Beauty YouTuber


A beauty YouTuber, commonly referred to as a "beauty vlogger", "beauty guru", "beauty influencer," or "Beautuber", is a person who creates and posts videos to YouTube about cosmetics, fashion, hair-styling, nail art, and other beauty-related topics. As of 2016, there were more than 5.3 million beauty videos on YouTube, and 86 percent of the top 200 beauty videos were made by beauty vloggers as opposed to beauty brands.

Background and trend

In the YouTube beauty community, there are more than 45,000 YouTube channels specializing in fashion and beauty-related content, videos include makeup tutorials, cosmetic/skincare hauls, recommendations etc. Each month, over 50 million people watch over 1.6 billion minutes of consumer-created fashion and beauty videos on YouTube.
An early pioneer was Michelle Phan, who joined YouTube in 2006. Since 2006, there have been over 14.6 billion views on beauty-related videos, with an average of 700 million views per month in 2013. In 2015, 45.3 billion views on these YouTube videos were recorded and more than 10 million total beauty subscriber-ships. And the biggest audiences of YouTube beauty community are teenage girls who act as "prosumers" by creating and consuming content themselves. In the United Kingdom, beauty vlogging is a rapidly-growing industry that attracts 700 million hits per month also noting that two-fifths of British women are viewing online beauty tutorials.

Professional and amateur YouTubers

Some beauty vloggers change their career in the online beauty industry and earn an income by utilizing their channels as a way to branch out and utilize it for business purposes, also executed through collaborating with cosmetic and/or clothing brands to launch new products, while other YouTubers choose to abide to the simple uploading of videos as a hobby. Generally, whether these YouTubers choose to use their channel as a gateway into creating a name for themselves or as a personal hobby, beauty-related videos generally fall into the following categories: product reviews, makeup tutorials, hauls and personality clips.
Within these categories, beauty YouTubers provide viewers with life advice while disclosing stories about personal experiences, share their positive and negative encounters with certain beauty products through trial-and-error, and demonstrate how to perform particular techniques in order to achieve specific makeup looks. While issuing this large amount of information, these channels also provide a forum for feedback. According to the article journal of University of Calgary, one of the most “popular” category of video is “Get Ready With Me"'s. These videos showcase how beauty YouTubers get ready for certain occasions going on in their day-to-day life and their daily rituals, whether it be a trip to the mall, special event, or even to just to go to bed.
Besides creating videos, beauty YouTubers typically take part in media events such as "BeautyCon Festivals, an annual beauty festival for brands and Internet celebrities, and Vidcon, a conference featuring YouTube stars, brands and media companies.
The impact that beauty vloggers have had on social media can especially be seen in the magazine world. Just last year, Linda Wells, the founding editor of Allure Magazine, was replaced by a younger editor who was seen as more tech savvy and more in touch with the online presence of beauty vloggers. Michelle Lee, the former editor of Nylon and the current editor in chief of Allure, has said that although there was "animosity" towards beauty vloggers in the magazine world at first, she decided to utilize their voices instead. This was a pivotal decision considering beauty vloggers have a way larger influence than beauty editors do in today's times. This change shows that technology is far surpassing paper sales when it comes to the beauty world. Consumers will sooner log onto YouTube and watch a beauty tutorial than they would open up a magazine and view an article on the same topic. The only way that the magazines are able to keep up is by collaborating with the beauty vloggers. Michelle Lee shows that she has embraced the change by working with the beauty vloggers rather than rejecting them, as many of her rival magazine editors have.

Video styles and equipment

Through these vloggers' YouTube channels, various playlists can be found where all beauty-related content is divided into specific subcategories in respect to its distinct features. These subcategories include but are not limited to:
Beauty YouTubers adopt a casual, friendly tone as they implement a face-to-face approach in their videos, featuring the vlogger seated in front of and speaking to the camera, creating the impression their viewers are sitting across from them. This method is communicative by enacting a realistic interaction with viewers.
The medium does not require much in the way of expensive equipment or technological proficiency compared to traditional media. The most basic videos require only a computer with a webcam, an Internet connection, and basic editing software such as iMovie. The accessibility of the means to produce a vlog has contributed to the popularity and widespread production of videos in this format.

Notable beauty YouTubers

As of July 2019, the most subscribed beauty YouTuber in the world was Mexico's Mariand Castrejon Castañeda, popularly known as Yuya. The following table lists the 10 most subscribed beauty and style YouTube channels, including country, language, and subscriber count, as of July 2019.
RankChannel nameCountryLanguageSubscribers
1.YuyaMexicoSpanish24.6
2.James CharlesUnited StatesEnglish20.4
3.jeffreestarUnited StatesEnglish17.5
4.NikkieTutorialsNetherlandsEnglish13.5
5.SaraBeautyCornerNorwayEnglish10.6
6.Bethany MotaUnited StatesEnglish9.96
7.TatiUnited StatesEnglish9.3
8.Michelle PhanUnited StatesEnglish8.89
9.Mari MariaBrazilPortuguese9.25
10.Antonio GarzaUnited StatesEnglish3.65

In April 2017, Forbes magazine released its list of "Top Influencers" in social media for 2017. The following table lists the top 10 beauty "influencers," including country, as chosen by Forbes. Combined, these ten YouTubers had over 46.5 million YouTube subscribers.
RankChannel nameCountry
1.ZoellaUnited Kingdom
2.Michelle PhanUnited States
3.Huda KattanUnited Arab Emirates
4.NikkieTutorialsNetherlands
5.Shannon HarrisNew Zealand
6.Jeffree StarUnited States
7.Kandee JohnsonUnited States
8.Manny MUAUnited States
9.Christen DominiqueUnited States
10.Wayne GossUnited Kingdom

The Shorty Awards have honored several beauty YouTubers in the "YouTube Guru" category. The award went to Michelle Phan in 2015; British YouTuber Louise Pentland, popularly known as Sprinkle of Glitter, in 2016; and NikkieTutorials in 2017.