Years ago, only a handful of Black beauty influencers posted content on YouTube. But fortunately, the times have changed. Now, the roster has gotten significantly longer, and OGs like Jackie Aina and Andrea Brooks (better known as AndreasChoice) are joined by names like Monet McMichael and Alissa Ashley. Not only that, but these creators utilize platforms like Instagram and TikTok, too. It’s easier to turn to Black beauty influencers for hair and makeup tutorials, fashion inspiration or advice now than it’s ever been.
Significance of Black beauty influencers
Welcoming Black voices into a space or field means creating opportunities for people of color to share their experiences and address and confront the stereotypes surrounding them. That’s what Black creators in the beauty industry are doing.
Besides helping viewers elevate their beauty game and amassinglarge followings on social media platforms, Black beauty influencers challenge traditional beauty norms, highlight the uniqueness of Black skin tones and hair textures, use their platforms to celebrate Black culture and raise awareness of various social justice issues.
Revolutionizing beauty industry
Black creators have shaken and continue to shake up thebeauty industrymostly by advocating for inclusivity and representation. It isn’t uncommon for these content creators to highlight the need for brands to expand their product ranges, creating options that cater to all skin tones, especially the often-neglected deeper shades.
Popular content creator Jackie Aina is a prime example of a Black beauty creator who used her platform to champion change in the industry. In September 2017,Aina criticized Too Faced’sPeach Perfect Comfort Matte Foundation, declaring the line needed a wider shade range. Through Aina’s broad reach, word of her thoughts on the product got back to Too Faced. In response, the company brought her on board to help create new, more inclusive foundation shades.
Shaping trends and cultures
Unsurprisingly, these content creators play a role in creating and popularizing new styles and beauty practices. They’re calledinfluencers— of course, they influence the public!
Though Black beauty creators share hair and makeup tutorials that can resonate with many viewers, many of their practices blend traditional practices with current trends to create something new or put a unique spin on what someone else popularized.
A few examples of beauty trends that originated from and were popularized by Black culture include acrylic nails, vibrant nail art, tooth gems and brown lip liner. They have also recently played critical roles in the haircare world. People of all races have started taking haircare cues from people of color, adopting practices like sleeping in a bonnet or on a silk pillowcase to protect curls and oiling the scalp to encourage new hair growth.
Notable Black beauty influencers to follow
Nowadays, plenty of Black people are making names for themselves within the online beauty community, and since these creators are on multiple platforms, Black beauty content is fairly accessible.
Here are five Black beauty influencers you should be following.
Jackie Aina
Jackie Ainalaunched her YouTube channel in 2009and has since become one of the most well-known Black beauty influencers on the web. Aina is known for her makeup tutorials and product tutorials, as well as for promoting diversity and inclusivity in the beauty and fashion industries. On her website biography, she calls herself a “bold voice,” and she’s not wrong — Aina has no problemscalling out brands like Tartefor lack of representation.Aina’s work in the beauty and advocacy spaces has earned her several awards and honors, including becoming theNAACP’s first-ever YouTuber of the Yearat the 49th NAACP Image Awards.
Patricia Bright
Patricia Bright is a British Black beauty influencer who has shared hair and makeup tutorials, skincare tips and lifestyle advice with YouTube subscriberssince 2009. Bright, who has inked deals with companies like Dior, Amazon and Coca-Cola, authored a guide to taking control of your future titled “Heart & Hustle” in 2019. She alsolaunched a financial education platform called The Breakthe same year, named to “represent the gap between what you see as a ‘good’ lifestyle and how you plan to actually get there,” she toldForbes.
Nyma Tang
If you know Nyma Tang, you probably met her the same time many others did: through herYouTube series, “The Darkest Shade,”where she reviews brands’ darkest foundation shades to highlight the lack of makeup options for deep skin tones. The South Sudanese-American internet personality has also collaborated with several well-known beauty brands, includingMAC Cosmeticsand Fenty Beauty.
Ellarie
Ellarie’s online career started in 2014 when the makeup artist began sharing her work on Instagram. Motive Cosmetics noticed her, and she decided from there to pursue being a beauty influencer full-time. Some of her most popular videos include her daughter, featuring the two of them doing various beauty-related tutorials, and, as a result, herdaughter has managed to garner a large following, too. From sharing beauty-related videos plus content about her life as a mother, Ellarie has built a large platform that includesa million Instagram followers, overhalf a million YouTube subscribersandover 200,000 TikTok followers.
Monet McMichael
Compared to the other names on this list, Monet McMichael is a relatively new name in the world of Black beauty influencers. She started her self-titled YouTube channel in 2012 at age 12, but she didn’t start gaining notoriety until 2021 when one of her TikTok videos went viral. Now, theRutgers Nursing School graduate’schatty get-ready-with-me videos, day-in-the-life vlogs, and tutorials have earned her millions of followers that McMichael regularly interacts with. Two percent audience engagement is impressive in this industry—yet McMichael interacts with a whopping13% of her followers! She also holds a spot on the2023 Forbes Top Creators listand a host of collaborations with brands like MAC Cosmetics and Bumble.
The future of Black beauty influencers
Because of the advocacy efforts of Black beauty influencers, brands have made inclusivity and representation a bigger priority, Black-owned brands have gained visibility and success, and audiences have learned valuable information about social justice issues near and dear to many of these creators’ hearts.
Just as many of today’s beauty influencers drew inspiration from those who came before them, a new generation of Black beauty creators will follow in the footsteps of the five names above and their peers. It’s already happening — search #blackbeautycreators on TikTok and see how many videos pop up!
