[βͺ intro music βͺ] Safiya: Hello, friends, and welcome to another video. Today, I'm going to be baking lipsticks into a cake... And then eating said cake. So as you guys may know, I am a lipstick fiend. It started with collecting and it has since moved on to chopping, melting, and now eating. Catch me on My Strange Addiction very, very shortly. But anyway, a few weeks ago, one of you guys tweeted at me that I should try and make food with Bite lipsticks, because they are marketed as being made with edible ingredients. And I thought: "That's so crazy, it just might work." So that's what we shall be doing today; we're going to be making a cake with Bite edible lipsticks as a key ingredient. And I guess we'll see if it turns into a cake or maybe just a puddle of wax, and also, how it tastes. It's not quite "bad makeup science," but it might be a bad life decision. Also, a quick shoutout to Cristine, who has previously made a cake with expired edible nail polish, as well as James, who has made a cake in the shape of his palette. And I will link both of those videos down below, just in case you're in that kind of mood. Now I'd like to take this moment to thank our sponsor for this video: Honey. Which, although it sounds like it could be an ingredient in a lipstick cake, is not. Honey is actually a free browser plug-in that automatically checks for the best promo codes every time you shop for something online. And basically, before you check out, it'll check out its database for any working promo codes to save you some money. And just take a look at this lil' guy; he's having a good time. It works on a lot of popular websites, like Ulta, Macy's, Sephora, and Morphe, so you can go and buy yourself some lipstick and, hopefully, not eat it. So if you're interested in checking it out, you can download it for free at www.joinhoney.com/safiya. Alright, back to the subject at hand: the cake. Now, once I had my mind made up about making a lipstick cake, the next question was, what kind of cake would be best for showcasing/tasting the lipstick? I have tried Bite lipsticks before, as in, I've eaten them before, and besides the waxy undertone, they have a kind of sweet, lemony taste and smell. So my first idea was that maybe we could make, like, a lipstick lemon tart or lemon bar, and just kind of melt or mash the lipstick into the filling, so you'd end up with kind of like little, pink lemon tarts. Now I do think that that might work, but it's not technically a cake, and I feel like "Lipstick Cake" has a nice ring to it. My second idea was to do a lipstick cheesecake, and to basically whip the lipstick into the cheesecake batter so we could have, like, a slightly lipstick-colored cheesecake, with a hint of lemony taste. I also think that this would work, but I feel like the visual impact would be low because you're just going to end up with, like, a pinkish cheesecake, and I feel like that's too normal for what I'm going for. So my third idea was to make a lipstick Funfetti cake where we could use small chunks of different coloured lipsticks in place of sprinkles, so there would be pieces of lipsticks still intact throughout the cake that you would encounter as you eat. This I also feel would showcase the variety of shades the best because they wouldn't just be all blended together in the batter, they'd be more like fun surprises. So that's what I decided we're going to make: lipstick Funfetti cake. Okay, so with our plans laid, I feel like now is the time that I should tell you to not try this at home. Bite lipsticks are marketed as being made with food-grade ingredients, as in the ingredients are naturally derived and organic. From what I can tell, they're mostly just a bunch of different oils and wax, so the lipsticks are technically safe to eat, as in they shouldn't send you to the hospital, but they're not meant to be eaten as, like, a snack. Now, according to my YouTube analytics, the vast majority of you all are over 18 so you can decide what to do with your lipstick and your bowels, but I would say, don't eat lipstick. Definitely don't eat a lot of lipstick, no matter how it's marketed, and don't bake it in a cake. Please. Alright, so with that, I'm going to go get some Bite lipsticks and also some baking ingredients, and when I return, we shall begin the cake-making process. Okay, so I'm here in my kitchen, ready now to make my Funfetti lipstick cake. Tyler: What are you doing? S: (laughs) So we just got back from Sephora, where I bought a large amount of the Bite Amuse Bouche lipsticks. Now, I noticed as I was picking them up that some of the containers said only made with, like, natural and organic ingredients, and not food grade. Tyler: They got downgraded. S: Some of them did still say food grade though, and... T: The ones we're gonna be eating? S: Those are the ones that are in this bag right now. T: Okay. Got it. S: So for our late-night baking session tonight, I found a Funfetti layer cake recipe from this blog called Pretty. Simple. Sweet. and she seems to make, like, a pretty good-looking plain white layer cake and then she sort of folds sprinkles into it to make it a Funfetti from scratch cake. So my plan is to take these Bite lipsticks and then chop them up finely into small pieces. Not so finely that, like, you can't taste a little morsel of lipstick, but definitely, like, small enough that they don't all just, like, sink to the bottom. And then, after we're done making our lipstick sprinkles, we can make, like, the actual cake. So we're starting with the slice and dice. T: This sounds like a bad Refinery29 article. S: "This girl made a Funfetti cake with lipstick, and now she's in the hospital." (laughter) As a sidenote, I did buy a few multiples of a couple of shades because they were bright but also just to make sure we had enough lipstick for our cake. T: So, we're gonna save this for our wedding too, right? S: Right, this is our wedding cake. T: Okay, cool. S: Yep, that's what this is going to be. T: That's why it's so expensive. (Laughs) S: Alright, so these are the colours that we have for our Funfetti sprinkles. So I think our next step is to just start dicing. Now, I do have a little bit of experience with chopping lipsticks, but not with chopping lipsticks to eat. So, I dunno. They seem pretty similar, but we'll see. T: This is like the Great British Bake Off against yourself. S: Basically. Against my dignity, really. Alright, so I'm going to start off with Cava, which is our only, like, really nude-y lipstick. You know there's, like, a couple of different things I'm thinking before I do the first chop. Number one being that when we melted all of the lipsticks from Sephora together, we kind of, like, tried to get the entire lipstick out, including the, like, sort of bit that's under here. So I'm going to try and, like, get the whole stick out first, and then chop. T: Oh... That was sexy as hell. S: Yep. See, that's what I wanted, so now, like, the whole tube is out. Let me get a paper towel. It's already messy. And then number two, being that I'm not sure how to do this safely... T: I don't think anything about this video is safe. S: Yeah. No one copy my cutting technique here. Be safe with knives. Oh, this is sticky. T: Here you go, though. Those are...those are off. S: They look like tiny, like, pieces of sausage. Slight thick pepperoni vibes. I kind of wonder if, like, for example, I should cut the sort of thick ones in half? T: Maybe. S: I mean, they're definitely not going to be uniform sprinkles, whatever we do. T: You don't say. S: This is a massacre. T: It is quite gruesome. S: Yeah. This is a bloodbath. Alright, I'm going to move on. T: I mean, if this won't get Gordon Ramsay's attention, what will? (laughs) S: Truly, what will? Alright, they are very sticky to each other. This is going to be very interesting. I'm bringing out the chopsticks, just to separate the sprinkles. I might have to place these sprinkles in one at a time. T: The only flaw in this plan, Safiya, is you're not that good with chopsticks. S: I'm not great at chopsticks... T: Yeah. S: ...but I'm probably better with chopsticks than I am with knives. I wonder if I should, like, maybe freeze them before I chop them, because right now, I'm getting a lot of sort of like, sticking and not, like, melting, but kind of like, softness, so I wonder if they were a little crispier, if they'd be better to, like, cut. I think also, going forward, I'm going to try and use some parchment paper, just because the lipstick is sticking to the cutting board A LOT. So I'm just going to transfer them by chopstick while the other lipsticks are in the freezer. My chopstick skills are really being tested right now and they are coming up medium. Alright, so it's been like ten minutes. Should we see what's up? They look the same. T: Yeah. S: They look exactly the same. T: Well, maybe their consistency is different. S: Alright, so let's take one of these frozen lipsticks and see how it does. This might be firmer. T: I think it looks firmer. S: This might be better. Yeah, let me try and chopstick them out. Ready? T: Oh, that kinda lifted. S: That looks much better. I gotta be honest. Okay, so, based off of that chopping session, I feel like putting them in the freezer does actually help the slice, so I'm actually going to stick these back in the freezer and then take them out one at a time when they're ready to be chopped. T: I'm just wondering if these little snippets are, like, more or less dense than cake. S: It's hard to say. I'm hoping that it's less dense, obviously, so it kind of, like, floats along instead of, like, sinking. This does kind of remind me of a specific episode of the Great British Bake Off where Mary Berry has given the contestants a cherry cake recipe and, like, part of the challenge is that you have to chop the cherries finely enough that they will stay, like, suspended throughout the cake and not sink. That's kind of what I based the whole vision of this cake on. T: Yeah. S: Like, a little. Alright, so we are mostly done chopping our lipsticks. We've just got one left, this green one called Kale. (bite noise) So let's just chop that one right up, and then we can put them all in the freezer, and then move on to the actual baking. I feel like that was definitely harder than I thought it would be, but at the same time, I'm not sure why I thought it would be easy. T: I think that I thought we could dice it almost like an onion. S: Yeah. T: But it's lipstick. S: Also, I look like a serial killer. Just my hands, the cutting board, the knives, the chopsticks. T: The rags. S: I mean, the rags. Just everything. So I guess I'll just do a little cleaning up really quick. Alright. So, now it's time to follow these instructions so I can actually make the cake part of the lipstick cake. So I'e started preheating my oven to 350 degrees, and while that's happening, I'm gonna make our batter. So, my first step is to sift all of my dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. Look at my myriad of containers. I'm all about that unified aesthetic. Am I Rosanna Pansino yet? T: Definitely not. S: Definitely not, although I did ask her a question about this recipe. I texted her late last night. Is this working at all? Can you see anything? T: It's definitely working. Try to keep it inside the bowl, though. S: I don't remember which one of these are baking soda, baking powder, and salt, but regardless, they're all going in. So those are my drys. So next up, we have to move on to the wets. I love the way butter smells. T: A lot of people through history have. S: Alright, now that the butter's in, let's go for the sugar. I feel like this looks like the intro to Aladdin. And now it's time to mix. Ope, it's not plugged in. Everyone, it's not plugged in! [mixer whirring]
T: Yeah! S: Do I just stick it right in? I'm so bad at baking. I am so bad at it. T: No yeah, that's what you do. [mixer whirring] T: That's looking like something. S: Yeah, it looks like mashed potatoes. Alright, there we go. That's some butter and sugar, I think. Okay. So now I'm gonna add my eggs, one at a time. Whoo! That was a plop if I ever heard one. Honestly, this looks so appetizing at this point. Like, this is what I want to eat. Okay, and then the last thing before we put in our dry mixture is 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract. I feel like my fingernails look so dirty to be baking, but I keep washing my hands and the lipstick won't go away. So now I'm gonna add my dry mixture to my wet mixture, as well as adding 1.5 cups of buttermilk. It looks so funky. T: It does look funky, it's like Greek yogurt. S: Ope! T: Onto the shirt. S: I've been hit! Mayday! She says not to overmix the batter, so I'm trying to not follow my instincts. T: Yeah! (laughs) S: I'm like, "Okay, stop now. Stop now!" Boom! And that, I believe is our batter. So now that our base batter is done, the next step in the recipe is to fold in the sprinkles. But of course, for us... our sprinkles are lipstick shavings. Now, something that I've been nervous about from the beginning is the lipstick chunks being too big and then sinking to the bottom of our cakes. So I'm wondering if for some of these, we should chop them in half. And then I will just basically drop them in and then fold them into our batter with one of my little... is this a spatula? T: Yeah. S: Folders. Folder guys. This is gonna take me awhile to drop all these in. It is at this point in the night that I question, what are we doing? As I place lipstick slivers in this batter, half by half, via chopstick, I wonder, how did we get here? Alright, I'm gonna fold this first layer of sprinkles in. I am trying not to squish any, but there are a lot. By the end, I'm gonna squish one. I just feel it coming. T: No, yeah. S: Alright. I feel like our first fold went okay, just like five more of those and we'll be all good. I think this layer is gonna be the reds. The reds ended up being the messiest because they were the softest. So... their sprinkles are more splotches. I think that this is the point when we ask, "Did we cut too much lipstick?" I was actually just thinking... will the cake stain your teeth? Could you apply lipstick to your face by just rubbing it into the cake? T: Well, you're gonna have to try that. S: Yeah. (laughing) T: We're gonna have to just pie you with the cake. Alright, and then this is going to be our final layer of the chips. I did just get a sort of chilling thought though. What if the lipsticks melt so much that they almost create just running streams of lipstick throughout the cake? So it's not really Funfetti, it's like... Murder! T: Blood-fetti? S: Yeah! Alright. I'm done! I probably shouldn't have touched my hair. So now I'm going to dole out the mixture evenly into these three cake pans. I am seeing lipstick pieces in there. T: Oh, there's a lot of lipstick in there, Safiya. It's like an M&M cookie. S: Oh, I'm so on board with that. Do I like flatten it out, and then it rises? Is that what happens with cake? T: I believe that's possible. S: (laughs) That's possible. Okay. So my cake is divided. Time to put it in the oven and see what the f**k happens. One... Two... And three. So now we wait 25 minutes to find out if... this... was worth it. I'm nervous. I didn't get to take a walk. Alright, so this is 10 minutes into baking. (unsure) It looks like it's baking normally, I think. It's very difficult to say. I don't wanna leave the oven door open too long. Okay, so it's been 25 minutes, and the bottom two don't look ready, but this one on top looks like it could be ready. Ohhh. Ty. It looks fun! It looks kinda holey, but it smells good and it looks kinda like a muffin. I'm just gonna get a toothpick to test if it's ready or not. Came out clean. Alright, so that is one of our layers of our lipstick Funfetti cake. I think this is working. T: We just might pull this off. S: What... on... this green earth... is happening? Okay. I feel like the last two are ready to come out, what do you think? Oh. This one has some wax like right at the edge. I hope that doesn't stop it from coming out of the pan. Alright. So... I'm pretty sure this is cake. They seem to be, at least at first glance, structurally sound. So I think we just have to let them cool for a little bit and then we can de-pan them and stick them in the fridge. I turned the dishwasher on because I forgot that we still had to film. It's so late right now. I let these cool for an hour. It's 5. Alright. So, everything that I've seen about removing cakes from pans Is that you have to do it like, you know, when you catch a spider. You like, put a piece of paper, and then... I guess you don't have to flip a spider. But in this case, we're putting something on the other side of the cup and then flipping it. T: It doesn't feel right? S: No it feels fine, I'm just nervous. T: Alright, flip! Mom's spaghetti. S: (gasp) Yes! Both: Whooooooa! T: Whoa, what is that?! It looks amazing! S: It looks like a map of the world. Well, not our world. A world. It is kind of stuck to the parchment paper, so I'm just gonna tweeze it off very carefully. Hoooooooh! Yeeeeeees! It looks pretty damn cool, to be honest. Alright, so I'm just gonna put some saran wrap on this, and then put it in the fridge until we're ready to decorate. And then I'll do the same thing with the other two. T: I mean this came out very Funfetti-ish in my opinion. S: It's a little more continental than Funfetti-ish. T: Yeah. S: But still a cake. Alright. Into the fridge it goes, and into my bed I go. Goodnight, sweet lipstick cakes. I will see you in the morn. Alright! So it's the next morning, and I'm here and ready to make my frosting and frost my lipstick cake. So our frosting will obviously go on top of our cake, but also act as a mortar for our three layers. And for our frosting, we need a lot of butter and a little bit of salt. Did that make it in? T: I... I think so. S: Did I just throw it over my shoulder compulsively? T: You did fling it. S: Then we're gonna mix those together and then add a lot of powdered sugar... Look at me! I'm in an episode of Narcos! ...and then add heavy cream and vanilla extract. This is the part that I asked Ro about. 'Cuz in the recipe they say heavy cream, but I could only find heavy whipping cream, And so I was like, "Ro, is this the same thing?" And she was like, good and decently long explanation, and I was like, "Cool." Alright, so now I have to whip, I think. T: Wheeeeew! Are you feeling it in your arm? S: I feel it in my fingers and my toes. Christmas is all around me. T: Well, at least powdered sugar is. S: Whew! And that... ...is frosting. So now that we've made our main frosting, we're gonna move on to my special frosting. Now since we came up with the concept of this cake, I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate lipstick into the frosting or decoration of it. And I've decided the best thing to do is to make more frosting, and then mix lipstick straight into the frosting with a hand mixer. So we kind of have our main frosting and then our little decorative frosting that we can put in a piping bag and make the accent color. I did have a few other ideas, like putting melted lipstick straight into a piping bag and then trying to pipe it out on the cake. But I tried that, and it does not work. Oh my god, Ty. Look at- the bag is totally melting. The bag is about to burst. The bag is melting!
T: Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! S: The bag is melting! So this is my most recent and hopefully best idea. Alright, so I'm just gonna try and blend these in here. [mixer whirring] T: Oh, that's working. S: Oh, yeah! T: That worked great! S: Whoa, this is awesome! Sorry. Frosting is flying, the bowl is too small. (giggles) Alright. So that's our frosting. I feel like the lipsticks got blended in almost immediately. And we ended up with this awesome.. bubblegum pink color. So with this done, now it's time to take out our cake and ice it. I've got a cake stand. I'm professional. Alright, so I'm gonna use this one as the base. How do I transfer it? Giant spatulas? I do have a giant spatula. T: Oh, you could use that. S: Alright, here it's comin'. T: Oh my god, yes. S: Oooh, that's working! Where did that giant spatula even come from? T: Remember when we were making giant eggs? S: We did that? T: No. S: Oh. (both laughing) For a second I believed you, too. I was like, "Wait, which video was that for? Okay. So now that I have my first layer on my cake plate, I'm just gonna frost the top of it so then we can put the second layer on top of that layer. I'm also not gonna frost the sides of the cake because that's what Pretty. Simple. Sweet. does. She kind of leaves the sides bare so you can see the Funfetti. Alright. That is layer number one. So now I have to remove layer number two from its cutting board. Listen, it was 5 AM. We thought cutting boards was the way to go. I feel like I'm doing okay for someone who's never done this before. T: You mean make a lipstick cake, right? S: I mean make like any cake and frost it to any capacity. T: Dude, this thing is tall as hell. S: She's tall! She's a tall one, Mr. Grinch. Alright. So now we have to do like one top layer of frosting. Now I know that the frosting's not gonna be like perfectly smooth, so I'm trying to make it artfully swiped. One might call it... rustic? T: Rustic? S: I don't know. I'm trying. Okay. So here is our cake, mostly fully formed. So I think the things to do now are the sort of decorative/"ja-jing" steps. So I'm gonna put a little bit of the white frosting in a pastry bag and try and fill in the cracks on the sides a little bit. And then I'm gonna put our pink lipstick frosting in a different frosting bag and do a little flowery stuff on top. I'm kind of trying to do what Pretty. Simple. Sweet. does by adding some swirls to the rim. I don't think we have the same piping head though. T: You do realize this is not an episode of Cake Boss, right? S: I feel like it is. Alright. So with the addition of six pink poop emojis to the top of this, I declare this cake finished! So the moment of truth... has arrived. It's time to cut and serve our lipstick cake. I'm terrified. T: I'm a little nervous. S: So I'm gonna use this incredibly sharp knife, which I'm not sure is ideal for cake cutting. And then I'll serve myself a big slice of lipstick pie. T: Cake. S: Cake. Alright, ready? This is like... one of the moments of truth. Ta-daaaa! Damnit. Get it off! T: You need a hand? S: No. No. No. Leave me alone, don't even breathe. A slice. Of lipstick... cake! Ba-doom! So this is what the cross-section of the cake looks like. As you can see, we've got some sort of like holes where the lipstick is. It seems like some of the lipstick chunks were big enough that they melted and then re-solidified and drooped a little bit. But other pieces seem to have like fully dissolved into the cake and are more just like splotches of pigment now. It doesn't seem like they're all just at the bottom though, which is good. Okay. So I should probably stop stalling and eat this thing. Shouldn't I? T: Ooohhh yeah. S: Yeah look, I've got a big chunk of lipstick at the bottom. Oh yeah, that's wax. That's big-time wax. Alright, ready? T: Yeah. S: Cheers! To all of you watching at home. Here's a big ol' bite. T: Eh? T: Eeehhh? T: Concerned face? T: Uh oh. S: That's amazing! T: Oh yeah! (laughing) S: That's so good! T: That's good? S: There's definitely... a bit of a waxy feel. But it almost feels like a thick frosting. T: What's that stuff called that they make those roses out of? Like fondant? S: No, it's much better than fondant. T: Oh yeah? S: Fondant is hard. This is chewy. I definitely taste the lemon that's in the Bite lipsticks, like definitely. T: Oh, a little lemon cake action. S: It almost cuts the super sweetness of the vanilla cake and frosting, so it kind of complements it nicely. I feel like this doesn't help the whole "don't try this at home." I still do not recommend trying this at home. But, you know... in the name of science, I would say this experiment was successful. Is there any lipstick on my teeth? T: Amazingly, there is not. Show me your tongue? No. You're good! (Saf chuckles) T: Okay. I feel like I need to try the frosting on top. T: Yeah. S: Oh my god. It's all coming off. Oh! It's all coming off. Alright, we're good. Cheers! Skal! Okay. The lipstick frosting is where it's at. I think with the cake, you get more direct shots of lipstick. But the lipstick frosting is just like lemon and frosting. It's damn good. Alright Tyler, you wanna come try this? T: Yeah, I'm comin'. That's so good. (laughing) That is lemony! S: Yeah. T: Those taste amazing! It's almost like a Gushers cake. S: You're going in for more? T: Omm. S: Alright, I have a question for you.
T: Yeah? S: How much would I need to convince you for this to be our wedding cake? T: Oh. S: Here's the thing: feeding it to other people is a little dicey. T: Legally. S: Yeah. I feel like maybe we shouldn't. T: No. I mean, it would take no convincing. On a non-legal basis. But on a legal basis, I could be talked into it. S: Alright. So this is our lipstick cake. So after trying a couple of bites, I'm not sure how much more I could actually eat in one sitting because it is very sweet. But I think that's for the best. I feel like we don't really wanna test the limits of "how much lipstick can you eat in a day?" Cuz we could probably get to the end of that number pretty fast. I am honestly very pleased with how this cake came out. I feel like when we started this process, I had a lot of questions, a lot of fears. But after all of the trials and tribulations of making this cake, I think we came out with something that is a cake with lipstick inside and on top. But I guess even though it tastes good, we'll see if anything weird happens inside of my intestines. Okay. So this is my 24 hours later check-in. Now, I will say that nothing explosive happened downstairs, but I did feel rather waxy inside for the first couple of hours after eating the cake, so... take that as you will. I did though want to try to apply the lipstick in the cake onto my actual lips. I forgot to do that when we were tasting the cake yesterday. So I'm just gonna do that really quick and see what happens. T: That is going on, Saf. S: Do I look like Miranda Sings? T: It's not that overlined, but you do have very red lipstick on. S: Flip it for me so I can see it. Oh! T: Yeah. S: Oh. She's still pigmented after going through the oven. That's pretty impressive. So I guess you can bake your lipstick and wear it, too. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you liked that video, make sure to shmash that like button and if you want to see more videos like this, make sure to shmash that subscribe button. Once again, a big thank you to Honey for sponsoring this video. And you can download Honey at the link below. Here are my social media handles, and a big shoutout to Lu for watching. Thanks for watching, Lu. And I will see you guys a-next time.
Just because you can do something doesnβt mean you should. π
Can you even imagine how many Sephora points she has from all her bad science videos?
Iβm also so glad that after all that work the cake was actually good!
At the end when she tried the lipstick on, I was shocked. You can eat some cake and fix your lipstick after.
My heart π breaks for the fallen lipsticks, Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick are my HG also I will check her video out.
So here i'm after finishing the video, weirdly but it kinda of cheered me up so thank you so much for sharing it.
Safia managed to turn me off Cava by describing it as a raw sausage, at least my wallet is relieved, I would have loved it if she mentioned the shade names π I know my Makeup obsession shine through here.
Also i found it wholesome how they were discussing their wedding cake, wish them a long happy life together.
I've been reading on other forums that state that Safiya must be running out of ideas but this one is certainly unique.
Safiya uses Bite brand lipstick to bake a full cake. She also mixes them as like little confetti pieces (like funfetti cake) into the cake batter and creates a frosting.
She likes the frosting because it seems to taste like lemon AND frosting, while the cake has more of like shots of flavor of lipstick.
I really like this idea. I've always known Bite lipstick is edible but never thought about actually eating them or using them as an ingredient to eat with.
I'm shocked it was tasty, and it's hilarious that you could pull out lipstick chunks from the finished cake and wear them, it's like when you used to get a surprise toy in your cereal
Reading the criticism of Safiya not making well-researched videos is such a weird take when the first 5+ minutes of her video is her explaining her research and citing her video inspirations. Yeah her videos are wasteful and her ideas get stale but Safiya is like... one of the Youtubers who really explains what she is doing and does her homework. One of my favorite Youtubers, Karolina Ε»ebrowska, who specializes in fashion history actually did a video on her based on her "Decade transformations" and spoiler alert, she only really had positive things to say about Safiya's thorough research into the outfits for each video.
I think we are currently witnessing the sub slowly turn on Safiya now.
I love Saf. She may have a formula for her videos that always involves buying stuff, but don't all youtubers have a formula or gimmick? I personally enjoy watching people do insane DIY projects, so I thought this idea was kind of genius.