The Untold Truth Of NikkieTutorials

Nikkie de Jager, the talented makeup artist behind NikkieTutorials, has been shaking up the beauty world since 2008. The Netherlands-based YouTube star has gained an international audience in the years since she first came onto the scene. De Jager was only in her teens when she first started becoming famous, and since then has become a major beauty influencer with millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram.

How exactly did she do it? Most teenagers are trying to finish school and get a date to prom, but de Jager began building her empire from a young age. She might seem like she simply caught a lucky break, but de Jager's fame has come through years and years of hard work. Her path to success is an inspirational success story that will make you want to follow this beauty vlogger if you don't already. This is the untold truth of NikkieTutorials.

Inspiration can strike at the most unlikely of moments. For Nikkie de Jager, that unlikely moment came in the form of being at home sick back in 2008. Too sick to leave bed, de Jager spent the weekend watching TV and watched The Hills for the first time. "It was the first time I ever saw the show, and I immediately fell in love with the girls' style," she told Teen Vogue. "For two days I drooled over Lauren's beautiful eyeliner and Heidi's gorgeous hair."

The first seed had been planted. By the following Monday, de Jager was feeling a little bit better and looked on YouTube for a way to recreate makeup looks from the show. "I opened a video from SandyGold called, 'Wakeup and Makeup!,'" she said. "She showed us how you could get the Lauren look with drugstore makeup. I was hooked! For three months, I became a zombie, with my eyes locked on the screen. And after that three months, I thought, 'I want to do this, I can do this! I am going to do this!'" And thus NikkieTutorials was born.

There are a lot of advantages to being a YouTube star. You get to set your own hours, not to mention do something that you are truly passionate about. Nikkie de Jager of NikkieTutorials, who has taken part of some of the best makeup challenges on YouTube, loves being her own boss and having creative control over her work, but there are also some drawbacks to being self-employed.

De Jager told Teen Vogue that "it's up to you how much time you spend working on your blog, but that also is one of the hardest aspects." Staying motivated takes a lot of self-control and motivation. "It's lovely to decide on your own when you're going to work on something for your website, but at the same time there is nobody to push you," she said. "You have to be independent, and you have to be driven to keep working on the blog." It looks like de Jager has gotten the swing of things, though, because she's been going strong for a decade. 

Anyone who grew up using the internet probably has a username in their past that they'd like to forget. Whether it was an embarrassing AIM username or a cringeworthy Yahoo e-mail address, most of us have a regrettable internet handle from our youth. Nikkie de Jager is no exception to this. Before she became known as NikkieTutorials online, her YouTube name "was something like GlamourGirlx3," as she told Teen Vogue. She shared, "But I knew that if I wanted to look more professional, I had to change the name."

It was on this quest for a more professional sounding name that de Jager came up with the YouTube handle that she is now internationally known by. "Since I knew beauty videos were called tutorials, I thought, 'Why not just take my name and put 'tutorials' after it?'" she said. "That's how 'NikkieTutorials' was born."

Nikkie de Jager is young, but she has already experienced immense tragedy in her life. In May 2018, she told Glamour (in an article no longer available online) that her younger brother had been diagnosed with a rare form of lymphatic cancer two years earlier. Chemotherapy and radiation put him into remission for a while, but the cancer soon came back. "This is the black page in my life," she said. "We are hoping for a miracle, but it has already spread everywhere, those cells are everywhere."

Her brother tragically lost his battle with cancer not long after she gave that interview, leaving de Jager devastated. She poured herself into her work, posted a rainbow-themed video on her YouTube page, NikkieTutorials, a few days later to honor his memory. She wrote on Instagram that her little brother had been "incredibly proud" of her channel and that she hoped the colorful video would "cheer up those in need of some color and fun."

While Nikkie de Jager might have gotten her start in beauty from watching The Hills, Lauren Conrad isn't her beauty idol. The person she most looks up to in the industry is British makeup artist Pat McGrath whose company is valued at more than $1 billion. The self-made entrepreneur has been a huge role model for de Jager. "Pat McGrath is my goddess," she told HelloGiggles. "I had the honor of meeting her once and it literally felt like meeting God. I was like, 'Oh my god. I'm in the presence of a legend.'"

McGrath is an icon in the beauty industry and has been on the scene for decades. Her influence in the world of beauty is undeniable, and her reputation is well deserved. "She has come up with all the trends, all the techniques," said the NikkieTutorials star. "She knows what's popping or not and then she started doing her own line, and she knows exactly how to kill it. Pat McGrath is EVERYTHING!"

Everyone has their own reasons for liking makeup. Some people want to cover up blemishes. Others want to create a dramatic look, or transform their face for a costume. Gone are the days when makeup was simply a means of enhancing beauty. For Nikkie de Jager, makeup is a wonderful tool for self-expression that allows people to play around with their look and express their individuality.

"The most beautiful part about makeup is that it's so personal," the woman behind NikkieTutorials told HelloGiggles. "You can go heavy, you can go light, you can go in-between, you can go full-on drag. I think that is the power of what makes makeup so beautiful, it's because it's personal. If you feel more secure doing a soft glow with a little bit of concealer, there's nothing wrong with that. I also wanna note that if people like to cake it on, and feel like their best self, there's nothing wrong with that either. I think makeup is for everyone."

In a way, the success of NikkieTutorials is a means of vindication. Nikkie de Jager was bullied growing up, and she still feels some insecurity about her weight. The fact that de Jager is now an incredibly successful celebrity who is admired around the world as a beauty icon has had some of her former bullies regretting their past actions. In an article no longer available online, De Jager told Glamour that her classmates started behaving differently when she began gaining recognition online. "Just the fact that I did it in English," she said, was enough to make them look at her differently. "After years of belittling, I suddenly got respect, which of course I liked," she shared.

It's good to see that de Jager was able to rise past the negativity of her childhood and become a force of good in the world. By focusing on her dreams and her career, she's gotten the best form of revenge there is: success.

Family is clearly one of the most important things in the world to Nikkie de Jager. While she tragically lost her younger brother, she still has her mom around to lead her cheering section. In an article no longer available online, she told Glamour that her mom is her number one fan and that she has been a remarkable influence on her life. "My mother is fantastic," she said. "She speaks zero English, but she understands everything. I have never experienced anyone in my life who is as supportive as she is. She keeps an eye on everything, reads everything, sees everything, and I tell her everything."

The special bond between de Jager and her mother may be in part due to their striking physical resemblance. According to the NikkieTutorials star, she and her mom are pretty much twins. "I also look a lot like her physically: I am my mother, but with long hair," she said. 

Nikkie de Jager sparkles both literally and figuratively. Her shining personality is magnetizing on its own, but she also likes to make sure that her face has a little bit of extra glimmer. In fact, loving glitter is one of her trademarks, so much so that when she collaborated with Too Faced on a five-piece makeup collection, she had to make sure that people who bought the product also got the chance to shine by including a pot of glitter. "I'm most excited about my eyeshadow palette and the glitter that comes in the kit," de Jager told Seventeen. "I think people will go nuts over the glitter."

For de Jager, glitter is a way to make any look stand out. It might seem like a bit of a special occasion product, but the NikkieTutorials star swears you can wear glitter no matter where you're going or what you're wearing. "It transforms any look," she said. "When in doubt, add glitter."

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who shame people for wearing makeup. They judge makeup wearers for a lot of reasons, calling them out for changing their appearance or for deviating too far from the norm. Nikki de Jager isn't okay with this, and she shared her defense of makeup in a YouTube video. "I feel like lately, in a way, it's almost a crime to love doing your makeup," she said.

NikkieTutorials' De Jager, whose before and after photo show the magic of makeup, backed up her stance in an interview with Seventeen. "I think makeup shaming is still a thing because people are intimidated by others who go outside the box and get creative," she said.

De Jager added that you shouldn't have to worry about looking "natural" for men, saying, "the person you need to love most is YOU. You have to be happy with yourself until the end of time, and if you feel better with a cut crease and glitter liner? Baby, rock it!"

In January 2020, Nikkie de Jager came out as transgender in a heartfelt NikkieTutorials video titled "I'm Coming Out." The YouTube star said that she's known ever since she was little that she is a girl. "I am here to openly share that I am transgender," she said. "And with this message, I want to inspire little Nikkies around the world who feel insecure, who feel out of place, who feel misunderstood." She noted, "This world needs us. We need to accept each other. We need to respect each other. But most of all, we need to hear each other and understand."

While de Jager had always planned on coming out to her audience when she was ready, she revealed that she was being blackmailed. Instead of complying with her blackmailer, she came out. "I am still Nikkie," she said. "Nothing changes about that. The last thing I want in my life is for you to not trust me anymore, or to look at me with different eyes, or look at me in a different manner, or think that I have changed."

She added, "I am free, and I get to be me, finally."

When Nikkie de Jager first started making her NikkieTutorials video, she was hiding a bit behind her alter ego, as many celebs have done. The person viewers saw on YouTube wasn't exactly the same as the person de Jager was in real life. "When I was younger and starting out, I definitely had an alter ego," she told Glamour.

De Jager projected a confidence in her NikkieTutorials videos that she didn't necessarily exude in real life. "When that camera turned on I became an inspirational hero, but as soon as the camera turned off I was me again," she said.

As the years passed and as de Jager has grown more confident in herself, things began to transition. Now de Jager says that the person you see on YouTube is 100 percent Nikkie de Jager. De Jager explained that she "started to become what I showed people and started to believe in the vision I created," adding, "And now there's literally no difference."

How does Nikkie de Jager keep churning out new content week after week? After more than a decade of turning out new videos for NikkieTutorials, it can be hard to keep up with the constant demand for fresh content on her channel. The YouTube star is always challenging herself to learn new trends, even though she admitted to Glamour that it can be easy to "feel like you've done it all."

In an interview with Buro, de Jager said that "it's important to look at what's popular and what's happening in the world and constantly adapt."

She added that she is constantly on the lookout for inspiration and can find an idea in the most unlikely of places. "When I'm traveling and I look outside the window, I get inspired too — whether it's the colors of sunset or the colors of nature," she said. "Everything can be an inspiration to me."

It's incredibly impressive that Nikkie de Jager gained fame through her YouTube channel, NikkieTutorials, especially at such a young age. The makeup maven has expanded far beyond social media, too. In 2019, Marc Jacobs named de Jager its first-ever global artistry advisor. In a press release, the brand said that de Jager "will be integrated into the brand's product development process, as well as share her incredible talent and expertise to expand unique content and artistry around the world on both Marc Jacobs beauty and her own channels."

"I've always believed that makeup is a form of self expression and there is no shame in experimenting with it," said de Jager of being appointed as the brand's global artistry advisor. "Marc Jacobs shares a similar 'shameless' approach to beauty, which I so admire, and I quickly fell in love with his beauty products when I was first sent the re(marc)able full cover foundation concentrate a few years ago." She continued, "Since then, I've consistently loved using Marc Jacobs beauty products and it was after attending Marc's fashion week show last spring that we decided to explore how, and what, we could beautifully create together."

Since Nikkie de Jager is known for her makeup tutorials on NikkieTutorials, you'd expect her personal look to revolve around, well, makeup. Most makeup wearers have a quick makeup look they can throw together on a busy day, whether it's a quick dash of mascara or some lipstick. Surprisingly, de Jager's must-do beauty move skips makeup altogether.

In an interview with HerWorld, de Jager, who is one of many YouTube stars who look nearly unrecognizable without makeup, said that if she had time for absolutely nothing else, she'd focus on her lashes. "I'll curl my lashes," she said. "I have super straight lashes that point down and it makes me look tired. So what I like to do is get my lighter and warm up the metal part of my eyelash curler. Then, I let it cool down because you don't want to burn your eyelids." She continued, "It's like an actual curling iron for your lashes. I do that every single day, I just cannot live without it. That takes me about 45 seconds which leaves me 15 seconds to pop my lip gloss on."

Over the years, Nikkie de Jager has had the opportunity to do a lot of celeb makeovers for NikkieTutorials. She has transformed some of the biggest stars in the world, including Lady Gaga, Bebe Rexha, and Kat Von D, who all made appearances in NikkieTutorials videos. In another celeb collaboration, one of her NikkieTutorials videos was even narrated by Snoop Dogg, who walked audiences through de Jager's makeup routine.

Out of all the celebrity collaborations she has done over the years, one in particular stands out for de Jager, although she has loved them all. "All the celebrity makeup experiences are super special to me," she told Buro. "The most fun I've had was with Jessie J — she's an incredible girl and we laughed so much that at one point we had to stop filming for 20 minutes because I was crying my makeup off as I was laughing."

In August 2019, Nikkie de Jager got engaged to her boyfriend, Dylan, while the couple were on vacation in Italy. He proposed with a stunning band made of heart-shaped diamonds. In a post on Instagram commemorating their engagement, the gleeful NikkieTutorials star wrote, "YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES."

The couple have had a relatively low-key courtship, and de Jager hasn't posted many details about Dylan (not even his last name) or talked about him much, so it seems like he wants to stay out of the limelight. The two have been together since 2018, but de Jager kept the relationship private for a while. She finally made things Instagram official in January 2019, introducing Dylan on Instagram as "the guy that has changed my life."

While de Jager has kept quiet about her fiancé on social media, it's clear that the two are very much in love.

When Nikkie de Jager started NikkieTutorials, she was self-taught. After a couple years of uploading videos, though, she decided to get some professional training. "When I was 17 I decided to go to makeup school to learn some of the technical, basic knowledge that sometimes you step over," she told Into the Gloss.

According to the Evening Standard, de Jager then joined Pascale Tesser's Colourfool Agency in 2011. In 2013, she became the head makeup artist for the show I Can Make You a Supermodel. In 2014, she went completely freelance.

It's not exactly a traditional career path, but it's one that has brought de Jager success. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the YouTube celebrity has a net worth of $6 million. In January 2020, Variety reported that de Jager had moved into a stunning 3,153 square foot home about two hours southeast of Amsterdam. De Jager also reportedly drives a Ferrari.

People all over the world admire Nikkie de Jager and the way she transformed NikkieTutorials from a humble YouTube channel into a personal brand worth millions. It's evident that de Jager has put a lot of work into NikkieTutorials, and many of her fans would love to know how to replicate her success. While there is, of course, no guaranteed path to success, de Jager has some words of wisdom for those who would like to start their own vlogs and begin their own journies to stardom.

De Jager believes that hard work is important, but sincerity is vital. "Be yourself," she told Teen Vogue. "I can't stress this enough. I hate it when I see girls hold back their true personalities. If you like to be all hyper, do it! I love seeing girls who just don't care what others think about them. Also, don't give up. Give everything some time; you have to work hard for the things you want." 

NikkieTutorials became a household name in 2015, when Nikkie de Jager posted "The Power of Makeup" on YouTube. The video has more than 41 million views as of this writing, and it is the video that catapulted de Jager to fame. But things almost went very differently. De Jager nearly didn't post the video that made her YouTube channel famous. "I filmed it and I almost never uploaded it because I hated it," she told News.com.au. "It just didn't feel right. I thought, 'Nobody is going to get this.'"

Her then-boyfriend convinced her to upload the video, in which she showed how makeup can enhance your looks by applying makeup only to one side of her face. At first, nothing happened. "I remember uploading it and it did so bad, I said to him, 'See, I never should have uploaded this, it's horrible,'" shared de Jager.

While it didn't perform too well at first, it went viral after a couple of weeks. De Jager woke up one morning to find her views and follower count had gone through the roof. "I thought I must be dreaming, this can't be real," she said. "It was such a whirlwind, but I'm really proud that it happened, especially with that video."

NikkieTutorials became so successful that it gave Nikkie de Jager the opportunity to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the beauty business. In 2017, she partnered with Maybelline for a YouTube series (via Tubefilter). The following year, Maybelline and NikkieTutorials dropped a highlighter together. "I am more than honored to introduce to you the NikkieTutorials diamond shade," said de Jager in a YouTube video. "I'm looking out for us pale pasties out there."

There has also been a OFRA x NikkieTutorials line and a collab with Too Faced called "The Too Faced Power of Makeup by Nikkie Tutorials Collaboration"(via Insider).

While collaborating with a beauty brand is pretty much par for the course these days for any established YouTube makeup superstar, the fact that de Jager has successfully collaborated with so many brands is proof of her enduring popularity — not to mention her impressive talent.

With or without makeup, it looks like Nikkie de Jager's skin is always glowing in her NikkieTutorials videos. How does she keep her skin looking so fresh? It turns out she's got another beauty secret up her sleeve — her mom. Her mom is also something of a beauty guru, although her expertise is skincare, not make up. "My mom looks after my skin — she has her own spa called Cosmetica House, and she calls herself a skin coach," de Jager told Into the Gloss. "She's a busy lady, but I do Hydrafacials with her every two to three months when I'm home."

De Jager also revealed some skincare tips of her own. "I know everybody says it, but drinking water when you travel really, truly helps," she said. "And just watch what you eat. I mean, I know when I go for the chocolate I'll break out for a couple days."