Everyone seems to be captivated by the Ivy League college admissions scandal embroiling actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Hoffman that broke this week, in addition to dozens of other high-powered CEOs and executives. Part of the irony, of course — in at least Loughlin’s case, anyway — is that rigging the system was seemingly for naught, since her daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli seem to prefer the glamorous life of Instagram influencers to books and libraries.
While 19-year-old Isabella Rose is a burgeoning actress, having appeared in two different made-for-TV Christmas movies (one alongside her mother, natch), her older sister, Olivia Jane, is a prolific vlogger who shares her makeup and fashion tips on YouTube where she’s racked up nearly two million subscribers. Olivia Jade became so popular on social media, in fact, that Sephora partnered with her for sponsored Instagram posts and even collaborated on an exclusive highlighter palette late last year.
In the wake of the scandal however, Sephora announced on Thursday that it would be cutting ties with Olivia Jade, whether or not the 20-year-old had been aware of her parents involvement in her college acceptance.
“After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately,” a Sephora representative said in a statement to Business Insider on Thursday.
The decision was perhaps in response to overwhelming backlash from reviews on Sephora’s website. “This palette has such an intense highlight I thought it would blind others to my privilege and toxicity,” read one review on the since-removed product page. “Unfortunately, it did not work and instead left me dusty AF.”
laughing at the reviews of the Olivia jade palette on Sephora pic.twitter.com/pIyWixAXR1
— danni (@riptotheoldyouu) March 13, 2019
these reviews on olivia jade's sephora palette omg pic.twitter.com/oyHVOYgWX5
— stella (@sunfIowerdior) March 13, 2019
Others expressed similar sentiments on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/jess_wilson/status/1105809124019916808
Imagine being so rich you could just pay for an Ivy League degree and not do any work. Meanwhile there are struggling students with mountains of student loans putting in WORK who are getting denied admission and financial aid… @Sephora time to take down Olivia's palette
— scalloped potato girl (@tweets_by_laur) March 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/jen96875723/status/1105840031565053952
https://twitter.com/1989sheerans/status/1105894701142560771
https://twitter.com/margaretkelly__/status/1105714032613384192
Hmm, I wonder if Sephora is going to remove Olivia Jade makeup product or do they endorse cheaters? @Sephora
— . (@x0cirrus) March 12, 2019
@Sephora drop your partnership with Olivia jade. Why would u want an “influencer” who took the rightful place of a deserving academic student #wrong I and many others won’t be buying from Sephora if you continue to support her! 🤦🏻♀️
— Mariam A (@MariamA10101) March 13, 2019
The cherry on top of this vanilla-ass privilege sundae, however, comes in the form of the following quotes compiled by NBC News, as news outlets began digging after the news broke:
In 2018, Olivia Jade — who has almost 2 million YouTube subscribers — said in a video: “I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend … I do want the experience of like game days, partying … I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
Olivia Jade has continued to express views that attending college was not her dream. In a recent podcast interview on the “Zach Sang Show,” she said she attends USC “mostly because my parents really wanted me to go.”
Just try imagining a sillier reason to do a crime.