Erika Jayne's house of cards is crashing down — fast. After months of insisting that she was not party to her estranged husband's, Tom Girardi, alleged fraud, Erika might have to pay up. On July 6, a judge ruled that Girardi's former clients currently suing him for fraud could try to collect their settlements from Erika. In other words, her finances and assets could be up for grabs. You'd think she'd have to cut down on some expenses, like her $40,000 per month glam squad, but it turns out the status of Erika Jayne's glam squad is as murky as ever.
After Erika was pictured getting gas in sweats and no makeup in late June, The Sun claimed that Erika had been forced to say goodbye to her glam squad. However, the report was never confirmed, so it looks like we're going to have to figure this one out the old fashioned way: Instagram stalking.
Based on social media, it certainly looks like she's been dropping cash to live her "XXpen$ive" lifestyle while a judge found that three of her husband's alleged victims — they claim Girardi cheated them out of millions of dollars in legal settlements — could go to Erika to try to recoup their $11 million settlement. Her Instagram activity, which is sporadic, but not infrequent, suggests that she's still regularly getting her hair and makeup done privately — something that, according to a 2016 Harper's Bazaar, can cost at least $1,500 an hour. Take her most recent glam shot, posted on June 30:
The long, healthy-looking hair, the perfect contour, the brows, all seem to suggest she had some professional help putting the look together. On the surface, it looks like she had glam done on or around the time of the post. However, there is one red flag: no one is tagged in the pic. Not a make-up artist, not a hairstylist, a stylist, a photographer — no one. Erika Jayne is many things, but there's rarely a photo on her feed that doesn't give credit to her team. Maybe this was an oversight, or maybe this is actually an old photo from a glam look past. It could really be either, so, let's take another look back.
One of her other most recent glam posts was on May 17, when Erika shared her look for the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Now, we know that this event took place on May 16, which means she definitely took these pics on that date and she definitely had a glam squad that day, which she tagged in the photo. Hairstylist Rikke Gajda, stylist Dani Michelle, stylist Laia, make-up artist Hrush Achemyan, and her longtime creative director Mikey Minden (who has appeared on RHOBH before) were all tagged.
It's unclear which of these artists would be on Erika's regular glam squad. Minden has been working with her for years, and Michelle Laia also seem to be frequent collaborators (Laia's last two Instagram posts show off her makeup and hair work on Erika, with her most recent post shared on May 11.) Some of these people also seem to have worked with Erika to create her Real Housewives confessional looks, meaning they had previously established relationships with her, so they could have negotiated a fee that was less to do with cash, and more to do with trading influence. For example, a week after the MTV event, Erika appeared on Hrush's YouTube channel in a video counting down her Top 40 products. I'm not saying that she did this in exchange for an entire makeup session, but it is possible that this was part of a negotiation behind the scenes. You gotta work with what you got, and one thing Erika definitely has right now is followers.
So, what does this mean for her glam squad? Well, at the very least she still employs a glam squad somewhat regularly for events and photo shoots, but on a daily basis? It doesn't look like it. Even Minden, her most loyal stylist, seems to be working with her on a more limited basis. His last post featuring Erika was on April 20, when he shared a campaign they shot as part of Erika's ambassador deal with Savage X Fenty — a deal that is no longer in effect. And, with the way things are going for her legally, it doesn't look like Erika will be getting a lot more spon con that might require a full team.
My best guess is that Erika doesn't employ the same regular glam squad full-time, as she might have in the past, and just calls on special occasions. We'll probably never know for sure, though Erika was recently ordered to turn over her financial documents to the court in regards to the claims of embezzlement against her and her husband, and you never know what could be revealed.
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Image: Bravo/YouTube