Nikkie De Jager

It might come as a surprise to know that Nikkie De Jager's fame is in fact the result of an unexpected incident back in 2008. During a boring day, being down with sickness, she decided to watch the MTV show "The Hills". She was so stunned by the gorgeous looks of Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag and Audrina Patridge in the show that she decided to search for YouTube videos on "The Hills Makeup." She soon discovered a plethora of makeup tutorials on YouTube and spent the next three months learning more about the topic. She uploaded her first YouTube video at the age of 14, and it took only eight views and three comments on her first video to get her hooked to the video sharing platform. She started to upload makeup tutorials every week, and within a very short time, her channel "NikkieTutorials" became The Netherlands’ most subscribed and most watched beauty channel.

Nikkie's special power is probably that she can transform the looks of people. However, what is more significant is that, through her tutorials, she empowers others to learn how to transform themselves. In fact, even though inadvertently, Nikkie once became the face of an online movement named "The Power of Make-up." Nikkie had uploaded a video on her channel by the same name to show her viewers what makeup can do to a person. She was driven by the fact that people often fail to recognize her as the glamorous YouTube makeup guru when she is without makeup. As an experiment, she put makeup only on one side of her face to show her viewers the split look with and without applying makeup. She also mentioned in the video that people do not always put makeup to look beautiful in the eyes of others, or to hide their true appearances. They often do it because it is a fun and creative process. She wanted to stop women from feeling guilty about using makeup. Inspired by her video and her message, a number of young women started to put pictures of themselves on social media with makeup on only one side of their faces. It soon became an online movement against makeup-shaming. Nikkie soon started to appear on various articles and her video was featured on the TV show Good Morning America, with professional makeup artists giving models the half-makeup look onscreen.

Fame didn't stop Nikkie De Jager from learning more tricks to polish her craft. As she started to gain popularity, she was contacted by professional makeup artist and tutor Pascale Tesser of the B Academy, Amsterdam. In 2010, she decided to attend a makeup course by Pascale Tesser which taught her everything about professional makeup for photoshoots and shows. During her time at Amsterdam, she developed a good friendship with Tesser and assisted her on shows and photoshoots. In 2011, she joined Tesser’s "Colourfool Agency" which provided her with the opportunity to work on some great projects like Hollands & Benelux’s Next Top Model, Miljoenenjacht & The Face. In late 2012, she was singed for a monthly beauty-column in teen magazine Fashionista. She has also worked for magazines like Marie Claire, Linda and Talkies. In 2014, Nikkie left Colourfool Agency to work individually as a freelance Hair & Makeup Artist.