She’s got the glow, the following, and the business brain to match. But who is Desi Perkins beyond those perfectly curated Instagram posts? This Mexican-American beauty mogul turned makeup tutorials into million-dollar brands while keeping it real with her audience. No smoke and mirrors here. Just talent, hustle, and a vision that’s been paying off for over a decade now. If you’re wondering who is Desi Perkins is, and why she matters, you’re about to find out.
Born March 3, 1987, in Los Angeles, Desi didn’t start with fame handed to her on a silver platter. She worked service jobs, learned the ropes, and built everything from the ground up. Today, she’s running Dezi Skin, launching sunglasses, and influencing millions across multiple platforms. Her story proves you don’t need a trust fund to build something legendary in the digital age.
The LA Girl Who Started a Movement
Desi Perkins grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by her Latina family’s beauty traditions and cultural wisdom. Those early influences shaped everything about her approach to skincare and self-care rituals that came later. Her heritage isn’t just background noise but the foundation of her entire business philosophy and product development strategy.
Before the millions of followers and brand deals, Desi was grinding in the service industry like everyone else. That experience taught her patience, people skills, and how to handle every personality type under pressure. She didn’t forget those lessons when success came, and that authenticity became her superpower in an industry full of manufactured personalities.
How She Conquered YouTube and Instagram
The answer to who Desi Perkins is starts with understanding her content creation genius on social media platforms. She didn’t just post pretty pictures or follow trending formats that everyone else was copying. Instead, Desi focused on solving real beauty problems that her audience actually struggled with daily.
Her breakthrough moment came from a tutorial showing people how to cover blemishes in the most natural way possible. Everyone deals with skin issues, and Desi’s approach felt like getting advice from your smartest, most stylish friend. She broke down complex makeup techniques into steps anyone could follow without needing professional training or expensive tools.
As her platform grew, she evolved beyond just makeup into comprehensive skincare education and wellness content. Brand collaborations amplified her reach, but Desi only partnered with products she genuinely believed in. That integrity became her trademark and built trust that most influencers spend years trying to establish.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Currently, Desi commands over 4 million followers on Instagram, making her a legitimate heavyweight in the beauty space. Her YouTube channel has 3.18 million subscribers who tune in regularly for tutorials, product reviews, and lifestyle content. Add another half-million followers on TikTok, and you’re looking at over 7.6 million people actively following her journey.
These aren’t just vanity metrics or bots inflating numbers to look impressive on brand pitch decks. They represent real influence, genuine engagement, and the power to move products when she gives recommendations. Her engagement rates prove she’s built a community, not just collected followers who scroll past mindlessly.
Building Brands That Actually Matter
Understanding who is Desi Perkins is means recognizing her entrepreneurial achievements beyond just posting content for brand sponsorships. In summer 2020, she launched Dezi sunglasses with her husband, Steven Perkins, as her business partner and co-founder. The line sold out fast, proving her audience was ready to support her independent ventures.
Dezi Skin followed with even bigger ambitions and a longer development timeline behind every product launch. She spent years finding the right labs, sourcing ingredients globally, and ensuring formulations met her exacting standards. Antioxidant fruit extracts from Mexico and potent vitamin C from Japan went into her proprietary blend.
Her approach emphasized diversity at every level of product development, not just in marketing campaigns or model selection. International ingredient sourcing reflected her belief that beauty innovation happens everywhere, not just in traditional cosmetics hubs. This philosophy differentiated Dezi Skin from countless celebrity brands that slap famous names on generic formulas.
The packaging aesthetic matches the quality inside each bottle with elevated design at accessible price points. Desi purposefully reduced profit margins to give customers products that look like luxury art pieces on vanities. This strategy built fierce brand loyalty and positioned Dezi Skin as aspirational yet attainable for real people.
Both brands operate direct-to-consumer, giving Desi complete control over customer experience and brand messaging across touchpoints. Dezi sunglasses has grown to 371,000 Instagram followers, while Dezi Skin commands 131,000 dedicated followers. These numbers prove her entrepreneurial ventures stand strong even separate from her massive personal following.
The Power Couple Building Together
Desi married Steven Perkins back in 2012, and their partnership goes way beyond typical relationship dynamics. Steven collaborates with Desi on videos, business strategy, and brand development as they co-founded both companies together.
The duo openly shares their life with followers, including struggles most influencers keep hidden behind perfect facades. Their transparency about fertility challenges resonated deeply with fans facing similar situations in their own lives. In 2020, they welcomed son Ocean after their documented journey that inspired their community.
What Drives Her Mission
When examining who is Desi Perkins is, her commitment to diversity and inclusion immediately stands out as genuine. Dezi Skin’s mission explicitly embraces all skin types and lifts people of color and female founders. This isn’t performative activism but real belief backed by concrete actions in hiring, partnerships, and business decisions.
Her Latina heritage deeply influences her skincare philosophy and the product development approach she brings to everything. Those cultural beauty traditions directly informed Dezi Skin formulations and the brand’s holistic approach to wellness. She’s celebrating and sharing her own heritage authentically, not appropriating culture for marketing points.
Advice for Aspiring Creators
Desi’s wisdom for people trying to break into content creation cuts through typical influencer advice nonsense. Her mantra is simple: create. She even has it tattooed on her wrist as a permanent reminder.
Authenticity matters more than perfection in today’s saturated content landscape, where everyone’s fighting for attention. Once Desi embraced showing imperfection, her community engaged more deeply with everything she shared online. Regular posting keeps you visible and relevant in algorithms that prioritize active creators over sporadic posters.
What’s Coming Next
The future holds ambitious expansion plans across Desi’s business ventures and creative projects she’s developing. Her current team includes just five people for each brand, with three being family members. Immediate priorities focus on team building and infrastructure to support her big-picture vision moving forward.
Product expansion within existing brands seems likely as Dezi Skin and sunglasses gain more traction. Any new launches will reflect the same quality standards that built her reputation over the years. The answer to who is Desi Perkins is keeps evolving as she grows personally and professionally.
The Bottom Line
Desi Perkins isn’t just another influencer riding the social media wave until it crashes on shore. She’s a mogul, a mother, and a mentor showing what’s possible with authenticity and vision. Her empire keeps expanding, but core values remain unchanged through every new venture and challenge.
From beauty tutorials to a business empire, her journey inspires millions wanting to turn passion into actual profit. She proved that hard work, cultural pride, and staying true to yourself build something lasting. That’s the real secret nobody talks about in the highlight reels and success stories.
