Early Life and Education

Safiya Nygaard was born on July 16, 1992, in Santa Clara, California, to a Danish father, Niels Nygaard, who works as a university mathematics professor, and an Indian mother named Mumtaz.^[1] She grew up in Chicago with her younger brother Adil, where she attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School until graduating in 2010.^[1] Nygaard pursued higher education at Stanford University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama and English.^[1] ^[21]

Career at BuzzFeed

After graduating from Stanford, Nygaard joined BuzzFeed in April 2015 as a video production intern, despite having limited experience in video creation and needing to teach herself the necessary skills.^[4] By November 2015, she had advanced to a full-time video producer position and became a founding member and co-creator of the "Ladylike" series on BuzzFeedYellow (now As/Is).^[3] ^[4] The series focused on women's fashion and beauty content and proved highly successful, helping the BuzzFeedYellow channel gain approximately 1.7 million subscribers in 2016.^[3]

Nygaard left BuzzFeed in January 2017 to pursue independent content creation.^[1] ^[2] She explained her decision in a March 2017 video titled "Why I Left BuzzFeed," which has since garnered over 15 million views.^[4]

YouTube Success and Content Style

Nygaard's self-titled YouTube channel, originally created in November 2011, became her primary focus after leaving BuzzFeed.^[9] The channel has grown to over 10 million subscribers with more than 2 billion total views as of 2025.^[6] ^[9]

She is particularly known for her "Bad Makeup Science" series, where she experiments by mixing large quantities of beauty products together to create new "Franken" products.^[1] ^[5] This innovative approach has been credited with starting a YouTube trend of combining multiple beauty items of the same type.^[1] ^[5]

Beyond beauty content, Nygaard creates fashion-related videos featuring unusual clothing items such as clear pants, extremely long jeans, and novelty footwear.^[1] She has also produced historical fashion content, including collaborations with Colonial Williamsburg to explore 18th-century styling.^[1]

Recent Content and Production

In early 2025, Nygaard and her team completed renovating an old warehouse into a professional studio space, which they documented in a February 2025 video.^[23] Her recent content includes travel and food videos, such as exploring Malaysian street food in March 2025.^[25]

Business Ventures and Collaborations

In October 2019, Nygaard launched a successful lipstick collection in collaboration with ColourPop Cosmetics, featuring six shades inspired by her makeup mixing experiments.^[1] ^[7] The collection sold out quickly after its initial release and was restocked in December 2019 due to high demand.^[7]

She also collaborated with nail polish brand Holo Taco in 2023 to release a limited edition goth-themed collection, working with Simply Nailogical's Cristine Rotenberg.^[8] ^[10] The collaboration took over a year to develop and featured five nail polish colors that combined holographic effects with gothic aesthetics.^[10]

Nygaard operates her own merchandise brand called Fiendish Behavior, which sells apparel and accessories themed around her content and personality.^[16] ^[22] ^[24]

Professional Recognition and Earnings

According to analytics platform Cosmetify, Nygaard was named the highest-earning beauty influencer in 2022, with estimated combined earnings of up to $196,877 per post across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.^[18] ^[19] ^[20] Her YouTube content generates the majority of these earnings, with individual videos estimated to earn up to $196,877.^[20]

In 2022, Nygaard signed with Night Media, a management company that represents major creators like MrBeast and Ryan Trahan.^[16] She became the first beauty creator to join Night's roster and works with manager Lili Colwell to expand her business ventures.^[16]

Personal Life

Nygaard married Tyler Williams, her longtime collaborator and boyfriend, in November 2019 at Carondelet House in Los Angeles.^[11] ^[13] Williams proposed at Disneyland in December 2018, and the couple documented their engagement and wedding planning process in multiple YouTube videos.^[12] ^[14]

The couple relocated from Los Angeles to Raleigh, North Carolina, in early 2021, seeking to be closer to family and support systems.^[15] ^[17] They chose Raleigh specifically because Tyler has family in the area and several YouTube creators they know have moved to the region.^[15]

Current Status and Projects

As of 2025, Nygaard continues producing content regularly for her main YouTube channel, which maintains over 10 million subscribers.^[6] Her team includes executive producers Tyler Williams and herself, along with managing producer Lona Smith and associate producer Ishara Mathews.^[23] The production operates from their renovated warehouse studio in North Carolina, which features dedicated filming spaces, editing rooms, and storage for costumes from previous videos.^[23]