NIKITA DRAGUN

This blog post is focusing on the beauty vlogger, Nikita Dragun. Nikita posts make up tutorials on YouTube every week, along with other videos such as day to day life, and travel.

Nikita Dragun is from Virginia and only 21 years old and already has a huge following on social media from thousands of fans. She has also managed to expand her popularity to other social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram where she has over 1.2 million followers! As well as becoming a YouTube sensation, Nikita is also juggling University where is working towards getting her degree.

Nikita started her YouTube career in 2013 and has since gained a total of 584,067 subscribers to her channel. There is a total of 51 videos from Nikita available to view on YouTube.

Nikita is transgender and has often documented her transition on her YouTube channel. Sharing her experience has made her very popular with vloggers and YouTube viewers, those who have an interest in beauty and those who respect and value her experience and views.

She is also good friends with Jeffree star and Manny MUA (both featured in a previous blog). Nikita can often be found featured in the two boy’s vlogs on their own channels, and the two of them on hers. She first seemed to find a bit of YouTube fame after Jeffree Star included her in one of his make-up videos, since then she has featured in several of his ad campaigns and her fan base continues to grow every day. Nikita promotes herself through different forms of social media websites, such as twitter Instagram and snapchat, so her fans can keep up with her every-day life and she can continue to grow her name and her brand across the internet.

Around two months ago, the cosmetics company ‘Benefit’ gathered together some of the most famous beauty influencers and invited them to fly out to Necker Island for a week of make-up testing, relaxation and bonding, and Nikita Dragun was one of the selected beauty enthusiasts! She spent the week on the island with some of the biggest names in the beauty world, such as; Nikkietutorials, Jeffree Star, Manny MUA, Kim Thai, Laura Lee and Charles James. I had extreme fomo watching the holiday on all of their snapchat stories!

Nikita is still new on the scene in the beauty world, but give her another year and I think she’ll be up there with some of the most famous beauty vloggers.

MANNY MUA

Today’s blog is focusing on another male beauty enthusiast, Manny MUA. Manny first joined YouTube back in 2014, posting videos focusing on make-up tutorials, and ‘shenanigans’ that go on in his day to day life.

Manny is 26 years old was born in San Diego, USA. He is a full believer that make-up should be genderless and promotes that boys should have the freedom to wear, teach and vlog about make-up just as much as girls can. This is a key feature throughout his channel and he states, in his YouTube bio, that he is fighting for equality in the make-up world for boys.

Manny’s YouTube career started in July 2014 and he gained an impressive 235,000 subscribers within the first 8 months of creating his account on the social media platform. Now Manny has 2,929,700 subscribers with an impressive total of 220 videos available to view on his channel.

Along with his YouTube channel, Manny also promotes himself through other social media platforms such as, Twitter, Instagram, Snap chat and Facebook. He posts a new video every week and is always active on his other accounts, interacting with his followers and sharing his life online. He has gained several products from cosmetics companies to review and is usually pretty honest about the content of his videos. Manny also has an impressive 3.6 million followers on his Instagram account, where he posts hundreds of pictures of his make-up skills for the world to be impressed by.

Manny’s career has gone from 0-100 in just three years. Since launching his YouTube account in 2014, he has since brought out his own make up products, collaborating with big make-up brands such as ‘Make-Up Geek’, I’ve been looking for this product everywhere since deciding to write this blog post and it is sold out e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. So, it’s safe to say his fans and many others love this product. Manny has also collaborated with Jeffree Star (featured in my last blog post) to make a JSC x Manny MUA bundle that is available to buy on JefreeStarCosmetics.com.

Like I said before, Manny MUA focuses a lot of his YouTube content on his make-up skills, but also on the fact that he is a boy, with make-up skills, who wears make-up. Manny frequently records videos with fellow YouTube star, Jeffree Star, to help promote the message that boys are allowed to be as involved with make-up as girls are. I think this is an important message to share with a wide variety of people so that everyone has the freedom to express themselves. Manny achieves this by using all social media platforms as a way of promoting himself but also what he stands for, equality for boys in the beauty world. I think he’s made a pretty big splash!

JEFFREE STAR

Today’s blog is focusing on YouTube’s beauty guru, Jeffree Star. Jeffree Star is a male make-up artist but had a long career before finding his way in make-up. Jeffree first set up a profile with YouTube way back in 2006, however, before YouTube, he had a pretty big following on the social networking site ‘Myspace’… and just as well he jumped ship, because last I checked, no one has used myspace for years. I very much doubt Jeffree Star would have the successful career he has today, if he hadn’t moved on to other social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, to sell his brand.

Before Make-up, Jeffree Star was a singer/song writer, fashion designer and model. His very bold look and make-up skills caught the attention of the public, and his YouTube profile has now grow to have a total of 3,762,747 subscribers and 156 videos are available on his channel!

Jeffree Star has a very funny approach to his videos, showing he’s not afraid to be who he is, which I think many of his fan admire him for. Men wearing make-up is such a common thing these days, yet a lot of people are still stuck on the fact that it should be a woman’s product and not worn by men, which has brought a lot of negative and harsh comments towards him from across the world. But, he takes it all in his stride and continues to be more and more successful than the people wasting their time sitting behind a computer screen sending negative comments in his direction. Which to me seems like the most bizarre way to spend your day, because how can a YouTuber possibly affect your life when you can chose to follow or unfollow them? Anyway, I think it’s so important for people to have a space like YouTube or Twitter to express themselves however they want to, and people like Jeffree Star will be role models to many people.

It’s no secret that Jeffree Star is sent product from loads of cosmetics companies, in an attempt to get a good review from him on his channel, but he is also not one to hold back his opinion, if he doesn’t like a product, he’s not going to lie about it, and I think a lot of viewers are drawn to his honestly. However, Jeffree Star is also seen as a controversial YouTuber, usually found at the heart of all drama within the YouTube community, and I think a lot of people are probably discouraged from viewing his channel for this reason.

Throughout his whole career, Jeffree Star’s name is definitely at its peak, with over 3 million subscribers and his own make-up line ‘JeffreeStarCosmetics’ that is hugely successful and is sold world-wide. Jeffree Star has also recently released make-up collaborations with other YouTube make-up guru, Manny MUA and has been seen modelling the new Kylie Cosmetics make up lines on many occasions. Jeffree Star is definitely a YouTube success.

KIM THAI

Today’s blog is focusing on YouTube make-up and lifestyle guru, Kim Thai. Kim Thai is the best friend of the blogger in my previous blog, Nikkie Tutorials. I first came across Kim’s blogs through twitter when I noticed Nikkie Tutorials talking about her OFRA collaboration. Ever since then, I’ve been keeping up with her weekly, and sometimes daily, vlogs.

Kim Thai lives in LA and started making YouTube videos in 2014, a slightly later start compared to the other vloggers I have been speaking about, but still making quite the successful journey out of it, while also studying at University!

Kim focuses on a lot of different make-up looks while also Vlogging about day to day life and mishaps, and putting a funny spin on them to show she’s having fun and not taking life too seriously, which I think a lot of her followers admire about her.

Kim has racked up a massive 353,897 subscribers to her YouTube channel in the past 2 and a half years! Which is a pretty impressive number considering she’s only doing this part time. There is a total of 106 videos available to view on her channel and a total of 8,961,042 people have viewed her channel seeking her advice and tips on subjects ranging from make-up or how to make good ramen!

Kim is very interactive with her followers through her social media accounts. Twitter seems to be a favourite for her when it comes to sharing news and chatting with her followers, whether it be about the content of her videos or if people have just reached out to her with questions, Kim seems to take a lot of time to communicate and respond to her fan base, something that is not always common with public influencers.

Recently Kim Thai turned to Twitter to give her followers a heads up about her vlog that week. She wrote: “Just want to give you guys a heads up that one of my make-up tutorials this week is a sponsored one with one of my favourite companies!”

“Our relationship’s honesty is super important so I just wanted to let you guys know ahead of time”

“I only do sponsored videos on YouTube with brands that’s I love. All opinions will always be 100% mine”

This was a very open way of announcing her video was sponsored, as many other blogger and vloggers seem to brush this topic under the carpet, or put it in the small print of their descriptions, and somehow it goes unnoticed.  But paid for content is a very grey area within the blogging/Vlogging community, so thanks Kim for the honestly!

Kim has recently launched her own brand of eyelashes through ‘Cake Face Beauty’. She named them ‘Lion-Hearted’ and her followers from across the world loved them so much they sold out within the first hour. A very impressive launch of a new product! Kim has also collaborated with OFRA cosmetics to design her own moisturiser which is still in high demand from her own fans and OFRA fans.

Kim Thai has successfully entered the Vlogging world, and even as a late start in 2014, she is still making a very successful name for herself! Hopefully her YouTube career will still be growing in years to come.

Nikkietutorials

Today I’m focusing on one of my favourite Vloggers, Nikkietutorials. This is someone I first came across on YouTube before I was aware of her blog, and I’ve been addicted ever since. From general asking, Nikkietutorials is a little more unknown than Zoella (the blogger featured in my last post) but she’s definitely well on her way to success.

Nikkie is a Dutch hair and make-up artist and at the young age of 14, turned to YouTube to find out how to recreate a make-up look that she had seen on the reality show, ‘The Hills’. After this Nikkie started to search for more make-up tutorials and has been, self-claimed, ‘obsessed’ with make-up ever since.

Now 23 years old, Nikkie has 6,666,159 subscribers to her YouTube channel and 11,938 followers on her blog. Nikkie posts a new make-up tutorial twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays and gains an average of 1 million views on each post! Around a year ago, Nikkietutorials posted a ‘power of make-up’ video which is currently sitting on 34,940,071 views! Her most viewed video yet! Give it a watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Ov8qvZ2_w

 This video showed her half face of make-up and half face bare to present how make-up can transform your face to be something completely different from what it is. Regardless, Nikkie is a full-time make-up lover and choses to ignore all the negative make-up haters on the internet and ‘blind’ with her glow! Nikkie posts make-up tutorials of looks that have inspired her, ranging from scary Halloween make-up to Valentine’s day inspired make-up, and every month she posts her ‘Hits and Oh God No’s’ of the month, highlighting her new favourite products that she recommends people to try, and her blatantly honest reviews of products she didn’t like, all of which are extremely entertaining to watch due to her light hearted and funny nature which  the videos.

Nikkietutorials has managed to bag herself two make-up collaborations, one with Two Faced Cosmetics in May 2016, and she has a brand-new release launching next week with OFRA Cosmetics. Back in 2014 Nikkie appeared on the cover of ‘Fashionista’ magazine, which is a huge achievement for anyone looking to ‘make it’ within their chosen industry and has appeared on several TV shows including, appearances on the ‘De Kamer Van Brabant’ talk show in the Netherlands, ‘I can make you a supermodel’ where Nikkie was the head make-up artist and she also was asked to be a judge for the ‘Miss Netherlands’ competition. Impressive.

To relate this to Public Relations, Nikkietutorials is very open when it comes to promoting products. Accusations were made recently that Nikkie was slyly asking for the new ‘Kylighter’ products from Kylie Cosmetics when she posted on twitter how disappointed she was when she didn’t manage to buy any. This situation was fuelled by fellow beauty blogger, Jeffree Star, when he commented on one of her tweets saying ‘she’s sending us all PR in the next few days so there’s nothing to worry about lol’. This situation was all cleared up very quickly with Nikkietutorials stating that she would be buying the products for herself like everyone else.

So look out for Nikkietutorials, she’s the next up and coming blogger!

ZOELLA

Today’s post will be focusing on the famous blogger and vlogger, Zoe Sugg, or more commonly known as ‘Zoella’. Many of you have probably come across Zoella’s work, whether it be online from her posts and videos, or in Superdrug where she has launched her own line of beauty and lifestyle products. Either way, I think it is fair to say a large proportion of us are, at least, aware of her name. It it's no question that Zoella has become extremely successful within the industry, reaching a massive total of 11,590,985 subscribers on her YouTube channel! and at just 24 years old, had published her own fiction -novel, ‘Girl Online’.

 Now 26, Zoella continues to blog and make videos from her bedroom, focusing on beauty, food and lifestyle for her 8^th year running, and is still a huge hit with her readers/viewers.

Zoella first took to blogging in 2009 after finding her inspiration from other beauty bloggers, when trying to keep up with all the latest trends in the beauty world. Like every blogger, Zoella started off with a small following of people that enjoyed to read what she felt passionate about, and before she knew it, her followers were in the millions! But what does it take for a blog like Zoe’s, to go above and beyond and launch into the internet success that is ‘Zoella’?

Promoting yourself is key to becoming successful within this industry. Social media platforms are a favourite within the blogging community for, essentially, selling yourself to the public. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, offer a space for millions of people to view and communicate their interests with thousands of other like-minded individuals. Zoella has pages with several of the social media platforms, this including; YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. As Zoe doesn’t focus her blogging in one particular area, several different verified accounts can be found on these sites, focusing on different aspects of her growing career, for example, the three accounts; ‘@Zoella, @ZoellaBeauty and @ZoellaLifestyle’ are all present and up to date on Twitter and link to the posts on her blog. However, without Social media, would the online personality that is ‘Zoella’ survive? 

Back in 2009 when she launched her blogging career, there was much more opportunity for people to be propelled to success within this area of the internet (the next featured bloggers all started their careers around 2008/2009 as well!). Whereas now, with over 152,000,000!!! blogs on the internet, there is little room left for new voices to rise above the rest. So, was it just pure luck and good timing for Zoella?

Regardless if it was luck or not, there is no denying that Zoella has reached her full potential within the blogging and Vlogging industry. In 2014 Zoella brought out her very first beauty rage through Superdrug. The sales broke records to become the fastest selling beauty rage, with products selling out quicker than they were on the shelf! And it was no surprise that a year later, when she added to the collection, these products broke the previous records to sell out faster than the ones before! To add to her success, Zoella also released her first book ‘Girl Online’ in 2014 (busy year). This book also broke records to become the fastest selling debut novel and has since gone on to release two sequels due to its success.

So, it's safe to say, Zoella’s fans definitely have her back!

and thanks to social media, they can keep up with all her new releases and achievements and continue to show tremendous amounts of support in everything that she does. Whether it be writing blogs, making videos, or selling make-up- I don’t think Zoella’s ‘sky rocketed’ career in blogging will be slowing down any time soon! 

Famous Vloggers

Hello,
My name is Katie Milne and I am a student at North East Scotland College, studying for my HND in Advertising and Public Relations. I have decided to write a blog as part of this course and I will be focusing on vloggers. Blogging/Vlogging is now one of the most popular tools used by companies to get their brand known to the public. The idea is to send their products to these bloggers/vloggers in the hope that they will try their products and then give the brand a good review. Of course, not all of the reviews are good, but that is a risk many companies are willing to take.
 The purpose of this blog is to look into the lives of the bloggers who have ‘made it’ in this industry and also look into the bloggers and vloggers who are trying to become successful. I have always been interested in what motivates a blogger/vlogger to take their work from a hobby to a full time profession. At what point does someone like Zoella go from getting a few hundred views on her videos, to then hitting the millions? This particular beauty vlogger is one of the most successful ‘YouTube Guru’s’ with a massive 11,590,985 subscribers! But how did she get there? Was it all through her own hard work on social media, or have brands and PR pushed her success?
My following blog posts will feature some of the internet’s biggest sensations and look into what exactly makes them so popular and stand out from the rest of the vlogging community. My next three posts will focus on the YouTube ‘stars’ Zoella, Nikkietutorials and Jeffree Star. I also want to talk about the Vloggers on YouTube who don’t have the millions of subscribers, or makeup brands sending them products every week, yet still take their time and effort to make these videos. The following are a list of famous vloggers I will be talking about throughout my blog.
 

Vlogger no. 1 Zoella
 Zoe Elizabeth Sugg ‘Zoella’ is from England and regularly posts videos on ‘beauty, fashion and life’. Zoella has been Vlogging since February 2009 and found her inspiration on YouTube after searching for all the latest goings on in the beauty world. Now 26 years old, Zoella now has 332 videos on her YouTube channel and has managed to gain a massive 11,590,985 subscribers.
Website: www.zoella.co.uk  

Vlogger no. 2 Nikkietutorials

Nikkie de Jager ‘Nikkietutorials’ is a beauty enthusiast from the Netherlands. Nikkie has been posting vlogs on YouTube since June 2008. After watching the reality TV show ‘the Hills’ she turned to YouTube to find out how to recreate these looks. Since then, Nikkietutorials has posted a total of 590 videos, and posts them every Wednesday, and Sunday. She has also managed to achieve a huge following of 6,520,362 subscribers to her channel.
Website: www.nikkietutorials.com 






Vlogger no. 3 Jeffree Star
 Jeffree Lynn Steininger ‘Jeffree Star’ is a male make-up artist (as well as, singer, song writer, fashion designer and model) from the United States. Jeffree Star first started posting his Vlogs on Myspace before moving to the YouTube platform in February 2006. Focusing on his make-up career, Jeffree Star has gathered a total of 3,762,747 subscribers on his YouTube channel and has posted a total of 156 videos.
Website: www.jeffreestarcosmetics.com 
If you are a fan of any of these YouTube stars or are interested to find out more about them and the industry, then please look out for my next post.