Vogue Education Presents: Beauty Influencer and TikTok Sensation, Zak Heath
Commencing our spring term, we were delighted to welcome Zak Heath to speak at Vogue Education Presents. MA Fashion Journalism & Editorial Direction student, Sanya Khurana reports…
Zak Heath is a beauty influencer who primarily focuses on skincare and makeup for men and believes in the genderless nature of beauty and fashion. The 20-year-old began creating content during the lockdown when he saw a gap in the market for men wearing natural makeup. Over the past four years, after strategically responding to initial scepticism, Zak has achieved incredible success across all social media platforms, with over 1.1 million followers on TikTok, 54.2k followers on Instagram, and 200k subscribers on YouTube.
Having previously taken part in the Vogue Teen Festival as a teen and then later returning as an industry guest, Zak, is currently pursuing a Fashion Journalism degree at Central Saint Martins, and his success on various social media platforms has attracted collaborations with renowned luxury makeup brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, YSL Beauty and Clarins.
CNC students were captivated by Zak’s conversation where he shared compelling insights from his content creation journey and rise to fame on social media.
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You never know where things will go
Zak shared how his success was a “very hit-and-miss case scenario.”
“It’s like a pinch moment every day,” he said. “I pinch myself every day thinking how I’m getting to work with all these beautiful brands. I never even imagined things would go like this.”
He started creating content four years ago out of boredom during the pandemic lockdown.“I’m the only child and I had nothing to do so I just started doing makeup, and then I was like you know what, let’s just create a video,” he said.
Although his first video did badly, his second one was very successful. As he explained, if you are “naturally strategic” and passionate, you never know where things might go if you give it a chance.
When in doubt, find a niche
When recounting his success, Zak states the importance of finding a niche.
As for Zak, he always knew he loved creating content and talking about makeup and skincare. Since there were very few guys doing makeup videos when he started, he realised he had found a market. In fact, he was the only guy in the UK doing natural makeup videos at the time.
“If you want to go viral you need to find a niche,” Zak Heath, Content Creator
“If you want to go viral you need to find a niche,” he said. “Create content around a trend, and if it doesn’t work for you try another trend, but if it works for you, build more content around that and make it your niche, your brand identity.”
Know how to use the platforms As Zak explains, every social media platform has to be approached differently, and for a content creator it’s important to be well-versed with this. For instance, his Instagram has a higher engagement from men, while his TikTok has attracted a larger female audience. This is not only because he is using makeup products that are largely marketed towards women, but also because of the nature of the platforms themselves.
“If you know the platforms well you can cater to the audiences better,” he said. “Like with YouTube vlogs, I think people only watch them if you are a big celebrity influencer and have a big fan base that’s very interested in you, and because I know that, I still do vlogs, but I spend more time doing my TikTok videos because they do so much better.”
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Dealing with Criticism
Here’s Zak’s advice: take the trolling with a pinch of salt and learn to “love the hate.”
“I love the criticism, that’s what made me grow,” he said. “I just create my aesthetic videos, and I never reply to the haters. I feel like I can laugh about it, it doesn’t bother me..”
Having built his resilience since high school, where his friends were never supportive of him and his endeavours, he claims that he now finds it easier to deal with insensitive comments like “men need to be on the battlefield” or “your nose is more to the left.”
Be open to change
Having worked extensively across beauty brands, Zak is now trying to pivot to the fashion landscape – a new, alien world, filled with “intimidating fashion people in their big puffer jackets and sunglasses” as he humorously puts it.
“It’s scary, I have to relearn everything, I have to research more now on the fashion side, I’ve been too comfortable in my niche for too long,” he said. “It’s so out of my comfort zone, but if I want to expand and transition to fashion and get fashion partnerships, I have to create fashion content now.”
As he explains, change is the only constant in the industry, and to expand one’s reach, one has to be open to it. This applies, not only in terms of content but also social media platforms. For instance, many brands are now using Snapchat to market themselves, and to get deals from these brands, Zak has to expand his reach on Snapchat, which he hasn’t been engaging with as much in the past. But now, with his increased Snapchat activity his “account has 1000 new followers each day” and he is getting several brand offers on this platform.
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Future plans for Zak
As for the near future, his agent is in talks with Valentino Beauty for his next partnership. Inr the longer term, Zak plans to consult with makeup brands on how they should be taking men more seriously in their campaigns, especially since the market for men’s cosmetics is increasing.
Words By Sanya Khurana
Images by Annelee Kiliddjian, MA Creative Direction for Fashion for Fashion Media student