Whether you are a newbie to the beauty community or a seasoned makeup artist, YouTube is where most people go to learn new tips and tricks. You may find yourself captivated by beauty vloggers who are more entertaining than helpful. Fortunately, these NYU students can recommend some vloggers who will help in your pursuit to elevate your beauty game.
Although American beauty vloggers seem to attract the greatest mass of subscribers, there are many Korean YouTubers who have also become a huge hit in the online beauty community. CAS junior Ire Lee’s favorite goes by the name SSIN.
“She’s one of the biggest Korean YouTubers,” he said. “People really love her; I love her too. And she deals a lot with Asian features.”
Lee said that one of the reasons why he leans towards Korean beauty vloggers is that American beauty vloggers do not cater their tutorials toward Asian features.
“The best thing I’ve learned from her is how to do eyeshadow for Asian eyes,” he said. “When I started doing makeup, I first started watching American makeup artists, but every time I tried to do a look, I’d be like, ‘This is not working for me.’”
While SSIN helped Lee improve his makeup skills, he was also drawn to her personality.
“I like her humor,” he said. “She does makeup but while she’s doing it, she’ll talk about her day. It’s more personal.”
Another Korean beauty vlogger that Lee likes is known as Pony, who has over 5 million subscribers on YouTube and even published her own makeup book.
“She’s huge, but her [fan] base is a lot bigger than just Korea,” Lee said. “She also has her own makeup line. I mean, SSIN does too, but her fame has gone beyond Korea.”
As a devout follower of Pony’s beauty vlogs, Lee swears by her talent.
“She’s really good at makeup,” he said. “SSIN is more funny and personable while being good at makeup, but Pony is really, really good at makeup.”
Lee said that when he wants to watch something to purely snag makeup tips or learn new skills, he looks to Pony’s expertise.
“Not only is she good at makeup, but she’s really good at explaining things. And she goes more deeply into detail about the products.”
Although she uses expensive makeup products, Lee recommends her to anyone who is serious about boosting their makeup game.
Ali Andreea is one of Steinhardt senior Camille Lo Bianco’s favorite beauty vloggers. She said that Andreea is very knowledgeable and has helped her greatly improve her makeup skills.
“She has a very — almost scientific approach,” she said. “It’s not like, ‘We’re going to get ready together, and I’m going to show you the products that I use.’ It’s more like, ‘Here’s what you can do on your face, and if you have this face shape, you’re doing this wrong.’’”
Lo Bianco said that Andreea’s videos are the best she has recently watched. She described just a few skills she has learned from her videos.
“Recently, I realized that I’ve contoured my face wrong my whole life,” she said. “[I’ve learned] how you’re supposed to do your brows, and how one look is going to make you look different versus another one.”
While Andreea is an expert at applying makeup, she is also knowledgeable about the background of beauty trends.
“She goes into the history of how certain looks became a thing and why we think things are beautiful — it’s a different kind of beauty video,” Lo Biano said.
CAS junior Sahar Hafezi admitted that she mostly watches Jeffree Star, NikkieTutorials and James Charles, but when she is looking to pick up some new beauty tricks, her “all-time favorite” YouTuber is Sarah Cheung.
“I really like her,” Hafezi said. “Her makeup skills are so amazing. I’m literally watching her every move, and I’m like, ‘How can I look like that?’ She’s so beautiful.”
Hafezi said that she has watched a lot of Cheung’s videos especially to improve her contouring skills.
“It was really hard for me to learn that, and it’s something she really helped me with,” she said. ”I used to not be able to contour my nose without watching someone on a screen. Now, I know what I’m doing, and I can just do it.”
While contouring can be a difficult skill, Hafezi said she was also having a lot of trouble with her eyeliner because of her eye shape. The best trick she said she learned from Cheung is how to draw a wing so that it doesn’t smudge above her eyelid.
“I do that [technique] religiously now,” she said. “I do it every single day, and that was all Sarah.”
Email Tatiana Velasco at [email protected].
