Safiya Nygaard

Safiya Nygaard (born July 16, 1992)^[1][2] is an American YouTuber. She gained prominence through her work with BuzzFeed, creating the series LadyLike. She is now known for her solo YouTube channel, containing content such as her Bad Makeup Science series.

Safiya Nygaard
Nygaard in 2018
Personal information
Born	(1992-07-16) July 16, 1992 (age 32) Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Education	Whitney M. Young Magnet High School Stanford University
Occupation	YouTuber
Spouse	Tyler Lee Williams ​ (m. 2019)​
YouTube information
Channels	Safiya Nygaard Safiya & Tyler Safiya Shorts
Years active	2014–present
Genres	Beauty science fashion travel
Subscribers	10.1 million (Safiya Nygaard) 588 thousand (Safiya & Tyler) 1 million (Safiya Shorts)
Views	2 billion (Safiya Nygaard) 41 million (Safiya & Tyler) 499 million (Safiya Shorts)
Associated acts	Simply Nailogical
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers 10,000,000 subscribers 2024
Last updated: November 2024

Early life

Nygaard was born in Santa Clara, California to Danish father Niels Nygaard, who is a university math professor, and Indian mother Mumtaz.^[3] She has a younger brother named Adil Nygaard. She was raised in Chicago, where she attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School until 2010. Upon graduating from high school, she entered Stanford University,^[3] where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and English.

Career

Nygaard in 2010

Nygaard was hired by BuzzFeed in April 2015 and worked as a video producer for BuzzFeed's show Ladylike. She left BuzzFeed in January 2017.^[4] Nygaard explained her reasoning for leaving the company in her popular 2017 video titled "Why I Left BuzzFeed",^[5] which as of April 2017 had over 14.9 million views.^[6]

Nygaard is known for her YouTube series "Bad Makeup Science" in which she has mixed together all of her liquid lipsticks, foundations, eye shadows and highlighters to create "Franken" products.^[7][8] Nygaard is often credited with starting a YouTube trend of mixing large quantities of a single type of beauty product together.^[9] She has also made several fashion related videos including wearing strange or novelty clothing items such as clear pants,^[10] 9-foot long jeans,^[11] and thigh-high Ugg boots.^[12] She has also created videos exploring historical fashion, including one produced in collaboration with Colonial Williamsburg.^[13]

In October 2019, Nygaard released a lipstick collection in collaboration with ColourPop.^[14] In 2022, Nygaard signed with the management company Night.^[15] According to Cosmetify, she was the highest-earning beauty influencer in 2022.^[16] Nygaard collaborated with Cristine Rotenberg's nail polish brand, Holo Taco, to release a limited edition collection of nail polish.^[17][18]

Personal life

Nygaard is married to YouTube collaborator Tyler Williams. Several YouTubers, including Jenna Mourey (Jenna Marbles) and Cristine Rotenberg (Simply Nailogical), attended Nygaard and Williams' 2019 wedding.^[19]

In 2015, Nygaard and Williams acquired a cat named Crusty. He ended up becoming a prominent part of Safiya's channel. Crusty died in late 2021 due to old age. Nygaard uploaded a YouTube video as a tribute to Crusty on April 2, 2022.^[20] They adopted another stray kitten, whom they named Cosmo, a few months later.^[21]

In 2021, Nygaard and Williams sold their house in Studio City, Los Angeles, which they originally purchased in 2019. It was bought by actress Uzo Aduba for $3.1 million, turning a $200k profit in under two years of ownership.^[22] Nygaard and Williams temporarily moved to Philadelphia from Los Angeles in early 2021 before permanently relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina that February.^[23][24]

Filmography

Television

Title	Year	Role	Notes	Ref.
Escape the Night	2018	The Investigative Reporter	Main role	[25]

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Category	Result	Ref.
Streamy Awards	2018	Beauty	Nominated	[26]
		Creator of the Year	Nominated
	2019		Nominated	[27]