
There's a reason Nikkie de Jager — a.k.a. Nikkie Tutorials — is one of the most beloved and sought-after YouTubers in the entire world. On top of frequently displaying some extremely unique and high-octane makeup application skills, she's a constant positive force in the beauty community, where drama, controversy, and discrimination tend to run rampant and without regulation.
This week, de Jager proved that she's still someone in the beauty world to be admired thanks to her new system of labeling beauty products in her videos. Now her fans will have a crystal-clear idea of which products she purchased out of pocket, which ones she received for free, and which ones she got paid to use.
And the internet can't believe other influencers aren't doing the same.
Nikkie de Jager's most recent makeup tutorials feature her most impressive skills to date.
The tutorial she uploaded this week focuses on an "inverted" look inspired by X-ray images. As you can see, it's also partly an ode to her infamous Power of Makeup video turned movement. She found this look on a few other popular Instagram pages and decided to give the look her own Nikkie twist.
In the description of her YouTube video detailing the look, she called it the hardest makeup challenge she's ever faced.
"OMG! This has got to be the hardest makeup look I’ve ever created! Today I’m taking the challenge to create my look in an inverted/negative style! ALMOST LIKE AN X-RAY!" she wrote in the video's description. She also called for fans to share their funniest and creepiest medical stories.
But when de Jager began listing the products she used in the video, fans immediately noticed an upgraded feature: a visual transparency code.

Now, any time de Jager features a product in one of her videos, a side graphic appears that clarifies if she purchased the product with her own money, received it free from a brand, if she was paid to promote it, and whether or not she has a promotional discount code for the product.
This new system achieves a new level of transparency that isn't matched by another beauty influencer of de Jager's popularity caliber.

Though de Jager has usually clarified in her videos whether or not she received the products for free, her new sidebar warrants even more transparency for her followers who question if they can trust her reviews to be accurate or genuine. Name a YouTuber with same level of influence as de Jager who's willing to put their financial business on blast like this. You can't.
Why's it such a big deal? Beauty YouTubers make money for their reviews — and that's not inherently bad, but it can also affect how they present products to you.
Don't forget that de Jager is reportedly worth a cool $2.6 million — she needs to make that money somehow. It was rumored at one point that a positive review on de Jager's YouTube channel costs upward of hundreds of thousands of dollars, though that figure was never officially confirmed.
When a brand pays an influencer to feature a product on their platform, they're expected (or contractually obligated) to tell you that product is worth buying.
Again, this isn't an evil practice when pulled off in the right way. YouTubers who take payments to promote products they genuinely use and love offer an amazing opportunity for that person to make money, which in turn helps them make higher-quality content and, you know, live life with a salary.
But influencers who abuse paid promotion can end up selling their fans expensive products that in the end aren't worth it — if you pay close attention to an influencer's motives for selling you a product, it can directly impact your finances. The problem is that it's hard to tell the difference between a genuine and a forced paid promotion because influencers can disguise said paid promotions in a lot of subtle and still legal ways.
This new "transparency code," as fans are calling it, is simply de Jager's way of letting her fans know that they should consider de Jager's reasoning for featuring certain products.
And for lack of better words, that's extremely rad of her to do so. She could simply take whatever payment opportunities come her way without telling us, but she decided to put her business deals out in the open simply so her fans could have peace of mind and the ability to question her reviews.
Clearly I'm not the only one who thinks this is a groundbreaking practice. A new Reddit thread is highlighting the "code," which has started a conversation about YouTubers' not-so-transparent practices.

"The codes for this video (I assume they'll be the same for all videos) are bought with my own money, received in PR, sponsored, and affiliate code. I think this is a great idea and I fully support this!" wrote the Reddit user who started this thread. "Love having it show up on the screen instead of having to read through the description box (or not letting viewers know these things at all)."
And though fans think de Jager could make a couple improvements to the code's visual aspects, they mostly agree this is a great place to start.

"Sponsored and PR symbols are very clearly understood, stack of cash is somewhat clear, but I feel in this specific situation YouTubers are more likely to clarify on video anyways," this user analyzed.
"Without context, affiliate code is definitely the hardest to understand… Except this would also say this would be accompanied on camera and in the description box with a link to follow through, that the 'vague symbol' is not as important when it needs to actually tell you the affiliate code to even be used."
Now the real question is: Who else on YouTube isn't too chicken to implement their own code?

Come through Jeffree Star, Manny Gutierrez, James Charles, Graveyard Girl, Jaclyn Hill, Tati Westbrook, and … well, everyone else.
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