This Is How Much Money Beauty Vlogger Jaclyn Hill Is Actually Worth
Jaclyn Hill is a vlogger and makeup entrepreneur who is well-known in both the beauty and social media spheres thanks to her entertaining persona and aesthetic skills. With millions of YouTube subscribers and Instagram followers watching her videos and liking every post, Hill has reached a level of popularity that most aspiring MUAs can only dream of. However, among the other things you might not know about Hill, it turns out that she's not worth as much money as you might think.
Despite the fact that Hill has been involved in sell-out cosmetics collaborations with popular brands like Morphe and "likely makes somewhere around $7 million for her [YouTube] channel," according to Cosmopolitan, Elle Australia estimates that Hill is only worth around $1.5 million. While that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, it's just a fraction of what other beauty vloggers are worth.
YouTuber Tati Westbrook is thought to have around $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, while the website reports that controversial YouTube star James Charles has worked his way up to $12 million. Even those amounts can't compare to the top-earning influencers in the beauty industry like Jeffree Star who has a fortune of $200 million, and Huda Kattan who has a whopping $560 million. And, frankly, Hill's net worth may be even lower than the estimated $1.5 million due to a huge business blunder.
Jaclyn Hill's fortune may have suffered due to her hairy lipsticks
Jaclyn Hill may be bringing in millions of dollars thanks to her makeup-savviness, however, makeup was also the reason she might have lost a massive chunk of money. Things took a serious turn for the beauty guru in 2019 when she put out a cosmetics line that featured seriously-flawed lipstick.
When Hill launched her long-awaited collection, fans quickly snapped up anything and everything they could, which meant that the collection soon sold out — a definite mark of success. And yet, any celebration on Hill's end was surely short-lived because when the orders started showing up, customers realized there was something very wrong with many of the lipsticks they'd been sent.
According to Seventeen, "there was a lot of backlash over the quality of the lipsticks" that seemed to be embedded with worrisome hair-like fibers and weird little balled-up bits. In order to attempt to satisfy and pacify the disappointed consumers, Hill "promised to refund everyone AND provide them with a free lipstick, which [was] bound to cost a lot of money." And the lipstick debacle is not the only business issue that's potentially costing Hill.
Jaclyn Hill's choice not to accept sponsorships costs her a lot of money
One of the ways beauty influencers can make money is by actually influencing. If someone has gained a large and loyal following on social media, brands will pay them — sometimes staggering amounts — to promote their products. And while Jaclyn Hill could easily make a fortune this way, she claims that she doesn't accept sponsorships.
In 2018, Hill released a video explaining that she's only ever "done one sponsored video in [her] entire life" (which earned her "a humble amount") before addressing the kind of cash that those in the beauty industry can make. "Yeah, $60,000 is a pretty normal price for people to charge," she said while talking about sponsored posts. "I sat at a table with a bunch of influencers last year and everyone was talking about sponsorships and brand deals and trips ... and someone at that table told me, 'Oh yeah, I get paid $70,000 just to mention a product.'"
But she also explained, "I've never charged that. ... Me talking about it and giving you a code or a link, ... and then my products and my [YouTube] views. That's the way I earn my money."
While Hill's fortune may not be what it could be if she avoided bank-draining backlash and opted for lucrative sponsorships, she still has enough to rent a multi-million dollar home in Beverly Hills.