Desi Perkins Is Officially Back on YouTube—& It Feels Like 2016 All Over Again

It’s been over a decade since Desi Perkins first began sharing beauty tutorials on YouTube—content that not only gained her a massive following but also led to major beauty partnerships and collaborations, eventually culminating in the launch of her own skincare brand, Dezi Skin. The brand has since become one of the latest influencer-founded lines to land at Sephora.

As she navigated the beauty industry over the years, Perkins went from one of the “OG beauty influencers” to a full-fledged beauty entrepreneur—and even became a mom in the process, an inspiration behind the brand’s Bebé Balm Nourishing Belly Butter.

With all of her recent career—and life—endeavors, it was no shock to Perkins’ audience when she started pulling back on YouTube. Beauty tutorials have also become less of a thing, especially with the rise of platforms like TikTok. But now, she’s officially making her return. With all the buzz around 2016 this year and the nostalgia tied to that era, the creator and founder announced she was heading back to YouTube.

And Perkins made her return count, releasing her first video in years alongside fellow beauty brand founder and megastar Selena Gomez. The video, titled “I’m Back!! Half 2016, Half 2016 Glam on Selena Gomez,” taps directly into that throwback energy.

“Hey guys, welcome back to my channel—and who else to bring me back from the YouTube graveyard but Miss Selena Gomez,” Perkins says in the video. “I haven’t filmed a YouTube video in years, and the only person who could bring me back is right here. To honor YouTube in its glory days—and glam in general—we’re doing 2016 vibes.”

In the video, the two Latina beauty founders reflect on their favorite parts of that era—from the state of social media at the time to how they approached beauty—while Perkins creates a split look: one side more present-day, natural glam, and the other a full 2016-inspired beat.

Anyone who was watching YouTube back in 2016 knows it was an explosive year for beauty vloggers and influencers. It marked a shift where creators—not publications or even brands—were shaping beauty culture. So many of us who couldn’t find what we were looking for in traditional spaces turned to creators like Perkins to learn everything from everyday makeup to full Halloween glam. Many of those same influencers went on to launch successful brands, often stepping away from YouTube in the process.

So much of 2026 has felt like a revival of 2016, and seeing Perkins back on YouTube—this time with Selena Gomez—hits for longtime viewers. It’s not just nostalgia for the glam, but for a time when beauty content still felt like it was being figured out in real time.