Kori King has sparked a viral reaction among RuPaul's Drag Race fans after transforming into beauty influencer Jeffree Star in an uncanny drag look that has circulated on Instagram. The Season 17 contestant's interpretation of the internet personality prompted thousands of reactions and a wave of comments. Viewers discussed the resemblance and the deliberately unsettling details of the transformation.
The look was shared in the r/rupaulsdragrace subreddit on Tuesday, 6 October, where the post attracted thousands of upvotes. Some users described the result as both impressive and unnerving. It is another example of King's interest in exaggerated celebrity impersonations, a style that has helped establish her presence beyond the reality competition series.
Jeffree Star Transformation
King originally posted the look on her official Instagram page with the caption: 'No I'm not poor, so what my makeup brand is in dollar tree, I'm getting galaxies on TikTok live and yall goes are mad!' The Reddit discussion quickly gained momentum, with users reacting to the resemblance and the unusual details of the makeup and styling.
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One commenter joked that Star would block King immediately, while another suggested that such a response would be a positive outcome. Some Reddit users also singled out the hands as particularly unsettling, comparing their grey appearance to the exaggerated effects of a horror film. Other reactions focused on the transformation's eerie quality.
Celebrity Impersonations
King competed Season 17 of RuPaul's Drag Race. She has developed a following through comedic performances and character transformations. Her Jeffree Star interpretation follows a pattern of using recognisable figures as the basis for highly stylised looks.
According to Entertainment Weekly, King has impersonated Michael Jackson, appearing in character on the red carpet at the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards. She wore a red dress shirt and black hat inspired by the singer's early 1990s style.
King has also performed impressions of animated characters, including Lois Griffin from Family Guy, the Cat in the Hat and the Lorax. Her online content has helped her extend her reach beyond the television competition.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in January 2025, King described drag as a vehicle for her social media content, explaining that her personality remains largely the same whether she is in or out of drag. She also expressed a preference for exaggerated, theatrical presentations. That approach is evident in the reception of her Jeffree Star look, with Reddit users responding to its distinctive appearance rather than treating it as a conventional beauty transformation.
Parodying Jeffree Star
King posted a series of TikTok content parodying Star. The posts generated a series of reactions from social media users, mostly from those who said they blocked the controversial Star from their feeds.
King's transformation comes as Star continues to face criticism over his public behaviour and controversial online remarks. The beauty influencer has faced years of backlash over past racist comments, for which he apologised in 2017, and has remained a divisive figure in the online beauty community.
More recently, Star faced renewed criticism in January 2026 after making jokes about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deportation centres during a TikTok livestream. According to Out and Complex, Latino creators criticised the remarks. They argued that immigration enforcement was not an appropriate subject for jokes. Star defended his comments as dark humour and pushed back against criticism in his TikTok comment section.
His livestream behaviour has also become a subject of discussion among TikTok users, some of whom have shared accounts of blocking or being blocked by him. Reddit discussions include users describing being blocked after criticising his content or raising questions during livestreams.
The Beauty Aesthetic
Star rose to prominence through online beauty content and became known for his cosmetics business, Jeffree Star Cosmetics. His signature appearance has included elaborate makeup, sharply defined facial features and colourful hair, making his image recognisable to audiences familiar with internet beauty culture.
King's transformation draws on that recognisability, using drag techniques to exaggerate the visual elements associated with the influencer. The resulting look has generated discussion about the boundary between accurate impersonation and deliberately grotesque characterisation.
