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Popular YouTuber Marlena Stell recently threw shade at Jaclyn Hill amidst accusations against the latter for stealing ideas from different brands. Marlena, who used to be friends with Jaclyn, made business plans to start their makeup brand together. However, Marlena alleged that Jaclyn dropped the ball on her, which caused Marlena to lose a lot of money.
She shared a long post on Reddit on April 19, 2023, and opened up about her experience working with Jaclyn. Marlena also indirectly made a tweet on April 20 and wrote that she would take back her power this year. She added that she was done being nice, only to get trampled. The YouTuber said that she would not stay quiet in fear of what others would think and would not let people take advantage of her.
Although Marlena did not mention any names, netizens thought that it was partly directed at Jaclyn. The latter also recently came under fire for stealing the name of her lifestyle brand, Koze, from a Canadian entrepreneur and YouTuber, Kalyn Nicholson. Jaclyn was also criticized for copying popular luxury jewelry brand Lana Jewelry's original necklace design for her brand, Jaclyn Roxanne.
Marlena was forced to close her brand after a severe loss because of Jaclyn Hill
Marlena Stell is a popular makeup artist who started her YouTube channel in 2012. She primarily used to share makeup tutorials. She is also well-known among her followers for her women's empowerment movement.
She was also the CEO and founder of the beauty and skincare line Makeup Geek, which unfortunately closed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Marlena also works as a domestic violence activist.
Makeup Geek was not only a brand but was also a cosmetic education website where Marlena aimed to empower women through beauty education. However, the brand had to go through a million-dollar loss after Jaclyn Hill pulled out of her share after initially promising to invest in it.
Marlena Stell's Reddit post about Jaclyn Hill's betrayal
On Reddit, Marlena shared a post under the "jaclynhillsnark" community. She started by saying she was tired of staying quiet, especially after Kalyn Nicholson's incident. Marlena reasoned:
“because that’s yet ANOTHER woman in a line up of many who have been done dirty by a manipulative liar.”
She noted that she did not have to worry about being called a “hater” or trying to drum up sales since she had already closed her brand, Makeup Geek. Marlena said that she had been holding the story in for seven years.
Next, she wrote that she had forgiven Jaclyn for causing Makeup Geek to lose a million dollars. Marlena Stell said it hurt her company. She further shared that she should have gotten the contract deal legally signed, but she never imagined that a friend would suddenly back out, knowing the inventory had already reached the house.
Marlena claimed that she even sent Jaclyn photos of all the crates containing the products sitting in her warehouse. This is why her brand struggled a lot after 2016 after a million dollars worth of product was ordered. She added that what hurt her more than the financial wreckage was:
“her pretending to be a friend only to drop me like a toilet wad as soon as she found someone else to give her what she wanted: info on how to start a makeup brand.”
Moreover, she confessed that she still valued their friendship and went out of her way to provide Jaclyn with secretive information, such as labs and packaging connects.
Marlena also personally drove Jaclyn from Napa to San Francisco for an in-person meeting with a vendor to aid Jaclyn with her lipsticks. She said that she helped Jaclyn Hill’s brand, even though technically Jaclyn’s cosmetics brand was a competition to Makeup Geek because she knew it was hard starting a brand from scratch without any help. She continued:
“I put my reputation on the line by asking favors from my vendors to meet with her. The final straw of friendship for me was me seeing her at my lab with Linda the same day as me while she blew me off and stated she was too busy to meet me for even a coffee. She lied saying she had errands and couldn’t meet up.”
When Marlena messaged Jaclyn and shared her opinion on the latter’s shady business practices with Morphe, and also told her that it was an unfair move to pull out of the collab, Jaclyn had no remorse.
Marlena was evidently upset with Jaclyn Hill’s repeated series of lies, stealing ideas from other brands and stepping on other businesswomen to serve her own purpose. She also condemned Jaclyn’s habit of blaming others for making excuses for her poor morals. She added:
“Stealing Koze from Kalyn and mocking the trademark was DISGUSTING. Don’t get me started on lying about her “family owned business” either. Becca CEO, Jen Gerard, myself, Kalyn, and now Lana- these are just some of the people wrecked by Jaclyn’s selfish and shady moves. There’s a common denominator here and it’s not all of us!”
Lana Jewelry noticed Jaclyn Hill copying the exact design of their iconic original Blake Necklace and made an indirect shade post on April 6 with the caption that they see everything.
Previously, Kalyn Nicholson was also compelled to close her brand Koze, which was her original idea, because Jaclyn Hill stole the brand name, and Kalyn unfortunately did not have a trademark on it. However, Jaclyn Hill further used a fake "TM" sign next to her brand name without filing for a trademark.
