James Charles calls out Wet ‘N Wild for “copying” his makeup palette

Makeup mogul James Charles is one of YouTube’s biggest beauty gurus, having released a major collaboration with makeup brand Morphe in 2018 – but this very collaboration may have resulted in a possible copycat nearly a year later.

Charles’ Morphe eyeshadow palette went live in November 2018 to rave reviews, with the collaboration marking yet another major YouTuber added to the company’s ranks of top influencers.

However, the popular palette hasn’t gone without drama, as massive drugstore brand Wet ‘N Wild appeared to release a copycat palette in September 2019.

The brand’s upcoming 40-color product was debuted at Ru Paul’s Dragcon NYC, and showed a strikingly similar color arrangement to Charles’ 39-color Morphe palette – which he made sure to mention in a Tweet on September 7.

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“That’s crazy,” Charles wrote in response to the reveal. “Your ‘NEW’ palette looks extremely similar.”

He wasn’t finished there: the beauty guru went on to “clown” the brand for appearing to copy his product, tacking a series of clown emojis on to the end of his next statement that accused the company of blatantly ripping off the palette.

“There are only so many colors you can put into an eyeshadow palette, and I’m not claiming to ‘own’ specific colors,” Charles continued. “BUT when you copy the exact shades & layout from my palette without even TRYING to hide it…?”

Charles isn’t the only one noting some similarities between the products, either: his fanbase also noticed the issue, calling out Wet ‘N Wild for seeming to “copy paste” the YouTuber’s Morphe collab.

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“Wet ‘N Wild didn’t even try to be subtle,” one user wrote of the drama, uploading a photo comparison of the two palettes.

“It’s literally the same pots, like wouldn’t be surprised if a shade was called James Charles,” another commented. “Like the case is black and everything is in the same place…. at least move things around or something, like what?”

While drugstore brands often create “dupes” of luxury products, this particular palette hit a little too close to home for Charles, who may have teased an upcoming video on the topic – although fans will have to wait for further news on the issue, as Wet ‘N Wild have yet to respond to his callout at the time of writing.