Nikkie de Jager, better known by her YouTube channel name NikkieTutorials, is a Dutch makeup artist and beauty vlogger. She gained online popularity in 2015 after her YouTube video "The Power of Makeup" became popular and inspired many other videos of people showing their faces with and without makeup. As of January 2020, her YouTube channel has 13 million subscribers and over 1.2 billion video views.
Career
De Jager first began uploading videos to YouTube in 2008, at the age of 14, after watching MTV's The Hills while sick and being inspired by Lauren Conrad's makeup. She then began searching YouTube for tutorials to recreate the look, and was inspired to begin creating her own. After uploading videos for about two years, she enrolled in makeup coursework at B Academy in Amsterdam. She then signed to Colourfool Agency in 2011, and began working as a professional makeup artist. In fall of 2013, she became the head makeup artist for the RTL 5 show I Can Make You a Supermodel with Paul Fisher. De Jager left Colourfool Agency at the beginning of 2014 to work as a freelancehair and makeup artist. Forbes magazine named De Jager one of the top ten beauty "influencers" in 2017. In 2017, she also won the award for "YouTube Guru" at the Shorty Awards and the award for "Choice Fashion/Beauty Web Star" at the Teen Choice Awards. In 2017, De Jager uploaded a video reviewing a foundation produced by a Prague-based cosmetics brand and spoke about the company using her image, specifically a screenshot from her "The Power of Makeup" video, to sell their products on social media without her permission. She expressed disappointment in the company's actions, feeling they had lied to their followers as she was not wearing any of their products in the photo of her they had used to promote their company. In January 2019, it was announced that De Jager would serve as the Global Beauty Adviser for Marc Jacobs Beauty. The brand stated in a press release that "in this newly created role, Nikkie 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."
Collaborations
De Jager has collaborated with beauty brands Ofra, and Maybelline. Her line with Ofra in 2017 included liquid lipsticks and a highlighter palette. In December 2019, she collaborated with Lady Gaga, promoting and giving away her makeup brand Haus Laboratories.
On January 13, 2020, De Jager uploaded a video to her YouTube channel, titled "I'm Coming Out", in which she revealed that she is transgender and that she had been blackmailed by someone who threatened to make her assigned gender public. She underwent her transition in her childhood and teens. She is engaged; her partner, Dylan, proposed to her in August 2019, while the two were on vacation in Italy.
Television
In September 2017, De Jager was a participant in the Dutch game showThe Big Escape. In January 2019, she participated in the nineteenth season of the popular Dutch reality game showWie is de Mol?. She had to leave the competition in the third episode. In 2019, De Jager also appeared as a guest judge on BBC Three's version of Glow Up. After her coming-out video became popular in January 2020, De Jager was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she talked about her experience coming out as transgender.
