The Expert Edit features interviews with specialists about the products they swear by in their chosen field. For the latest installment, we spoke to beauty influencer Darcei Giles about her product recommendations.
Darcei Giles, better known as MissDarcei, has been creating beauty content on YouTube since 2010. Having garnered close to four million subscribers, she’s become known for her series “Black Girl Tries,” which was started in 2018 to test makeup styles that Black people typically don’t get to participate in. “At the time, the trend was to follow other creators’ makeup tutorials, but everyone was following the tutorial of someone who looked like them,” Giles tells PS. “I decided to do the opposite and followed the tutorial of a Korean makeup artist.”
“Content creators do have a voice and we do have real influence.”
Giles has always been a lover of Korean beauty brands, so when she showed up to a TIRTIR event where guests were going home with nine foundation shades – none of which matched her skin color – she gladly accepted the gifting. “When I got home, I decided to try the foundation anyway and I loved the formula, so I made a video asking the brand, if they ever decided to make my shade or darker, [to] call me.”
Not only did the reel go viral, TIRTIR contacted Giles to partner with her on a new launch that included her shade. “This was a monumental moment in the beauty industry because this was the first time a brand actually answered the call of inclusion. This moment proved that content creators do have a voice and we do have real influence,” she says.
Giles and TIRTIR now work together to prioritize inclusivity and expand diversity, and other companies have taken note. She maintains that her perseverance in consistency got her to where she is today, with a huge following that trusts her guidance and makeup recommendations. “It’s cliche, but be yourself. My weird interests got me where I am. It’s boring to try to be someone else. Even if someone is successful, you can’t become successful by being a copy of them. You have to do things your own way,” she says.
Beyond sampling makeup to fine-tune her favorite beauty products, Giles also spends a significant portion of her day regulating her nervous system by working out, practicing breathing exercises, and going for walks. Ahead, she shares her go-to picks with PS for makeup and skin-care, ranging from basic, affordable must haves to tried-and-true investment buys that she can’t live without.
