There comes a time in the life of every YouTube creator where the old tricks and tips just don’t cut it anymore. Despite the infinite combinations of glitter and gloss, sometimes a beauty blogger just hits pan.

It’s totally fine to branch out into subjects other than makeup for your videos! As with any material, make sure that you’re creating this content because you actually want to, not because it might garner more views or that everyone else is doing it.

The best way to make entertaining videos is to make something that you would want to watch, and that goes for every genre. Take inspiration from channels that you really appreciate, not just the popular ones. Check if your favorite blogger has different playlists for their channel, and see how they differentiate their videos.

Jenn Im

Over the last few years, many beauty bloggers have stepped outside the makeup aisle in a variety of ways. There are some benefits to keeping a strong focus on beauty, as you become the spot to go to for that topic. For example, Stephanie Nicole is so dedicated to liquid lipstick that she has a chart to ascertain the full caliber. Lisa Eldridge crafts a cynosure on beauty products, which makes sense since she’s an actual artist for Lancôme. Even if makeup is a hobby rather than a career, there are certainly enough ways to vary content while concentrating on beauty; monthly favorites, GRWMs, hauls, tutorials, and what have you.

Of course, there’s also the reverse situation, wherein creators who wouldn’t normally talk about makeup feel pressured to because it’s more lucrative and more expected of female YouTube creators in general, but we’ll leave that for another discussion.

Jackie Aina

Anyway, as your channel evolves, it’s possible that your interests will develop. There are video styles adjacent to beauty that could be natural extensions of your content, the most obvious example, of course, being fashion! Tons of creators have some sort of look book video, and it’s a great way to branch into clothing. Coming from the world of makeup, you clearly know something about color coordination and style, and many of the video prompts for beauty vlogging can easily transfer to fashion.

Along with what we wear, there’s something else integral to the daily routine: food. This might require some background skills and a different setting than the typical bathroom (hopefully), but fixing up a beloved dish can be a nice way to diversify your content and get some snacks. Breakfast can be the most important meal of the day and an easy way to get into foodie videos.

Those are just a few given ideas. For more inspiration, just look at your activities offline! Do you have favorite exercises? Do you knit, or paint, or play instruments? Where else do you cultivate interest? Kaya Empire can switch from answering queries about skin care to her engineering major, a subject she’s clearly very passionate about. Even in her monthly favorites, Jenn Im always mentions books and films that she enjoys alongside cosmetics, and it’s cool to see her interests outside of eyeshadow palettes.

Countless bloggers have discussed more complex topics in their videos, ranging from relationship issues to mental health to feminism. This expansion is great because it exposes viewers, especially younger members of the audience, to material that they may not have purposefully sought out otherwise, and it’s a gentler way to begin those conversations.

Kaya Empire

If you do branch out beyond beauty, there may come a time when you have to decide whether to start a second channel. Personally, I think it’s best to keep your audience concentrated in one place. Going off pure metrics, ten thousand subscribers on one channel sounds more impressive than five thousand subscribers on two different channels, even if it’s the same amount.

This strategy also builds the channel to promote you as a fully-rounded person, rather than just the sum of things that you talk about. Again, it depends on what sort of approach you take to video-making. As with any advice, doing what you want to do takes precedence, but it’s wise to wait until you have some sort of established fanbase who would more willingly make the jump from one link to the next before putting energy into a second channel.

Of course, if the non-beauty topics that you want to tackle are radically different from what you normally do, it could be nice to start a second channel lest you alienate your original audience. The main channel could stay beauty-related, while the second one can host less-structured vlogs, cooking videos, studying tips or whatever else your heart desires.

Kaya Empire

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