Meet the People’s Princesses of BeautyTok
In beauty, it’s the creators — as well as the content — that are king — and beauty’s most influential cohort is rapidly becoming more niche.
There are the hyper-specific product reviews fueling splashy growth for Seattle-based Angela Park, for instance, while elsewhere, photographer-turned-influencer Hanna Khymych is making waves for sharing artist-loved makeup hacks and diving into rarely discussed makeup lore, like product discontinuations and lesser-known dupes.
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While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy to cutting through the noise on TikTok, the platform’s brightest rising beauty creators are each infusing unique combinations of hustle, expertise and — importantly — fun into their burgeoning channels.
Here, WWD speaks with Park, Khymych and similarly fast-growing Paloma Sanchez about the genesis of their respective content journeys and what’s resonating with their audiences today.
1. The Makeup Whisperer
Angela Park, @angelaypark
Seattle
TikTok Followers: 169,000+
It was a teenage bout with acne that led Angela Park to her two earliest makeup favorites — Milani Cosmetics’ Conceal + Perfect foundation and Maybelline New York’s Fit Me foundation.
“It started with me searching just, ‘how do I cover this sh—t up?’ but grew into so much more than that; those two foundations really gave me confidence — it was almost like a superpower,” said the Seattle native.
The makeup greats of beauty’s YouTube golden era — Tati Westbrook, Violette Serrat and Korean makeup artist Jung Saem Mool among them — further fueled Park’s appetite through the 2010s for not just makeup tutorials, but niche makeup history, product comparisons, and know-how — not so different to that which she now imparts to her own 169,000-plus TikTok followers.
“My content took off when I started speaking educationally about products in a fresh and creative way,” said Park, who took being furloughed from her job as a medical scribe when COVID-19 hit as an opportunity to start filming beauty content; within one year, her pandemic pastime was a full-time gig.
“I started this series — which I didn’t even know would become a series at the time — called ‘makeup that doesn’t make sense,'” recalled Park of her first of many viral series to come, wherein she would relay a product’s benefits but “frame it as if I was going to say something negative — just this cheeky way of, like, ‘this makeup doesn’t make sense because it’s so good,'” said Park, whose hallmark series has since been widely embraced by other beauty creators, who tag her as they post their own interpretations.
“Taking something that I love and building a fun conversation around it — that’s my sweet spot, that’s what gains traction for me,” said Park, whose “brutally honest” speed reviews, too, often make the rounds on TikTok.
Park’s top brands by earned media value driven, per Creator IQ:
Hourglass Cosmetics: $448.7k EMV
YSL Beauty: $337.2k EMV
Nars Cosmetics: $285.9k EMV
“Once the 10-minute video feature became available I thought, ‘OK — I’m going to create a series where I give more than you usually see during a fast scroll on TikTok,” said Park, who uploads a speed review every one to two weeks — enough time for her to test the latest flux of new launches. “I’m not going to post one product every day and tell you to get every single one; I’m going to give you the rundown on 10 products today, so you can get that idea of ‘OK, maybe that first product she talked about isn’t for me, but that last product is’ — it gives people a more holistic view of all these new makeup launches, which is my goal.”
Putting a fresh content spin on existing products and underrated gems is equally important to Park.
“Not everybody can afford to buy all these new products all the time, and I don’t want them to feel left out of the world of makeup,” said Park, who subsequently offers up takes on her favorite “high-maintenance but high-yield” products (among them Haus Labs’ über-pigmented Color Fuse Blush) as well as her favorite no-fuss offerings (for example, Nyx Professional Makeup’s long-loved Butter Gloss line, “[it’s] special because it’s average”).
“I give people an idea of the makeup that they might like, but also that which they might not like — which is just as important,” said Park.
2. The Industry Insider
Hanna Khymych, @not_another_hanna
Brooklyn
TikTok followers: 47,700+
Hanna Khymych may only be nine months into her TikTok career, but she’s been creating content for beauty’s biggest brands for more than a decade.
Having kicked off her career as a fashion intern at Milk Studios in 2009, Khymych went into photo retouching before eventually becoming a professional photographer — a lifelong passion of hers which has kept her in close proximity to makeup artists, leading her to pick up a few tricks along the way.
“I’ve been able to create with some of the greatest names in the industry — Erin Parsons, Raisa Flowers, Raoul Alejandre,” said Khymych, who has also shot campaigns for brands like Huda Beauty and Haus Labs. Inspired by Parsons’ multidiscipline dexterity, she sought “how to bring my photography background into this sort of online makeup world.”
She began doing just that when a brush-in with creative burnout led Khymych to create her TikTok page last year.
“It was a moment of hope for me — which I known sounds dramatic — but I felt so taken advantage of as an artist that I was just like, ‘OK — how do I just exit and start from scratch?’ — it came back down to makeup for me,” said the Ukraine-born artist.
A video unleashing her grievances with mainstream setting powder packaging was the first to catapult Khymych’s account to a mainstream beauty audience, and she has since captivated a cult-like viewership of makeup lovers with her signature “high impact, low effort” tutorials and her makeup knowledge deep cuts — from a definitive guide to the best cool-toned drugstore lip liners, to myriad run-throughs of discontinued makeup products for which she’s manifesting a comeback (MAC Satin Lipstick in “Flushpot,” anyone?).
“[At first] I just wanted to see what would happen, but it’s been interesting because not a lot of people in the industry do social media in this way — everything is very hush-hush, very ‘don’t tell anybody about anything,'” said Khymych, whose first PR package as an influencer was received this winter from Pat McGrath Labs; more recently came a coffee meeting at the behest of the Dame herself.
“I’d been on set with [McGrath] before, but always behind a V-flat retouching all day; when her team said she wanted to meet in-person a few weeks ago it was like, ‘OK — whatever mother Pat wants,” laughed Khymych, who cites the makeup artist-founder as one of her biggest inspirations.
She also looks to pop culture — for instance Charli XCX’s recently released, disco-pop “Brat” album and Doja Cat’s experimental beauty looks — as fuel for her colorful creations. “So many people have asked me for my everyday makeup tutorial and I’m like, ‘what’s everyday makeup?’ — it’s always different,” said Khymych, who, true to form, has instead opted for a series demonstrating how to build on top of a makeup look. “My makeup will change three or four times a day because I’ll get bored and just be like, ‘OK — we’re throwing on a different lip’ — that’s also content for me.”
Still immersed in photography, Khymych has found not just an additional creative outlet — but a community — on TikTok. “For the first time in a long time, I’m not putting myself in a bubble of having to focus on one thing — yes I can photograph, yes I can light things but I can also do makeup — that’s where I’m at.”
Khymych’s top brands by EMV driven:
Isamaya Beauty: $4.6k EMV
Huda Beauty: $4.0k EMV
Mugler: $2.2k EMV
3. The Storyteller
Paloma Sanchez, @whor3chata_
Ann Arbor, Mich.
TikTok followers: 508,000+
Paloma Sanchez remembers routinely raiding her mother’s Clinique-filled makeup bag as a child. “Makeup has just always been a fascination for me — I loved stealing my mom’s makeup, following tutorials — just being creative on my own,” said the content creator, who now brings her 500,000-plus TikTok followers along for the ride.
“When I was younger I always wanted to be a teacher, so I really do like the tutorial, tips and tricks aspect of [content creation],” said Sanchez, who indeed serves up widely watched lip combo tutorials — plus guides to making them last all day — as well as product reviews and story-time videos, all infused with her signature dry humor.
“I’m very into the entertainment aspect of it all; I don’t like to put myself in a box of, ‘oh, I can only post aesthetic, 15-second clips’ — I want to post what comes naturally to me,” said Sanchez, who is working toward obtaining a bachelor’s degree in engineering, and has been simultaneously building her social media presence since 2022.
“I’m very sarcastic; I have a lot of these long-running inside jokes with the people who follow me where it’s like, ‘if you know, you know,'” said Sanchez, who grew up living on the Mexico-Texas border (“literally right there — sometimes we’d cross over just to go to the store,”) and whose content is a balance of her own life happenings interpolated with content requests by her community.
“If I see people asking for tips and tricks on x, y makeup application I’m like, ‘OK — let’s start a miniseries on this,’ otherwise, I’ll be going through something in my personal life and I just want to talk about it with them in real time,” said Sanchez, who recently recapped a friendship breakup mid- “Get Ready With Me” video.
“I feel inspired by creators like [vlogger] Jenna Marbles — people who just do whatever they want to do and are having fun,” said Sanchez, who got her start on TikTok — as most beauty creators do these days — but is increasingly setting her sights on YouTube, too, the very platform that formerly propelled Marbles and other storytelling-driven creators to popularity.
“I almost like YouTube more — just the long-form aspect of it and that stripped-back, deeper connection,” said Sanchez, who is steadily bringing those very content hallmarks to TikTok, too, and resonating widely as a result.
Sanchez’s top brands by EMV:
MAC Cosmetics: $189.4k EMV
Juvia’s Place: $140.0k EMV
Revolution Beauty: $113.2k EMV
A Sanchez-loved lip combo:
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