Beauty influencers are a relatively new thing in the world of beauty. However, thanks to social media, it’s been a very profitable journey for those beauty influencers who understand the importance of a personal brand. Forbes has done us a solid and shown us normal people just how much reach these beauty influencers have over social media.

Collectively, they have 49,157,110 Instagram followers. That’s the entire population of Colombia following these people on Instagram. That’s insane.

All up, their collective reach is approximately 135,000,000 people. That’s almost as much as the population of China. China. These influencers have a reach that equates to an entire country known for being the most densely populated country in the world.

These influencers are also making a lot of money from their social reach, sometimes being paid as much as $300,000 to feature a product on their social media. As long as the influencer hashtags the social post with #ad to let the followers know that it is in fact a sponsored post, their followers are happy and the marketers are over the moon. They have exposure to hundreds of thousands of people, and the followers get exposed to a brand new product that’s been endorsed by their favourite beauty blogger. Win win for everyone!

These are the top ten beauty influencers in the world for 2017.

Zoella

Does this surprise anyone? She’s a 27 year old Youtube queen who has three books under her belt, as well as a very successful beauty product line and 11.8 million Youtube subscribers hanging off her every word. She’s clearly got it all going on.

Michelle Phan

Michelle Phan has been on Youtube for about a decade and came up with the very successful idea for Ipsy Cosmetics. Ipsy Cosmetics is a personalised “Monthly Makeup and Beauty Sample Subscription”. Phan used to do sponsored advertisements on Instagram but “quickly learned that it wouldn’t be sustainable for long since viewers prefer authenticity over ads. “

Huda Kattan

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSsx4iHg9JL/?taken-by=hudabeauty&hl=en

Huda Kattan is based in Dubai and launched a cosmetics brand with her sisters. Her eyelashes are now favoured by the Kardashians, and sold in vending machines throughout Dubai. Kattan also has a cosmetics line in Sephora, which is a beauty influencer’s dream.

Nikkie de Jager

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSwgmAADMRI/?taken-by=nikkietutorials&hl=en

Nikkie de Jager is a Dutch born beauty influencer who started way back in 2008. Now, she has 6.6 million Youtube subscribers following every step of her beauty tutorials. Check out her videos here.

Shannon Harris

Shannon Harris is a Kiwi born beauty blogger who saw a gap in the market in 2009 when it came to beauty blogging and decided that if she couldn’t find it, she would make it.

“I could never find anything from Australia or New Zealand,” said Harris. Naturally, she’s got her own beauty brand, xobeautyshop and an impressive Youtube subscriber count to boot.

Jeffree Star

Jeffree Star has been around since the days of MySpace, when people first started copying his makeup. He has a Youtube channel that has 4.4 million subscribers and a very successful line of cruelty free liquid lipsticks.

Kandee Johnson

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSo2XEVBC8i/?taken-by=kandeejohnson&hl=en

Kandee Johnson has been on Youtube since 2008, when she started making videos with her grandparents’ old camera. Now, she has her own nail polish line called ‘Sinful Colors’, which is found everywhere from Target to Sephora.

Manny Gutierrez

Manny Gutierrez, also known as Manny MUA, was considering medical school before deciding that makeup was his future. He’s now the spokesman and face for Maybelline, as well as being best mates with Jeffree Star.

 Christen Dominique

Wayne Goss