8 Filipino Beauty YouTubers Who Defined the 2010s

Every tween girl in the early to mid-2010s wanted to be a beauty YouTuber. 

Back then, being a YouTuber wasn’t even a serious career path yet—it was something you did outside of school, armed with a basic ring light; a phone or a point-and-shoot camera propped on a tripod or stack of books; fairy lights; and a camera-ready, confident, and slightly bubbly personality that channeled the it girls of YouTube: Bethany Mota, Zoe Sugg, or Michelle Phan. 

Local YouTubers filmed their videos with whatever was on hand and roughly edited on iMovie, but that didn’t stop them from shaping how a generation understood beauty: what the best drugstore dupes were, how to fit a makeup haul to a specific budget, and how to recreate an iconic artist’s makeup look. This was almost a decade ago, before “get ready with me” videos lived on TikTok, and way before every mall had a beauty content creator’s own product line on its shelves. 

Most of them have now moved on to different platforms, niches, and versions of themselves entirely—but the blueprint they helped build is still visible in the beauty content we watch today. Here are eight of the OG Filipino beauty YouTubers who taught us everything we need to know about beauty, just like an ate would. 

Michelle Dy

If you were new to makeup and didn’t know where to start, Michelle Dy’s channel was one of the first places the internet pointed you to. Her videos were quirky, fast-paced, and beginner-friendly—a mix of makeup tutorials, beauty hauls, and drugstore-product recommendations that made the whole category feel less intimidating. Her first-ever upload was an everyday smoky eye tutorial in 2011, a fitting start for someone who’d go on to make “easy beauty” a part of her whole brand. 

Dy still posts regularly today, having since expanded from YouTube to Instagram and TikTok. She also hosts the podcast “Make Up Sessions” on YouTube, which first aired in June 2025. 

Anna Cay

Since launching her channel in 2015, Anna Cay-Villalobos has built a following of almost a million subscribers on YouTube. Her early videos were a straightforward mix of makeup reviews, product hauls, easy-to-follow tutorials, and lifestyle—the kind of content that made her a go-to for viewers who are looking for honest verdicts on a product before buying it. 

Cay-Villalobos has since posted more about lifestyle, travel, and adulting on her YouTube and other social media platforms. She is also the founder of the beauty brand Arcadia Beauty. 

Raiza Contawi

Raiza Contawi built her reputation on range: her channel holds everything from technical, in-depth makeup tutorials to easily digestible ones for beginners. If you were a big fan of K-dramas in the late 2010s, then you’re sure to have passed by one of her videos by chance. Beyond tutorials, she also posted product reviews, hauls, and glimpses into her personal life.

Since 2015, she’s kept a consistent posting schedule, with only a recent short hiatus while prepping for the 2025 launch of her own beauty brand, Enigma Beauty.

Anne Clutz

Joining the ranks is Anne Clutz, or Joanne Clutario, a household name in the Filipino beauty vlogging scene thanks to her honest and unbiased product reviews and beginner-friendly makeup tutorials. 

She’s also known for affordable product recommendations and candid videos about her life—an extension of the same no-frills attitude she carries onto her social media, where she posts real, unfiltered versions of herself.

Ana Victorino

Anyone who has spent time in the beauty vlogging space knows exactly who Ana Victorino is. A self-taught freelance makeup artist and digital creator, Victorino built her niche on single-digit-minute makeup tutorials—snackable enough to respect a viewer’s time, but never so rushed that the finished look suffers. 

Mae Layug-Madriñan

A registered nurse-turned-beauty brand founder, Mae Layug-Madriñan was a beauty girl at heart long before she made a career of it. While working as a cardiovascular nurse at a tertiary hospital, she started posting makeup tutorials, product reviews, and hauls on YouTube during the height of the beauty vlogging era. With engaging, high-quality videos, she built a following on the strength of her authenticity alone. 

That influence eventually led her to found her own brand, GRWM Cosmetics.

Janina Vela

If anyone else was hooked on YouTube like us, then Janina Vela was a name you already knew. She started her channel at 15 and quickly became the it girl of the beauty vlogging era—the local answer to Bethany Mota. Her content revolved around daily makeup and hair tutorials, product recommendations, and hauls, all carried by a bubbly, magnetic on-camera personality.

Vela still posts actively today, though she has since fully transitioned into political and advocacy content. Vela shared in the podcast Unbreakable with Migs Bustos, “The call to service has always been there. The purpose to live for a reason beyond yourself has always been there, and that’s something I am mirroring from my parents and my church way before I was on YouTube.” 

Rei Germar

Rei Germar might seem like an unlikely addition to this list, but before she became the lifestyle creator we know now, she was a beauty YouTuber first. She started her channel in 2017 with a Black Friday haul video, then she went on to post makeup tutorials, product dupes and recommendations, skin care routines, and more. 

Germar has since founded Tapies, a local comfortwear and nipple cover-up brand, and has collaborated with beauty brands like Sola Beauty—all while her YouTube channel shifted toward more lifestyle and travel content.