'Drag Race's Gottmik Launches YouTube Channel, Spills a Little Tea

Gottmik is well known in YouTube land. Though the performer hasn't been making videos for their own channel, as they are an in-demand makeup artist who often puts others in drag, they've been featured on the channels of friends and collaborators like Gigi Gorgeous, Pearl, as well as the World of Wonder YouTube channel. Even Cosmopolitan had the star come on and show the world how she gets into full geish. Now, she's starting her own channel and plans to bring weekly content as well as RuPaul's Drag Race tea.

"Hi guys, its me, Gottmik from RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 and welcome to my YouTube channel," she says as an introduction to her first video. "I'm so excited because I have been getting requests for so long to make a channel but you can just ask my friends, I'm just not meant to be a YouTuber in my opinion." The reason? YouTube is largely about consistency.

"I feel like if there ever is a time to do it, it is now," Gottmik continues. Indeed. As the history-making queen on this season of Drag Race, Gottmik has a ton of eyeballs on her. As any contestant of the show -- or anyone who has ever done reality television -- will tell you, now is the time to do all you can to amass your own following that you can broadcast two on your own platforms, in case your time on television ever comes to an end.

"Every week I really want to sit down and show you guys how I did my makeup on the Main Stage and along the way, maybe spill a little tea," the performer says.

For the first video, there wasn't a ton of tea. For those who don't know, out of drag Gottmik is Kade Gottlieb. He grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and went to Catholic school. At 18 he moved to Los Angeles to study fashion design and found a career in makeup instead. That career has seen him work with Heidi Klum, Paris Hilton, Tinashe, Adam Lambert, and more. In fact, Gottmik even did some makeup on RuPaul herself for a Todrick Hall music video.

Before season 13 he had auditioned twice for Drag Race, but says this was the perfect time -- prior auditions were pre-transition. According to the performer, VH1 and World of Wonder were intense about restrictions related to the global pandemic and required multiple tests. After the tests were done and filming began, Gottmik was the first performer in the Werk Room to film an entrance she reveals -- Kandy Muse was first in the edit that aired.

"I thought we were going to do a gorgeous photoshoot," she says. "Less stressful, less traumatic. But no!" According to the performer, the cast was truly kept completely out of the loop at every step of the way.

"To be fair, before it started RuPaul asked me if I was a lip sync assassin and I said 'No bitch, I'm a mug,'" the contestant recounts. "I love to lip sync; I'm more of a spending a week on choreo with hot dancers behind me type tea, than a 'Hi, you walked into the Drag Race scene and in the first five minutes please show me why you're staying in the competition via lip sync to Lindsay Lohan type' teas. You know?"

For those curious, she uses a shade from season 10 winner Aquaria's NYX Professional Makeup palette in the video. Legends supporting legends, we love to see it.

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