There’s a lot of different sectors of YouTube. Gaming, podcasts, music – there’s something for everyone. But one of the biggest and quickly growing communities of creators on the platform is beauty. Millions log into the website to watch their favorite creators do crafting the perfect makeup look while giving useful tips and tricks along the way.
Whether it’s a a video for doing the best winged eyeliner for a night out or a review of the newest Pat McGrath palette, these creators make content that their fans eat up the minute it’s uploaded. Those lucky enough to receive a sizable audience seen a ton of opportunities coming their way, with a ton of cash to match.
These are the beauty influencers who are making the biggest bank in 2021.
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5 Yuya
Mariand Castrejón Castañeda, or as she’s better known, Yuya, first began her journey YouTube stardom in 2009. Her uncle gave her the nickname Yuya from a popular Mexican television character.
After winning a beauty competition, she picked up her camera and started posting tutorials on her channel (then called lady16makeup) The young, soon-to-be beauty sensation captivated her audience with videos displaying different hairstyle ideas and showing off her cosmetic prowess.
A post shared by 𝓨𝒖𝒚𝒂 (@yuyacst)
Today, twelve years and 670 videos later, Yuya has garnered an impressive 24.8 million subscribers. While she’s one of the very few beauty gurus who doesn’t post content on Tik Tok, she’s received around 2.55 billion views from her channel throughout her YouTube career. According to The Tab, she earns around $63,934.38 per Instagram post.
4 Bretman Rock
Just two months ago, millions of people watched internet sensation Bretman Rock onstage of the MTV Movie and TV Awards, accepting the award for Breakthrough Social Star. The twenty two year old’s massive fanbase of 17 million Instagram followers and 8.7 YouTube subscribers make him one of the most sought after influencers in the game. His Instagram account skyrocketed so quickly that, according to The Net Line, the platform temporarily disabled is account.
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His star power reached even farther than the confides of YouTube when he was offered his own reality tv show on MTV. MTV Following: Bretman Rock premiered earlier this year in February. It gave a much more in depth glimpse into the influencer’s family life in Hawaii, even grimly showing the grieving process he went through when his father died.
His massive success on as an influencer, making guest appearances and attending events has brought $2 million to his net worth.
3 Jeffree Star
Jeffree Star first found fame back in the days of MySpace, when his profile was one of the most popular on the sight. At that time, he was pursing his music career and each post of his songs were catapulted to the top tier list on MySpace.
The days of MySpace are long gone and we now see Star one of the biggest names in the beauty business. In 2014, he took the huge risk of investing all of his to launch what is now internationally known as Jeffree Star Cosmetics. The line became a massive success, with Forbes reporting that the company sells around $100 million annually.
A post shared by Jeffree Star (@jeffreestar)
As of this year, his net worth stands at $200 million.
2 James Charles
The beauty standards of the cosmetics industry were forever changed in 2016 when Covergirl made the bold decision to make the buoyant, then unknown makeup artist James Charles the newest face of their brand – the first male in history to be appointed this role. He gained a great deal of attention when his high school senior photo of him in full makeup went viral, even getting him an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show. At only seventeen, Charles changed the trajectory of the makeup world, showing that anyone can embrace their own glam.
“This is literally the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Charles tells Allure, “It’s such a huge honor to be working with one of the most iconic beauty brands in history, alongside huge icons such as Katy Perry. It’s groundbreaking, and I cannot wait to see what else comes from it. This year is going to be amazing.”
A post shared by James Charles (@jamescharles)
Charles turned his fifteen minutes in the spotlight into a career as arguably the most successful influencer in his field, revered by many of his beauty guru peers. After revamping his YouTube channel that he made before he became a public figure, he grew a massive fan base that he dubbed ‘Sisters’. His collaboration with Morphe Cosmetics catapulted him to brought even more fans to his channel as they watched him advertise his products and create innovative makeup looks. By 2017, his subscriber count rose to 10 million adoring supporters.
He’s since stained his career with an onslaught of controversy. Charles has always made decisions that are almost universally considered as distasteful (i.e, making racially insensitive tweets about Africa back in 2017 and the infamous Tati Westbrook scandal of 2019). But is image took a huge hit when it was revealed that he was making inappropriate conversations with minors on Snapchat. Not only did he lose thousands of subscribers, but his makeup products were ultimately moved from the homepage of the Morphe website to the clearance section. Still, the now cancelled influencer is worth $22 million.
1 Huda Kattan
For lovers of all things cosmetic, it comes as no surprise that the single most richest beauty influencer is founder of Huda Beauty herself, Huda Kattan.
A post shared by HUDA KATTAN (@hudabeauty)
This vet of the beauty industry got her start in Los Angles where she studied beauty and got the chance to glam up the faces of celebs like Nicole Richie. Moving back to Dubai to live alongside her family in 2006, she got her first job as a makeup artist working at a Revlon. Her career as an influencer took off when she launched a blog called Huda Beauty and soon became the go-to-girl in Dubai for all the latest beauty trends.”
Three years later, Kattan and her sisters made the leap into the beauty business by selling their own fake eyelashes. With a $6,000 loan from one of her sister and a whole lot of dedication, she hocked her lashes to the public. Fate was on her side as they were received very well, even garnering the attention of Kim Kardashian.
When Sephora Dubai offered to sell her line at their store, they had no idea that all 7,000 units of her lashes would sell out in a single week. It was clear that her products were a huge hit so it was only natural for them to start selling in the States come 2015. Since then, her company racks in an annual revenue of around $250 million, with her net worth reaching a stunning $510 million.
Read Next: Beautiful Fortune: Kylie Jenner & The Billion-Dollar Kylie Cosmetics Empire
Sources: The Net Line, Forbes, Allure Vulture,
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