Kim Kardashian slammed for defending YouTube star with racist past

Not even her contour powder kit can cover up Kim Kardashian's latest social media controversy.

The 36-year-old makeup entrepreneur and reality star came under fire Monday after she defended controversial makeup artist and YouTube guru Jeffree Star, 31. The YouTuber, who is white, has divided the beauty community over his past use of the N word and other racial epithets against people of colour in years-old videos that have resurfaced online.

Earlier that day, Jeffree, who has worked with Kim in the past, tweeted that swatches of Kim's new powder contour makeup kits looked "like chalk" after she shared swatches of KKW Beauty's latest launch.

The tweet triggered fans to flood Kim's social media and demanding answers about the apparent quality of the kits, which go on sale next week. "You’re stressing me the f--kout," she told fans in one clip about her self-proclaimed "struggle swatches".

She continued: "Okay guys, I get it, I didn’t know how to f---ing swatch powders before at the beginning. I’m learning."

Kim, while having her makeup done during a photo shoot, then proceeded to fire off two more Snapchat clips where she defended Jeffree and asked fans to move from his checkered past.

"I get that it’s a serious deal if you say like racial things but I do believe in people changing and people that apologize, I will give them the benefit of the doubt," she said. "I know better than anyone that I hate when people bring up my past or mistakes that I’ve made in the past so like, let him life. I welcome honest comments about my products and because of it, I’m swatching better now."

"Just enough, don't bring it up anymore," she said in another clip. "People want to forget the negative things they do in the past, and I do, too."

Kim asks fans to "move on" from Jeffree's checkered past. Images: Getty

But the Internet was not here for Kim's apparent sympathy and swiftly admonished the reality star.

"Her husband is BLACK and she has TWO BIRACIAL children if someone was to be racist towards them they should just get over it right?" wrote one commenter.

"Girl you are so out of touch and should be ashamed of yourself," wrote another.

Added another: "She's clueless."

"Can you imagine thinking you're SO important that you can say sh-t like this and not only believe it, but expect people to take it well?" added another dissenter.

The fallout led Kim to issue an apology, in which she admitted she had been "naïve", on Snapchat Tuesday.

"So I really wanted to apologize to you guys and my fans for defending a situation yesterday that I really didn’t know enough about," said Kim, this time completely bare-faced and laying in bed. "I just feel a bit naïve, and I do want to really apologize for me feeling like I had the right to say ‘get over it’ in a situation that involves racism."

"I just don’t really feel like I have the right to speak on that, and I really, really, really am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I’ve always been about positivity and I’ve never been a negative person, so my whole thing was: 'Hey guys, I don’t want to see negativity in my timeline or my mentions, let’s just move forward — let’s be positive and move past this.'"