Jeffrey Lynn Steininger Jr. (born November 15, 1985), known professionally as Jeffree Star, is an American YouTuber, former singer-songwriter, and the founder and owner of Jeffree Star Cosmetics.
In 2009, Star released a studio album, Beauty Killer, which included songs such as “Lollipop Luxury” featuring Nicki Minaj. He embarked on several world tours to promote his music. In 2010, he signed to Konvict Muzik—whose founder Akon described Star as “the next Lady Gaga”. However, Star abruptly left the music industry in 2013 due to legal issues Akon was facing between 2007 and 2010.
In November 2014, he founded the company Jeffree Star Cosmetics. In 2018, Star earned $18 million from his YouTube endeavors alone, according to Forbes, making him the fifth-highest-paid YouTube star as of December 2018.
Early life
Jeffree Lynn Steininger Jr. was born on November 15th, 1985 in the Los Angeles County, California and raised in Orange County, California. He has said that as a child he began regularly experimenting with his mother’s makeup and convinced her to let him wear it to school when he was in junior high. He moved to Los Angeles following his graduation from high school, supporting himself with various makeup, modeling and music jobs. He later recalled spending his time on weekends using a fake ID to attend Hollywood clubs where celebrities would hire him for makeup work at their homes.
Career
Star in July 2009
MySpace
Star used popular social networking website MySpace to further both his music as well as fashion design career. He also used MySpace for blogging about his life, while making social commentary on “self-image and confidence,” fame, beauty, and life. Star had built up a fan base on several websites but convinced many to join him on MySpace, giving his profile a large number of followers from the beginning. His MySpace photoshoots would frequently get over 50,000 comments when posted. Star also gained fame as one of the most popular independent artists, with the daily rankings placing him in the top tier on MySpace.
Music career
Star’s music career as an electronica and pop vocalist began when he befriended Peaches’ drummer Samantha Maloney, who encouraged him to make music. During the summer of 2007, Star was advertised as a part of the True Colors Tour 2007, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the LGBT Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007, to coincide with Pride month.
Star released his first and only studio album Beauty Killer in 2009, which peaked at number 7 on the US Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. The album included songs such as “Lollipop Luxury” featuring Nicki Minaj. He embarked on several world tours to promote his music. In 2010, he signed to Konvict Muzik—whose founder Akon described Star as “the next Lady Gaga”—with plans to release a second album. However, it was never released and Star abruptly left the music industry in 2013 under unclear circumstances. He later described signing to Akon’s record label as “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”
He appeared in the second version of Kesha’s music video for her single “Take It Off” in 2010. Star has worked with several other musical performers, including Blood on the Dance Floor, Deuce, Millionaires, and Larry Tee.
Jeffree Star Cosmetics
In 2014, Star founded his e-commerce makeup brand, Jeffree Star Cosmetics. In a five-part docuseries by Shane Dawson, Star stated that the end of his music career had left him essentially bankrupt, and that he had used his remaining savings to start his makeup brand. Star began promoting the brand through videos published on YouTube, leading to the success of his YouTube channel, with 17.4 million subscribers and over 2.4 billion views as of October 2020. Bustle magazine described Star as “a musician and onetime MySpace celeb that reinvented himself in the YouTube makeup tutorial space.” His first cosmetics release was a collection of velour liquid lipsticks, which were followed by highlighter palettes, lip scrubs, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, and accessories, such as mirrors and make up bags. The first East Coast location to carry the cosmetics line was a Morphe Cosmetics store at the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey on August 11, 2018. Star has since launched several new collections, such as the “Blue Blood” eyeshadow palette.
Personal life
Nathan Schwandt was Jeffree’s boyfriend from c. 2015 to January 2020. Star claims to not drink alcohol (despite previously tweeting about drinking vodka on multiple occasions), smoke cigarettes or take hard drugs, although he does smoke cannabis (which is legal in California).
Controversies
Jeffree Star’s quarrels with other media personalities include conversations with tattoo artist Kat Von D, who accused Star of “drug use, racism, and bullying”; Tati Westbrook, who accused Star and Shane Dawson of forcing her to upload a video attacking fellow beauty YouTuber James Charles, whose brother, Ian Jeffrey, was also bullied by Star on Twitter; Kylie Jenner, whose products were criticized by Star; Kim Kardashian; and Jerrod Blandino, co-founder of Too Faced Cosmetics.
Star was accused of racism due to derogatory remarks about minorities. He later apologized for the remarks. A satirical skit between Star and a drag queen was posted on MySpace, in which Star allegedly states he wants to throw battery acid on a black woman to lighten her skin so it will match her foundation. Star has used racial slurs on multiple occasions.
In 2010, Star called Blood on the Dance Floor member Dahvie Vanity, who was arrested in 2009 on sexual assault charges, a “child fucker”, tweeting that he “saw … Dahvie bring under age girls to his hotel room. 100% ILLEGAL.” Star in 2012 had said he had witnessed Vanity’s actions. Other tweets show Star telling people to “get over the negativity” against Vanity, and promoting a Blood on the Dance Floor album. He was accused of associating with Vanity despite knowing about sexual assault allegations to profit off Vanity’s continued success. Following a HuffPost report detailing sexual assault – before and after 2010 – against 21 individuals (many of whom were minors), Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator started covering the story. Speaking to Hansen on YouTube, Star said he had no knowledge of any inappropriate activity between Vanity and underage girls while they worked together, and that his tweets were based on hearsay.
In June 2020, Star apologized after images and an archive of his former website Lipstick Nazi resurfaced. The website featured swastikas alongside photos of Star engaging in self-harm.
In October 2020, Star was accused of multiple instances of sexual assault, assault, and paying $10,000 in hush money to accusers. An attorney for Star denied all the allegations. Leaked documents later appeared to show one of Star’s accusers being paid $45,000 by a Jeffree Star Cosmetics executive.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007, 2011 |
LA Ink | Himself | Aaron Krummel Fred Villari |
Recurring role; 2 episodes |
| 2015 | What Now | Victoria | Ash Avildsen | Feature film |
| 2017 | Shane and Friends | Himself | Shane Dawson | Podcast |
| 2018 | The Secret World of Jeffree Star | Shane Dawson | Docu-series; 5 episodes | |
| 2019 | The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star | Docu-series; 9 episodes | ||
| 2020 | The Dish With Trish | Trisha Paytas | Guest appearance |
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
US Elec |
US Heat |
US Indie |
||
| Beauty Killer |
|
122 | 7 | 2 | 22 |
Extended plays
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Elec |
US Heat |
||
| Plastic Surgery Slumber Party |
|
— | — |
| Cupcakes Taste Like Violence |
|
6 | 8 |
| Virginity |
|
— | — |
| Concealer |
|
— | — |
| Mr. Diva |
|
— | — |
Singles
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| “Lollipop Luxury” | 2008 | Cupcakes Taste Like Violence |
| “Prisoner” | 2009 | Beauty Killer |
| “Prom Night” | 2012 | Non-album single |
| “Mr. Diva” | Mr. Diva | |
| “Love to My Cobain” | 2013 | Non-album single |
Awards
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 9th Streamy Awards | Beauty | Nominated |
| 2020 | 12th Annual Shorty Awards | YouTuber of the Year | Nominated |