What unites these creators is that they intrinsically understand the power that beauty has on social media. All have grown up in a thriving culture of beauty YouTubers, on a diet of make-up tutorials and product hauls, and with a rotating door of beauty influencers; each explains that they had an interest in make-up first, the decision to bring politics into the mix was second. According to writer Alice Ophelia – one part of the hugely successful newsletter High Tea, a veritable bible for understanding Gen Z and TikTok trends – part of the lure rests in the sheer popularity of make-up on the internet. “Beauty trend videos are highly engaging, taking the viewer through a routine, which promotes active participation on the part of the viewer rather than passive consumer of the content,” she notes. “Mixing political messages within this familiar topic and content format is a subversion of the first iteration of beauty vloggers and archetypal beauty content that we’ve seen ac