Review

Hi, how are ya?: A review of the Shane Dawson Series featuring Jeffree Star

Shane Dawson is 31 years old and has been creating content on the social media platform YouTube for 12 years. Dawson’s channel started with comedic skits and characters. He then began primarily making videos that included testing products or food reviews. As Dawson grew older, he moved on to making videos that were more intriguing to him, such as conspiracy theory videos and docu-series.

One of his most popular docu-series was about the daily life of controversial celebrity, Jeffree Star. The five-part series accumulated around 150 million views altogether. Along with being a celebrity, Star is also a YouTuber, makeup artist, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, and founder and owner of Jeffree Star Cosmetics (JSC). At 33 years old, Star has achieved a net worth of $50 million. During the docu-series with Dawson, they dive deep into his past and talk about some of the biggest hardships Star has had to go through. They explore Star’s huge pink Calabasas mansion with a makeup room, pinball machines, and a walk-in closet with designer clothing and expensive handbags.

In the previous series, Dawson asks Star about the creation of makeup products. Dawson jokes about how he could come out with his own makeup line and film the whole process. Star loved the idea of collaborating and helping Dawson make his own line of makeup, and so the series began.

The first video in the series is titled “The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star.” The first episode, around an hour long, starts with an overview of the whole series and what is to come. It cuts to dramatic intro credits with a cover of the song “Time of the Season” by The Ben Taylor Band. Along with Star and Dawson, they also credit Ryland Adams, Dawson’s fiancée; Morgan Adams, his sister; Madison Taylor, Star’s assistant; and most importantly Andrew Siwicki, Dawson’s cameraman and co-editor. At the end of the intro credits, it says, “All dis cussions and acts of business featured in the following video are completely real and unstaged.” This is one of my favorite parts of the series because it really feels like I’m watching a T.V. show. It shows how much time and effort they really put into this docu-series and how well they want it to do.

It then goes to Dawson back in February 2019 getting ready to go to a fan meet and greet with Star in Sacramento, California. Dawson and Siwicki are invited to fly on Star’s private jet to this meetup, so they document this first experience for them. They get to Sacramento, get to their hotel, and then talk about what their day will look like the next day. The next day they go to the Morphe store in a mall in Sacramento. Morphe is a makeup store that carries Star’s makeup line, and they love hosting him for meet and greets at their store openings. The meet and greet goes well, and nothing too crazy happens, except they meet over 1,000 fans. After the meet and greet, they head back to Los Angeles on a private jet. As the first episode concludes, a sneak peak of the upcoming episode is shown with their creative process beginning.

The second episode of Dawson’s series is called “The Secrets of the Beauty World” and is around an hour long. The video was filmed at the end of February, and it starts with them talking about what Star’s been up to since the last series blew up. After the first series, Star bought another warehouse because they ran out of room in other facilities, and they signed James Charles’ apparel line to Star’s company. In May, Charles and Star got into an online feud ending with Charles ending his contract with Star’s merchandise company. This conflict was tea, which is drama within the social media community. Star and Dawson speak about the issue and Star states, “He’s like my little brother.” This part made me so sad, because I loved both of them so much.

The first official makeup meeting began in one of Star’s conference rooms. Dawson meets Star’s JSC team. He meets Dana, JSC business manager and Patrick, in charge of JSC product development. During the meeting, they talk about the cost of goods in makeup and how some makeup brands will scam collaborators into bad contracts, so the company can make more money. Dawson and Star specifically talk about the scam that the famous YouTuber Nikkietutorials was involved in. She was given .005% of the money made from the collaboration she did with Too Faced. Throughout the meeting, Star and Dawson can be seen brainstorming creative shade names, reminiscing on common expressions said in the previous series.

They go on to talk about how much money Dawson can make from this palette. Dawson gets overwhelmed and needs to take a break with Siwicki in the bathroom. Dawson realizes he has been dealing with these bad payouts his whole career.

Star takes Dawson to his office to have a heart-to-heart about how Dawson has been so naïve with these huge companies using his name to make money. Star and Dawson keep talking, and Star decides to show Dawson a new lipstick color for the collaboration. It’s a brown shimmery liquid lipstick, which I think looks amazing. They decide it’s going to be apart of Dawson’s line and it will be called Shane. They then decide to name and pick all the colors of Dawson’s 5 other new lipsticks.

As they’re about to leave for the day, they find a tea bag on the ground that has a quote on it. The bag says, “Trust is the union of intelligence and integrity.” That’s just crazy to me how it relates to the series to them in that moment; this is my favorite part of the video.

The episode ends with Dawson going home and opening a bunch of new makeup he ordered, which is mostly JSC products. It then cuts to scenes of what’s still to come during this series and the next episode title, “Drama in the Beauty Community.”

Overall, these first two episodes make me excited to see Dawson’s final makeup line. I also love the drama in the beauty community, so I’m eagerly anticipating the coming episodes of the series.

Until the next episodes, I’ll see you soon.