Blingee, the classic site that let you add glitter and joints to your photos, is shutting down

Blingee, the free image editing site famous for allowing users to add pixelated glitter and dancing Snoop Dog GIFs to their photos, is shutting down on Aug. 25, the site’s team announced yesterday.

The site, which has existed since 2006, announced the plans to shut down later this month on an announcement jointly posted to the main page of the site and in a forum thread titled “Sunsetting Blingee.”

There isn’t much information to be had in the announcement, which offers instructions on how to download Blingees before the shutdown, and urges users to do so before the site closes shop.

An update to the announcement posted to the forum cited “several events on the business and technical sides” of the site that made continuing to operate “no longer sustainable.”

Michael Karp, who works at Picadelic, the company that operates Blingee, reiterated via email that “The primary reason for our decision is financial – the site is no longer profitable.” He added that, “We’re a very small team and, given Blingee’s current economics, chose to focus on our mobile app.” The app in question is called FxGuru, which allows users to add graphics to videos.

The announcement was met with surprise and dismay by many of the sites loyal users, who took to the forum to voice their confusion. Many asked if there was anything they could do to help keep the site alive, including suggesting premium memberships. However, a message sent to one user by a site administrator noted that they’d considered this but found it wasn’t feasible.

Other users simply mourned. One posted, “No, it’s impossible! please no :'(…,” while another, reflecting the sentiments of many longtime users, posted “I’m so sad to see Blingee go. I’ve met so many wonderful people here and enjoyed creating. I would pay a monthly fee to keep it going, even though I have not been very active the past few years. I’m really going to miss Blingee.”

Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]