palette was released created by Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson the duo trended with the #ShaneDawsonxJeffreeStar. The palette took the beauty community by storm and sold out in record numbers. Shane and Jeffree have become close friends over the past year and Jeffree saw how Shane had been taken advantage of by brands in the past and wanted to show Shane what he should expect from legitimate brand.
Shane dawson is one of the first youtubers and made his channel on March 10, 2008. He became a popular creator in 2010 and has made his Youtube come back starting in 2017 with his series about his family life growing up. Since then, Shane has posted a different series every couple of months that always trend for a few days on Youtube. The topic I will be discussing is the most recent series of the release of his own makeup collection through Jeffree Star’s existing brand Jeffree Star Cosmetics.
His topic is worthy of exploration because it really is the first time in the beauty community where everything is transparent and honest through the creating and sales process. Specifically focusing on all finances and profits.
We should care about Shane Dawson’s launch series because the pallet made record breaking sales in the billion dollar makeup industry. The series is undoubtedly the reason for the immense success of Shane’s line. Specifically how Shane wanted everything public even the cost of materials and profit margins.
Insider, reported on how Shane’s launch series showed the power of viral fame. They pointed out how even though Shane is not a makeup expert like Jeffree Star, fans of both influencers flocked to buy the collection. They sold 1 million pallets in 30 minutes which Jeffree usually sells that many in a 6 month time span. Insider brought up how Shane and Jeffree’s audience of tween and teenage makeup loving girls were happy to buy the pallett after Shane described himself as a less fortunate youtuber and is not a good businessman.
The Verge also commented on how Shanes previous following was happy to buy whatever product shane had to offer and even if those products come at a high price tag, if that’s what gives them joy, then maybe it is not such a bad thing. The Verge also pointed out, During another episode of Shane Dawson’s YouTube series, he revealed that he would be making a 70% profit from products on this website. That means for every $20 t-shirt, Shane Dawson could take home $14. At its launch date, every product on the merchandise store sold out.” This is an excellent example of how rare access to these numbers and sales breakdowns are made public. This could be seen as a way to protect the general public from powerful brands taking advantage of the consumer.
Showbiz CheatSheet reported this story focusing on the transparent financial aspect of the launch. They said Shane was expected to walk away with $10 million in sales if the launch went all to plan, and since the pallett to this day is still sold out, I can only imagine they reached that goal.
Tube Filter reported on how large scale the launch was especially when is crashed a popular ordering site used by Jeffree for all his other launches named Shopify. They quoted the series on how open they were with their product when Jeffree said, “So we want to be transparent. Now that everything is made, we can make things way quicker, but it’s still two or three months out — on a real level.” Overall, they were keen to point out how successful and monumental the launch was for the beauty community and it sets a new level of expectation by the consumer.
I think that Shane uncovered a huge opportunity without even realizing what he did. The younger generation now is raising their expectations of brands to not have a 1000% markup if the quality of the product is not to par. This could change the industry of makeup in ways similar to how many consumers only buy cruelty free and vegan products. Consumers now have the ability to demand financial statements to eliminate high end brands from charging obscene amounts of money when the quality is not extremely high.
Watch the conspiracy launch series here!