The much-anticipated finale to the Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star series was uploaded on the 23rd of November. The episode concluded the seven part YouTube series that was originally expected to have nine instalments.
The web series that has already gathered millions of views followed Shane and Jeffree as they collaborated on the Conspiracy collection, a makeup collection for Jeffree Star Cosmetics that includes the much sought after Conspiracy palette.
Viewers got a behind the scenes look at what goes into creating a makeup collection. They saw everything from the original ideas to shade selection, the million-dollar brand deals and photoshoots.
The series mostly follows Shane, who is new to the makeup industry, as he learns the ins and outs of creating a huge product. They go as far as to tell the viewers approximately how much money each of them would make when they release all the products, while also including negotiations for a 20 million dollar deal with Morphe.
The Conspiracy collection includes the 18 shade Conspiracy palette, nine shade mini Controversy palette, a lip gloss, lip balm, and six liquid lipsticks. The collection also contains other items such as all styles of makeup bags and mirrors in the shape of pigs, which is Shane’s iconic symbol. The collection sold out worldwide, breaking multiple e-commerce records.
The series, including the trailer, has over 144 million views since Shane began posting them two months ago. The most watched episode so far is the series premiere, that has an impressive 25 million views. The 1 hour 20 minutes finale has received over 14 million views despite only being posted a few days ago.
Fans appear to have enjoyed the series, with the first episode getting 1.4 million likes. However, there was some disappointment that the series didn’t include much about the James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama. The trailer teased clips of Shane reacting and Jeffree’s opinions on the controversial fight that ended the friendship between James and Tati after the pair made videos about each other.
Katie Connolly, an avid Shane and Jeffree supporter said, “It was an excellent series that gave us real insight into the makeup industry, but they did promise us drama and they didn’t follow through”.
In an Instagram Live, Shane said he was unsure about putting the clips about the feud in after all as he didn’t want to bring the old drama back into the media. Due to fan outrage, Shane did briefly include some clips that showed his real time reactions to Tati and James’ videos, but he did choose to leave out Jeffree’s reactions completely.
They concluded the series by thanking fans and showing a collection of videos of people excitedly opening the makeup collection.
After the episode was uploaded, Shane tweeted, “This year has been so life changing in so many ways and I feel grateful for every second of it.” Jeffree also tweeted, “what an insane journey… feeling forever grateful for this roller coaster called life.”