Makeup YouTubers I Watch (And Ones I Avoid)

Hi, friends!

By popular demand (from zero people), I'm back with another makeup topic! Today, I want to talk about my favorite "beauty gurus" and the ones I dislike for various reasons. Hopefully my thoughts about these channels will help you decide whether or not to add them to your subscriptions if you're the kind of person who has an interest in makeup videos.

The Favorites:

JAMBeauty89 / Jessica Braun

Jessica's videos are mostly reviews, declutters, and trying new things. She doesn't resort to clickbait, she always makes it clear when things are sponsored, and she uses a lot of drugstore products. She also isn't afraid of speaking honestly about things she doesn't like, even if her honesty gets her kicked off of the PR lists of certain brands. Even better, she posted a video recently talking all about sponsorships and how that stuff works. She said she's planning on doing more videos about the things happening behind the scenes, and I really love that openness.
She adores all things Disney and remains humble and normal despite getting fancy packages of free makeup sent to her regularly. She used to be a teacher (before having a baby), so she's able to articulate her thoughts nicely.
There are some things about her channel that I'm not a fan of. Her makeup looks are usually basically identical (shimmery brownish eyeshadow, simple liner, medium pink lipstick). Since having her baby, she now has intermittent videos about baby-related stuff and has started posting more vlog-type videos, despite the fact that her husband's channel is devoted entirely to vlogs. It's her channel and she can do what she wants with it, but personally, I'm here for the makeup and really don't care about anything to do with babies or "day in the life" videos. If I wanted to see that, I'd go watch her husband's vlog channel.

RachhLoves

Rachel is the most bubbly and energetic of all the makeup channels I follow. She can be a little overwhelming at first, but she grew on me quickly and now I love her enthusiasm. Also, she never squeals or yells, which I really appreciate.

She does a lot of reviews and try-ons, with declutters and challenges thrown in sometimes. She does have videos of trying recipes, doing Pinterest hacks, cleaning her house, and talking about mom stuff, but she has a second channel for those things! Her main channel is 99% makeup, which I think is really considerate of her. She uses makeup from all price ranges and doesn't seem to have any sort of bias one way or the other.

One of my favorite non-beauty things about her is that she doesn't show her two children in her pictures or videos because she wants them to have privacy. They aren't old enough to fully understand what it means to be in a video viewed by a hundred thousand people. She had her daughter pick out her makeup when the "My _____ chooses my makeup!" challenge was big, but it happened before the video started and Rachel simply shared little Julia's thoughts and reasoning behind the products she chose. That kept in the adorable factor without exposing Julia to the weirdness lurking on the internet.

Her eyeshadow is usually at least somewhat colorful and she isn't afraid of unconventional lipstick colors. She also doesn't always use eyeliner or false lashes, which is a breath of fresh air in a beauty community so obsessed with enormous falsies and dramatic eyeliner wings. She actually only started using false lashes recently(ish) when she found a certain pair that I don't remember the name of. I think they were partial lashes instead of being designed to go across your whole eye, which made them easier for her to use, and that helped her start getting more into them. This was also at least a few months ago, so I could be remembering things incorrectly.

Zabrena

The queen of purple eyeshadow! I love Zabrena for a lot of reasons. She posts frequently about drugstore makeup; she's done Save Money September and Drugstore December in the past as well as her regular Frugal Fridays series. She also has some super expensive stuff, but that doesn't stop her from loving the really affordable things.

Something she's known for is her Historically Accurate series. She goes into detail about products, techniques, and trends from various times in history and puts a lot of effort into her research.

She is rarely seen without false lashes (and even has her own lash brand!), but she also has great technique with her eyeshadow. It seems like some beauty gurus use falsies to cover up their less-than-great eyeshadow sometimes. Not so with Zabrena! She posted a video a few weeks ago of a real-time application of eyeshadow so that her viewers could see the exact steps happening since almost all tutorials cut out chunks of the process to save time.

She loves using purples and turquoise, which look awesome with her ginger hair. She tends to stick with peachy lip colors and occasionally ventures into darker options.

Like Rachel, Zabrena keeps her two children out of the spotlight. She did a handful of pregnancy vlogs to keep interested viewers updated but didn't let it detract too much from her normal content. I think I've only seen maybe three pictures of her son and two of her new daughter. It's wonderful to see people respecting the privacy of their young ones, especially in the age of "Kaiyson is having the hardest time with potty training, let me tell you about it in detail!! Here are twenty identical pictures of McKartni in the bath!!"

Jen Luvs Reviews

Jen has a daily series of one-minute news updates sharing product releases, sales, controversies, and other current events in the makeup world. She also posts reviews (obviously) and helpful things like what you can learn from a swatch and proof that e.l.f. primers are not lying about how much they contain. She knows a lot about ingredients and the science behind makeup, like the difference between an eyeshadow and a pressed pigment. I think she also does weekly live streams where she chats with viewers as she puts on makeup, but I haven't watched any of those.

From what I've seen, she's level-headed and speaks her mind clearly. I only found her a few months ago and don't watch very many of her videos, but I trust her opinions. She seems to know what she's talking about.

Also, her voice sounds a lot like Elastigirl, which is neat.

So Far, So Good:

Angelica Nyqvist

I just found her channel a few days ago and I already want to be friends with her. She loves playing with color, has a fantastic accent, and isn't afraid to be sassy. Still haven't figured out how to say her last name, though.

Drugstore Maven

She hasn't posted anything in a long time, unfortunately. Her videos are focused on — you guessed it — drugstore products. I found her channel right before her hiatus (?) began and haven't gone back to watch her older videos yet. She seems like a really sweet, sensible lady.

Kayla Hagey

The first video of hers that I ever found was her cat choosing which products she'd use. That alone was enough to get me interested in her channel. She uses a lot of colorful eyeshadow palettes and does tutorials for costumes when Halloween is approaching. She's another channel I found not too long ago and she doesn't upload super frequently, but I've enjoyed the content I've seen so far.

Ehhh... :

Wayne Goss

He's very skilled and mostly focuses on technique videos. Also, I love his accent. I've mostly put him in this category because his videos tend to be very clickbaity. He also pretty much only uses expensive stuff, so I don't really pay attention to his recommendations for specific products. I'm sure that $32 mascara he loves is very nice, but I'll be sticking to mascaras that cost $10 or less, thanks.

EmilyNoel83

She talks about drugstore products pretty frequently and gets semi-creative with her eyeshadow looks. I wish she'd upload her vlogs to a second channel, because of her last ten videos (as of writing this), three have been vlogs. Not to be rude, but I really don't care about her going to see Peppa Pig live with her kids or doing meal prepping.

A big reason she got put in this category is that she was involved in a small bit of drama a little while ago. She collaborated with Makeup Revolution to release two palettes. Tati (see below) wasn't a fan of one of the palettes and said negative things about it in a video. There was some sort of quality control issue with that palette and it's possible that Tati just got one from a bad batch, but Emily's fans basically attacked Tati for her review. Emily didn't do much to get her fans to behave and I think she made a comment on some other review of her palettes that made some people upset. I'm not sure of all the details, but I don't particularly like how she handled her fans using personal attacks on someone simply because she had a bad experience with the palette.

Tati

She gives first impressions of a lot of new products but doesn't do very many true reviews. She uses clickbait pretty frequently, seems to be biased against drugstore products because of their price at times, and has been involved in a few controversies over the years. When comments get too critical, she's been known to remove comments, block commenters, and even turn comments off on certain videos. She's pretty dramatic overall, honestly. On the bright side, she's occasionally entertaining and helpful.

She launched her own brand of hair, skin, and nail vitamins a while ago and loves to plug it frequently. That wouldn't be an issue except that she's leading her subscribers to believe that her absurdly expensive biotin is what's making her look the way she looks, when in reality, she's had work done on her face, has hair extensions, and most likely uses filters on her videos to make things look better than they are.

One of the biggest issues I have with her is that she's really hard to relate to. The four women I mentioned in my favorites category all live somewhat normal lives in Indiana, Canada, Georgia, and Maryland. Tati, on the other hand, lives in Los Angeles and has very expensive tastes. For example, she bought a clear lip gloss from Louboutin that was $85 and simply gave it to her sister when she decided she didn't like it. If I ever lost my mind and bought a plain lip gloss that costs more than a new AAA video game, I doubt I'd be that casual about it.

NikkieTutorials

She's got a ton of skill, but her overall look is a bit too much for my tastes. Intensely opaque foundation and blinding highlight just don't look good in real life. She was one of the first makeup people I ever found. I unsubscribed pretty soon afterwards, though. Lots of clickbait and not very many videos I was actually interested in.

It's A No From Me, Dawg:

In general, most of these people are in this category because of personality issues and drama. Also, it's hard to relate to someone who wears several thousand dollars' worth of Cartier jewelry on a single appendage, has a closet full of Louboutin shoes, and/or owns so many designer purses that their collection looks like what you'd see if you walked into a Neiman Marcus store. I won't be linking their channels like I did for the members of the previous categories.

Jeffree Star

If I had to name the two most controversial people in the makeup world, it would be Jeffree and Kat Von D. Whether or not he's still racist, I'm not sure, but I've never liked him very much. He's crude and ridiculously extravagant. He always seems to be part of some sort of drama and it's dizzying to try to keep up with who he is or isn't friends with. I've heard good things about his line of makeup products, but I wouldn't feel comfortable buying them even if they were less expensive.

Laura Lee

Her voice is one of the most obnoxious sounds I've ever forced upon my ears. Her intro song drives me nuts. Also, it's con-SEAL-er, not con-SILL-er. 

Petty things aside, she's whiny, dramatic, and self-centered. When she was called out for racist things she tweeted in the past, she made the most ridiculous "apology" video that I know of, which has since been deleted (and parodied and memed). I'm not sure which was less authentic, her tears or her apology.

MannyMUA

Manny is another beautuber who gets into drama somewhat often. He used to be good friends with Jeffree and Laura and then I guess something happened and I think they all hate each other now. Whatever.

He's skilled and does a lot of pretty looks, but I'd rather watch someone with a personality that I like.

James Charles

Nope. The way he talks is painful to listen to. His makeup style is just... too much. His nose contour and highlight and fake freckles are the exact kinds of things I hate about stereotypical Instagram makeup. His personality is also really grating to me. I know he's young and everything, but he comes across as an obnoxious brat. Sister spoiled!!

Jaclyn Hill

I haven't actually watched any of her videos because I have no desire to. Maybe I'm wrong about her, but from what I've heard, she basically only posts these days when she wants to sell you something from Morphe. Her lifestyle and drama aren't things I have any interest in. She seems really out-of-touch with reality. I also automatically distrust anyone who works with or actively promotes Morphe because I don't think I've ever heard anyone praise Morphe without also reminding viewers to use their code for a discount.

Oh, and she has an orange eyeshadow in one of her newest Morphe palettes named "Agent." I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't consider Agent Orange to be a positive thing.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about various YouTube makeup people. If there are ~influencers~ (ugh) you think I'd like based on this, let me know!

Love,

Lizzie