James Charles & Manny MUA appear to shade Alicia Keys over makeup line

Beauty influencers James Charles and Manny MUA have thrown some serious Twitter shade targeting celebs ‘who don’t wear makeup’ but launch their own beauty brands. People are convinced it was a dig at Alicia Keys, who has just launched a line with E.L.F.

James Charles and Manny MUA are no strangers to social media drama. Both of them became wrapped up in Tati Westbrook’s hair gummy drama of 2019, and saw an enormous loss in subscribers as a result.

Despite an apparent effort to stay out of the drama, fans were sent into a frenzy when the stars sent vague tweets complaining about ‘people who don’t wear makeup’ diving into the beauty industry.

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“Does anyone else get slightly irritated when celebs come out with entire makeup lines? Especially when those celebs don’t even wear makeup” Manny wrote.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhlKDHnlvO/

James follows in a similar vein, in now-deleted tweets: “People who do not wear makeup should not be coming out with makeup brands but that’s just my opinion.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhncZqn2mr/

Recent years have seen many influencers and celebrities hopping into the hugely profitable beauty industry, including TikTok sibling sensations Charli and Dixie D’Amelio.

Fans were quick to speculate. Many considered James and Manny’s tweets to be in direct reference to the D’Amelio’s recent collab with Morphe.

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James shut this down very quickly. He announced that he’d “reworded the original tweet” because “people assumed I was shading my own friends.” This seemed to be to protect his recently blossoming friendship with the sisters.

How is Alicia Keys involved?

Speculation then moved to singer Alicia Keys, who has previously been open about her active decision to go makeup-free. She announced a “lifestyle beauty brand” with makeup company E.L.F shortly before James and Manny’s tweets.

Manny followed up by suggesting that “if you’re known for makeup” it’s acceptable to venture into the beauty business. However, he also notes that being the face of something is different to having your own brand.

While it doesn’t appear that either of the two influencers have mentioned Alicia by name, for some fans it seems far too coincidental that the launch announcement and twitter shade happened on the same day.