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Olivia Jade, daughter of Lori Loughlin, dropped by Sephora amid college admissions scandal

Olivia Jade Giannulli, left, is the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin, who is facing charges in a college admissions scandal.
(Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
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Sephora has ended its brand partnership with social-media influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli, the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli, in wake of a college admissions scandal enveloping her and her parents.

Giannulli, who goes by Olivia Jade online, fronted a cosmetics collaboration for the Paris-based cosmetics company that included a bronzer palette.

“After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement to The Times on Thursday.

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And it appears that other brands might be following suit: The web page for her Princess Polly collection is no longer available online. Clothing retailer Lulus said it hasn’t worked with her since August 2018 and has “no plans to do so in the future.” Hewlett-Packard, which had a one-time product campaign with Olivia Jade in 2017, has “removed the content from its properties.”

The Times reached out to all of Jade’s Instagram brand partners. Calvin Klein, Smashbox, and TooFaced declined to comment. Amazon Fashion, Windsor Store, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Smile Direct Club,
Tresemmé and Clinique did not respond to a request for comment.

“We don’t have any current partnerships with Olivia and any past sponsorships were one off last year,” said a rep for the Boohoo clothing company.

FULL COVERAGE: Dozens charged — including Hollywood actresses — in connection with college admissions scheme »

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But in the age of followers and subscribers, the outrage over Olivia Jade’s alleged involvement hasn’t hurt her numbers: On Tuesday, she boasted 1.2 million YouTube subscribers; by Thursday, that number had grown to 1.9 million. She also gained quite a few more followers on her Twitter and Instagram pages in wake of news of the scandal.

It’s the latest backlash against the 19-year-old, who was thrust further into the spotlight after prosecutors unveiled a massive fraud scheme to get children of the wealthy into some of America’s most elite schools.

The Sephora fallout comes as Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Network, announced it is no longer working with Loughlin and has stopped development of all productions involving her that run on its channels.

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Olivia Jade, who has made no secret of her social-media priorities, is a freshman at USC, and her parents are accused of paying mastermind William “Rick” Singer, who has pleaded guilty to multiple charges, to get her and her older sister, Isabella, into the private university, according to court records.

The school said said Wednesday that students who have applied for admission in the current cycle — which is underway for fall enrollment — and are allegedly tied to the scheme will be denied admission.

Will children at center of college admissions scandal pay a price along with their parents? »

Also on Wednesday, Olivia Jade was reported to have spent the day in the Bahamas on the yacht of Rick Caruso, chairman of USC’s board of trustees. According to TMZ, she was spending spring break there with his daughter, her friend Gianna Caruso.

On Tuesday, the day the fraud scheme was announced, Caruso implemented a “zero tolerance” policy regarding the behavior of university employees allegedly involved in the scheme and fired “the alleged wrongdoers.”

Loughlin and Giannulli, the designer behind the Mossimo fashion brand, were arrested in Los Angeles this week and face charges including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for allegedly agreeing to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team even though they did not participate in the sport.

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Dozens of people have been charged in the case, and a class-action lawsuit has been filed against UCLA, USC and Yale.

Times staff writer Amy Kaufman contributed to this report.

Follow me: @NardineSaad

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