MissDarcei

Darcei Giles was born on Novemer 12, 1991, in Toronto, Ontario and grew up as an only child in a single-parent household. As a child, she was into Korean culture; she was only into K-pop and Korean dramas.^[1] Giles was also a competitive dancer and was into theater.^[2] She attended York University. Before creating her channel, she worked part time at Sephora and Starbucks; her first job was at a movie theater.^[3]

Giles created her channel in 2010, originally just as a hobby to share her makeup hauls and hairstyles. She was not aware that it could become a job at the time.^[3] Her first viral video was in 2018, when she uploaded "Black Girl Tries Following A Korean Makeup Tutorial." She continued uploading video in the "Black Girl Tries" series, trying other makeup styles that are not commonly associated with Black women,^[4] which helped her launch YouTube as a career. In 2020, Giles quit her part-time job and became a full-time content creator, later gaining increased popularity in 2022 through YouTube Shorts.^[3] She had also created a TikTok account in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] In 2022, Giles became the first Black creator to win the Streamy Award for Beauty.^[6]

In March 2024, Giles made a TikTok calling out K-beauty brand TirTir after she was gifted a foundation set at a store event. She liked the coverage and finish of the foundation, but the brand did not make a shade for her skin color. The video went viral and the brand later contacted her to partner with them on the launch of a new product that included twenty more shades, including her shade. In a year, TirTir went from nine to forty foundation shades.^[1][7] Giles claimed that the event was the first time a brand had answered a call for inclusion.^[8][9] In April, she also made a video asking Parnell to expand their shades, leading to her working with the brand to create a forty-shade range foundation set.^[1][2][6]