Bad Beauty Science at the Crafts Center

By Natalie Gore, DASA Marketing Intern

In November of the past year, the NC State Crafts Center hosted social media influencer Safiya Nygaard to film a private jewelry-making lesson. Experts Sarah Tector and Suijin Li coached Nygaard through the process, resulting in an incredibly entertaining yet informative YouTube video uploaded in January 2022. 

Nygaard is best known for a YouTube series on her channel dubbed Bad Beauty Science that takes many products from a company and melts them down into one new, large product. For example, Nygaard took every hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works and melted them all into one giant conglomerate. 

While mixing beauty products together has garnered quite a lot of attention for the young woman, she also produces videos styling strange fashion pieces and testing products recommended by fans. Her content oftentimes is quite eclectic, but fascinates a wide swath of the available audience on YouTube because of its absurdity. 

To film the video at the Crafts Center, Nygaard reached out with the idea of purchasing and melting down vintage sterling silver jewelry in order to create new and unique pieces. The video she posted illustrates just that. Tector and Li worked together with Nygaard to use uncommon materials and create fabulous, one-of-a kind jewelry pieces. 

When both Tector and Li recalled the experience of working and filming with Nygaard and her team, they had nothing but positive things to say about the time they spent together. Li said, “I think the way [her and the team] handled everything was very professional, they did a lot of research…Everything that we did, they were curious about and calling it the right name and knowing what it did.” 

Although people might hold expectations that influencers just want to have fun and film content for fame or attention, Nygaard stayed incredibly engaged in the material during her lesson at the Crafts Center. 

Her attentiveness to detail and interest in the lesson certainly translated to viewers as well. Li remarked that “people sometimes don’t appreciate [the art] as much as people that have seen how it’s done, and this video has opened the eyes of a lot of people to that.” Nygaard’s video ensured to walk viewers through each step of the process and identify interesting facts or useful information about what she was learning to do. 

Nygaard’s production on YouTube certainly fascinated many viewers with the art of jewelry-making, but also brought more attention to the Crafts Center at NC State. The center and its activities are open to the general public, but offer a discount and first dibs on registration for classes to NC State students. 

Additionally, the center caters to each and every individual by offering an array of classes as well as sometimes including the necessary materials and tools in the original price of the session. Its outreach into the community in and around NC State and its ability to spread the passion and knowledge of art is incredibly important to the university. 

Tector, speaking about the Crafts Center, said, “it’s definitely a great resource for the community.” Additionally, in terms of Nygaard, she remarked that the influencer was a “fast learner and a great student.” Both coaches, Tector and her colleague Li, forwardly included that they would love to work with Nygaard and her team again. 

The Crafts Center at NC State has an incredible ability to spread art much further into the community at the university and beyond. Nygaard’s video not only captivated viewers, but also gave more exposure to the center and uplifted Arts NC State programs. The arts are for everyone, including social media influencers, students and anybody else. 

If you are interested in learning more about Arts NC State or the Crafts Center, check out their websites for more information.

Update

Nygaard also returned to campus for a video published on Feb. 12, where she attempted to create “Wolfpack Red” and “Brick” shades of lipstick: