James Charles apologizes to Alicia Keys for 'microaggression' after tweeting about her new beauty line

'I deleted the tweet after a few minutes because it’s childish to indirect tweet someone & I am not the gatekeeper of makeup'

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Margaret Abrams6 August 2020

Many celebrities have announced makeup collaborations in recent months, including Selena Gomez, TikTok star Addison Rae and now, Alicia Keys.

Keys announced that she's partnering with the affordable beauty brand e.l.f Cosmetics for a skincare line. It makes sense, as the 15-time Grammy Award-winning artist is known for her perfect skin, which she often shows off without any makeup on at all, even on the red carpet.

The 'Girl On Fire' singer isn't the first celebrity to receive pushback after announcing a new beauty line. Kylie Jenner received negative feedback for her walnut scrub which was blasted on social media and Stranger Things teen actress Milly Bobby Brown apologized after she released videos showcasing her products without ever actually using them

But plenty of celebrities have wildly successful makeup lines, including Rihanna and Victoria Beckham.

(Getty Images )
Getty Images

On Wednesday, beauty blogger Manny MUA, 29, voiced his opinion on Twitter and he is unimpressed with celebrity makeup lines.

The YouTube makeup artist wrote in a since-deleted tweet, "Does anyone else get slightly irritated when celebs come out with entire makeup lines? especially when those celebs don’t even wear makeup... i’m like girl."

After one of his followers mentioned Kylie Jenner and Rihanna, he wrote, "See with Rihanna and Kylie i get it tho.. they’re glam girls! they wear makeup, they’re known for their makeup so i can see that.... but some other people I'm like HUH?!"

The oft-controversial James Charles, 21, then weighed in (he has since also deleted his tweet). He wrote, "I'm sick of people who have no business coming out with makeup brands, coming out with makeup brands."

Now, both YouTubers have apologized for their comments. On Thursday afternoon, Manny released a statement to his 1.5 million Twitter followers that read, "I get defensive of the beauty community because so many celebrities only come out with cosmetics line as a cash grab but I shouldn't have jumped the gun and regardless I know I am not the be end all voice of makeup...anyone can create what they want to create!"

James agreed with the sentiment, telling his own 6.4 million Twitter followers, "Yesterday I posted a subtweet about how I thought some celebrities shouldn’t launch makeup lines."

He admitted, "It was about @aliciakeys" and went on to write, “A few years ago, she announced that she no longer would wear makeup, so I was bothered because many celebrities come into the beauty space as a cash grab without any actual passion and then leave.”

He continued on to say, “I deleted the tweet after a few minutes because it’s childish to indirect tweet someone & I am not the gatekeeper of makeup. Anyone should be able to secure their bag and its not up to me which brands people should or shouldn’t support. I’m now glad that I did delete it because after reading further, I learned that the beauty line is SKINCARE. This was my mistake and I should’ve read more before tweeting, because literally who better to talk about keeping your skin clear without makeup?”

He also said, "Regardless of my intention with my tweet, it ended up being a microaggression against someone I respect, so to @aliciakeys I owe a direct apology — I’m sorry.”

@bbrayin

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♬ No One - Alicia Keys