YouTubeShane Dawson and Jeffree Star are revealing what it's really like to live like the rich and famous.
After a year of patiently waiting, the two stars have finally dropped the first part of their docu-series and it is filled with all the drama and excitement that fans could've hoped for. From the start of the hour-long video, Shane delves into intricacies of being a YouTuber, the complicated relationships that come with it and the daily threats they face as a public figure.
None of this is exactly shocking, after all fans see it all play out on social media, but the series reveals just how intense things actually are for these stars. Moreover, viewers and critics often suspect that Jeffree stages much of the events for his channel, but based on this footage, it seems like his luxurious lifestyle might actually be that luxurious. And this is just the beginning of the multi-part series.
So what have we learned so far?
Well, it's clear from the get-go that Shane is intimidated by the glamour of it all. Dawson himself points out that he earns nowhere near the amount of these beauty vloggers, despite starting out on YouTube before them. Moreover, he feels that he is not up to par on the community's high standards. "I'm actually very, very scared. The world of beauty is something that gives me anxiety because it's very much look-oriented, and I am very much 'don't look at me' oriented," he explains to the camera. "I'm scared that people are going to think, ‘Oh, Shane's ugly. Shane's fat. Shane's whatever.' I am so fat right now. I have not worked out in months."
But Jeffree, who describes himself as "Frankenstein" assures Shane that this is definitely not the case. While they are sitting in a private jet on their way to Sacramento, Jeffree tells Shane, "You can't feel insecure. These people have seen my mouth sliced open; they've seen my forehead lowered. They've seen me at my worst and ugliest, and they just love us for us. I don't think anyone's there to judge you at all."
However, he's only speaking about the fans. Cause when it comes to the competition, Jeffree is always looking over his shoulders. The morning after their candid heart to heart, Jeffree tells Shane that someone is trying to stir up some drama already. "I think someone's trying to cause some drama already. I'm so confused. I woke up to all these screenshots of this thing. There's a news story about me and you, and it says, 'Is there tension between Jeffree and Shane?' It's so click bait and fully a lie. It just plants a seed in people's head."
And while Shane is dismayed by this news, he isn't exactly surprised. He quips to his cameraman, "I should've known because drama literally follows [Jeffree]."
Plus, the filming of this episode took place in February, just weeks after the conclusion of Shane's successful series about Jeffree and days after he had a fallout with Gabriel Zamora. Essentially, Gabriel and their mutual friends gave Jeffree the middle finger, literally and figuratively, in a tweet. It caused "dramageddon" and essentially ended Jeffree's friendship with a lot of big players in the beauty community.
Of course, this was all smoothed over behind closed doors, with Gabriel apologizing "man-to-man." And while Jeffree forgives, he doesn't forget. He shares, "We spent a few years together, a lot of the time inseparable. It's sad because I genuinely love them. That's why I was so hurt because it wasn't a fake friendship. It was so real. It was crazy. But I think it's like a breakup. Because bitch, I'm over it now."
As callous as this seems, Jeffree can't exactly spend days mourning lost friendships. Fans learned in Shane's first series that Jeffree runs a worldwide empire, which requires him to be all hands on deck at all times. From Morphe store openings to creating the next eyeshadow palette, the makeup guru does it all.
Some critics like to say that Jeffree is dramatizing how big his fan-base and reach is, but this behind-the-scenes look proves that there are literally thousands of fans watching Star's every move. So much so, the 33-year-old hires fully-armed security guards to travel with him at all times. At one point in the video, Jeffree tells Shane not to be scared of the crowd because "on the one percent chance [of harm], they shoot to kill."
The video concludes with a look into part two, which will follow every step of the creation of Shane and Jeffree's palette—a first for the beauty industry.