The Beauty Royalty Of Social Media

Each of them started out with little more than artistic flair, an affable personality and a trusty webcam or camera phone. Then Youtube and Instagram came into the picture. Now, they’re stars in their own right.

- Goh Yee Huay

Chrisspy Instagram: @chrisspy, 3.7 million

Youtube: Chrisspy, 1.6 million

You go to Chrisspy for bold makeup, drama and theatre. Among her most-watched videos are “Halloween Skull”, “Gangster Clown” and “Werewolf Makeup”, while her epic transformations into characters like Dory, Yoda and Pikachu are viral hits.

A University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate who did freelance makeup for photo shoots while in school, Chrisspy had little to no professional training beyond a stint at M.A.C. She built her following on Instagram before launching her Youtube channel in 2012.

Fans of the 31-year-old love how she seems comfortable in her own skin, never mind if it’s a size 6 or 16. She documented her weight-loss journey on Youtube a few years ago, sharing her personal fitness goals and pratfalls, and coolly shrugging off the haters. She leaves her oldest videos (the ones with daggy lighting, low production values and novice skills) on her channel as reminders of how she started from nothing – and the progress she’s made.

Her honesty about her struggles with body image and self-confidence struck a chord. Her heart-to-heart chat videos like “Real Talk”, “Why I Took A Break From Youtube” and “Life Update: We Broke Up” showed her as a real person. Many followers appreciated the guts it took to open up on camera and identified with her problems, posting messages such as “Raw & as authentic as it gets”, and “You could film in a dumpster and we would still watch you”.

Tati Westbrook

Instagram: @glamlifeguru, 1.4 million

Youtube: Tati, 4.7 million

You know the saying that honesty is the best policy? Westbrook used it to build a career as a prominent beauty vlogger with solid credibility.