I couldn’t have been the only girl waiting patiently for my favorite Youtubers to upload their weekly haul, tutorial, room tour, etc. From the early 2000’s until now, the community on Youtube known as “Beauty Gurus” has evolved significantly into content we still see today. Through drama, relationships, brand deals and apology videos these creators gained a following and I, for one, was all about it. I was hardly even old enough to wear makeup when I discovered this kind of content, and I was always entranced by the overconsumption and scandals between creators. I thought it would be interesting to deep dive into this phenomenon and its evolution.
The rise
On December 15, 2005, Youtube as a platform was released to a young internet audience that had no clue what it would be. At first, the content on Youtube was mainly music videos and small family-related channels sharing things with their close friends. However, after a few years creators like Jefferee Star, Bethany Mota, and Michelle Phan started posting beauty-related content. Michelle Phan is most credited for being the very first to start this trend, with her first video titled “Natural Looking Makeup Tutorial” coming out on May 20, 2007.
This short 7 minute clip is nothing like the extravagant makeup tutorials seen in beauty Youtube’s heyday a few years following Phan’s first upload. From 2007 until around 2011, creators built fanbases and experimented with different types of content. Videos of this time were often filmed on computers, webcams, and occasionally cell phones. In the beauty community, the platform was extremely informal and used to give others helpful beauty tips and connect with viewers. As viewership increased, the intentions behind making these types of videos changed and became more about gaining notoriety and profit. Production became more important and creators adopted things like backdrops, ring lights, and amateur iMovie editing. Looking back on this now it seems underproduced compared to what Youtube is now, but even this small upgrade was a huge evolution in the bigger picture.
Within just a few years, there were more beauty creators than when Phan made her first upload and there was a shift in the standard of content that came with this boost. Not only did production value go up, but also creators were making the process of putting on makeup more intensive. Although the videos were initially about the product or tutorial, it became about the personality of the individual over time. Especially before sponsorships being commonplace, the beauty community was about trusting in what your favorite creator had to say which is the foundation of influencer marketing. This is the key turning point in content creation happening at the time, with viewers seeking out certain creators tutorias rather than just looking up “Smokey Eye Tutorial”- and brands soon learned to capitalize off of this.
These creators had the ability to share their personal lives with their audience as they did their makeup and created a loyal fanbase by doing so. Additionally, creators like Jeffree Star and Gigi Gorgeous broke gender barriers in social media through their love and knowledge of makeup, inspiring people who potentially did not feel empowered enough to do their makeup. All of these factors combined created the foundation of people finding community for both the viewers and the creators on Youtube.
Personally, before I even wore makeup I watched these videos because they were an expression of femininity and adulthood that I was fascinated with. I watched these young women, anywhere between 15 and 30 years old, talking about themselves and what they liked in order to cue me to what I should be interested in. And this is how the beauty community took off so rapidly, and how most of these creators are still making content today in some capacity.
The Peak
With that background information, I’m sure most people who were on the internet in 2016 will remember the crazy style of makeup at the time. The short, informative, and personal videos displayed by creators quickly became highly performative with the advent of making money off of Youtube. The world of PR and sponsorships got their hands on beauty content and completely transformed it. As people were profiting off their videos, the ring lights came out and the drama was turned up to 100. People were clearly inspired by drag makeup with heavy foundations and bold eyeshadow looks with a huge emphasis on completely changing the way an individual looks. A lot of these creators just wanted a place they could be themselves and express what they products they liked and their overall passion for makeup. A great example of this technique is an iconic video by popular creator Nikki Tutorials entitled “The Power of Makeup”. Currently, this video sits at 42 million views and for good reason. Nikki and many other creators received a lot of backlash for their heavy looks and overconsumption of products. Some criticisms were valid, however some were rooted in deep misogyny which is what she addresses in this video.
As you can see even from the thumbnail, 2015/2016 makeup was extremely exaggerated and almost campy. A lot of makeup artists found comfort in makeup, and felt they were able to escape whatever they were going through when they sat down to film. In just a few years, the production of Youtube videos became so much more elaborate than they had been in 2012. The sound, camera, and light quality are all tenfold of that in Phan’s original video and it had only been about 6-7 years.
As the production value increased, Youtubers received tons of free products when brands released new collections with the hopes of getting placed in their videos, which at the time were racking up millions of views. This resulted in a lot of videos promoting conspicuous consumption, or the overconsumption of products to indicate to others that you’re wealthy. The term has been around for hundreds of years, but became incredibly popular in our new fast-paced era of consumption in all its forms. Consumption in this context, however, refers to overspending/over accumulating products for the sake of saying you have them or for the ability to show them off. An example of putting conspicuous consumption on display would be the increasingly popular “makeup collection” videos of the time. And through these videos, creators then promoted this overconsumption to their young viewers. Having one eyeshadow pallet wasn’t enough when a new one attached to your favorite creators name was being released next month, which you had to have in order to prove to everyone else that you had the means to get whatever you wanted. Simply subscribing to creators was free and supported them, but many fans were dedicated enough to show their monetary support to their favorite Youtubers. The connection they had established to their viewers over years is what allowed the creators to have makeup collections with popular brands, or others going as far as creating their own makeup brand.
This trend doesn’t just apply to beauty Youtube, especially today, but it is a prime example of how overconsumption spreads though social networks. Beauty creators were often judged for perpetuating dysfunctional ideas about beauty, but in my opinion a lot of them emphasized the process being their favorite part, not the transformation. Not to say their drastic changes in appearance didn’t harm young viewers, but I believe that the true issue with these videos is the consumption of it all rather than the before and after. So, while Nikki’s video and others promote self love and acceptance through the art of makeup, they also promote over spending in order to match these Youtuber’s makeup collections which the creators received mainly for free.
On top of that, creators became even more personal with their fans, creating rivalries between fans as drama kicked up. At this time, it felt like every other week there was a new story about who was fighting online and why. To me, this marks the start of what we consider today to be “cancel culture” with a few creators having unfavorable past tweets resurface, and others simply having negative experiences with other Youtubers go public. Fast forwarding a bit to 2019 towards the end of Youtube’s reign on the internet, the most iconic Youtube drama of all time: Tati Westbrook and James Charles.
For context, ever since being an “internet personality” or “influencer” became popular, people were fighting with one another publicly and attempting to tear each other down. Although not the first or last drama, in my opinion the fight between these creators was the most memorable and was even given a name after the title of Tati’s (now deleted) original video called “Bye Sister”. If you’re familiar with James Charles you know this is a spin on his popular greeting to his fans said at the beginning of every video- Hi Sisters. James Charles rose to fame making videos for his Youtube in 2016, causing him to be named the first male spokesperson for the brand Covergirl. James absolutely took over the internet, generating millions of followers and relationships with other Youtubers as “collabs” were popular at this time. Youtubers would meet up and film videos together, hoping to amass more views and subscribers to their channels by crossing audiences with other creators. Tati Westbrook was a foundational creator on the platform who took a 17 year old James under her wing to support and counsel him on being a popular figure on the internet and how to deal with the changes he went through. They would film countless videos together, growing both of their followings and their sort of mother-son relationship. However, things took a turn at Coachella 2019.
At Coachella, it has become a big deal for influencers and celebrities to post pictures of their Coachella outfits, often planning them months in advance to please their followings. In order to get to the festival, many creators are sponsored by brands who would pay for their special passes to avoid getting mobbed by fans and in exchange they would promote the brand’s products. That year, James only had a VIP pass, not giving him the same security that other people with higher passes had and he felt unsafe throughout his time at the festival. To remedy this, he had a friend there with a hair supplement company called Sugarbear Hair get him a pass with them in order to have better security. However, James affiliation with Sugarbear Hair was in conflict with Tatis own hair vitamin line and Tati took the move very personally. So, she released her infamous “Bye Sister” video calling James out not only for his betrayal, but also for his apparently “inappropriate” behavior regarding his sexuality. Tati claimed that James made her frequently uncomfortable for no apparent reason besides his sexuality, and although she paints him to be a predator in her video his response debunks the claims against his personality.
All of this explanation is to say that the social dynamics created between creators in this era is what kept most people relevant, although some were never able to truly come back from scandals of their past. From 2014 to 2019 is what I consider the heyday of Youtube for content creators. Long-form content was at its peak with some tutorials and hauls being anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes. Youtubers had full creativity over the content they posted before our current age of over demonization of creators. During the height of beauty guru popularity on Youtube, people built careers as easily as they lost them. However, the ones who lasted managed to stick around for the new type of internet fame: TikTok.
The (Sort of) Fall
The idea of being internet famous didn’t end with the Bye Sister drama, or any popular creators being cancelled. In fact it didn’t end at all and was instead reinvented in short-form content on TikTok. The ring lights, long hours editing, and the production of it all never went away, but the videos became shorter and internet culture became overall more vicious. Youtube had its moments of widespread hate, and every video could find a hate comment or two, but this was all amplified through TikTok. Rather than finding a dozen hate comments on a video, you’d find all of the comments completely tearing apart every word the person in the video said. And this isn’t only on specific videos, I feel like these days when I’m scrolling online I open the comments and almost all of the top comments are negative which did not used to be completely true.
Aside from the cancel culture, TikTok brought fame to the most ordinary creators. It didn’t always take a ring light or a network or a plan whatsoever- someone could simply post a day in their life and receive millions of views and thousands of new followers. In general, TikTok took the foundation that Youtubers created over 12 years and amplified it. On Youtube, people followed creators for their personality and their talent for making a funny video, doing a really impressive makeup look, or participating in some kind of challenge. But on TikTok, people gained followings for simply existing.
The rise of the “day in my life” video is a great example of this phenomenon. Tiktokers, mainly young girls 15-25 would post everything they do in a day, promoting their favorite products and habits and putting up a front of a perfect life anybody could have. I mean they are just ordinary girls, right? A lot of these girls are just participating in a greater movement to get followers and validation from strangers online, every post bringing them that much closer to becoming the next Charli D’amelio. They spend their day trying to make the mundane seem extraordinary, turning a Starbucks run into the new must-try order, their pilates class into the next workout class you just have to try, or a night sitting on the couch into a cozy night in using products linked in an Amazon storefront.
This phenomenon has created hundreds of thousands of micro-influencers a new term coined in the last few years to describe those with upwards of 100k loyal followers but not the notoriety of a traditional influencer like Addison Rae. Micro-influencers score minor brand deals and a few free products, often starting podcasts and other ventures to keep their image afloat. The idea of the micro-influencer wasn’t possible before TikTok was bringing hundreds of videos to users through their algorithm each day. People were being inundated with so many posts, not all of which were by popular creators which is what makes the platform so different from Youtube.
Similar to Youtube, however, is the influencer marketing done by TikTok influencers as celebrity marketing has become less reliable for brands in the last few years. Viewers would much rather listen to the recommendation of their favorite micro-influencer who goes to university and vlogs her daily life than Kim Kardashian who has no idea what “normal” people enjoy. Additionally, when it comes to product recommendations content is similarly structured around what a regular person might enjoy rather than elaborate makeup tutorials that, realistically, few people recreated. Instead, the rise of brands like Glossier promote a much more clean, refined way of creating a makeup tutorial and recommending products.
However, none of these categories of internet creators would exist without their foundation in beauty content on Youtube. I believe that Youtube as a whole, but specifically this content, created the atmosphere that allows influencers to be so popular today. Without getting so hooked on Youtube drama in 2017, users wouldn’t care about exposing TikTok micro celebrities for unfavorable elements of their past. And so the question now is how positive is this impact? I think all of these communities have been a safe space for those rejected from society to find their people. However, the damage on society and the malleable young minds of 14 year olds inundated all day with images of ideal lives that people don’t truly live seems to outweigh that in my mind. Overall, I find many insular internet communities fascinating in the way they impact all spheres of the internet, even those that haven’t come to be yet.