Manny Gutierrez, known as Manny MUA, filmed his first YouTube videos in secret. In January 2017, he became the first man ever named a Maybelline brand ambassador, a milestone that put a male face on one of the world’s biggest cosmetics brands and helped crack open the beauty industry’s gender ceiling. The San Diego native went on to found Lunar Beauty, survive the Dramageddon fallout of 2018, and build a multi-platform audience in the millions. As of October 2026, the 35-year-old is still launching Lunar Beauty products, co-hosting the “Fool Coverage” podcast, and speaking out about anti-LGBTQ hate online.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Full name | Manuel Gutierrez Jr. |
| Born | April 4, 1991, San Diego, California (age 35) |
| Background | Mexican-American; devout Mormon upbringing |
| Education | San Diego State University, bachelor’s degree; pre-med track |
| Pre-fame | MAC and Sephora retail artist |
| Claim to fame | First male Maybelline ambassador (January 2017) |
| Brand | Lunar Beauty (founder, launched 2018) |
| YouTube | About 4.82M subscribers (Sept 2026) |
| About 4.1M followers (Sept 2026) | |
| TikTok | About 2.1M followers (Sept 2026) |
| Net worth | No reliable published figure |
Early Life and Education
Manuel Gutierrez Jr. was born on April 4, 1991, in San Diego, California. He is Mexican-American and was raised in a devout Mormon household with two younger brothers, Nick and Aaron. His parents, Manny Sr. and Greka Gutierrez, sent him to conversion therapy as a teenager; they later ended it and are now supportive, with his father working at Lunar Beauty.
Gutierrez attended San Diego State University, where he was on a pre-med track and wanted to become a plastic surgeon. During and after college he worked as a makeup artist at MAC and Sephora counters, where his skill and on-camera ease first drew attention.
Rise to Fame
Gutierrez launched the MannyMua733 YouTube channel in 2014, filming in secret at first (as he recalled in a June 2026 PEOPLE interview). His tutorials, reviews, and collaborations grew a large audience through 2015 and 2016.
The breakthrough came in January 2017, when Maybelline named him its first-ever male brand ambassador, fronting the Big Shot mascara by Colossal campaign alongside Shayla Mitchell. He was the second male beauty spokesperson at a major brand overall, after James Charles became CoverGirl’s first male ambassador in October 2016. The Maybelline deal was a genuine industry milestone: a man as the face of a mass-market cosmetics giant. PEOPLE named him to its “Most Beautiful” list in 2017, and Forbes put him on its 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
Career Milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2014 | Launches MannyMua733 YouTube channel |
| 2017 | First male Maybelline ambassador (January); PEOPLE “Most Beautiful” |
| 2018 | Founds Lunar Beauty; “Life’s a Drag” palette drops June 2; appears on “Escape the Night” season 3 (2nd place); Forbes 30 Under 30 |
| 2019 | Morphe x Manny MUA Glam Palette launches December 5; Lunar Beauty enters Sephora (online May, in-store June Pride activation) |
| 2019-2020 | Moon Prism Powders (2019), Moon Prism Blush (2020) |
| 2021 | Appears in Biden/Fauci vaccine town hall |
| 2022 | “The Surreal Life” season 7 (VH1, premiered October 24) |
| 2025 | Lunar Beauty launches Outer Dimension Bronzing Sticks (around August); brand still active |
| 2026 | Two PEOPLE exclusives; The Source interview (October 1) on the 2016-beauty revival |
His collaboration history includes Makeup Geek, OFRA, Jeffree Star Cosmetics, and Benefit (2019).
Lunar Beauty
Gutierrez founded Lunar Beauty in 2018. The debut “Life’s a Drag” palette, 14 shades at $45, dropped on June 2, 2018. Later releases included the Greek Goddess collection, Moon Prism Powders (2019), and Moon Prism Blush (2020). In December 2019, the Morphe x Manny MUA Glam Palette (12 shadows plus 2 highlighters, $20) launched. Lunar Beauty entered Sephora online in May 2019 with an in-store Pride activation that June, and has also sold through Morphe stores and Beauty Bay. Note that Target retail is sometimes claimed online but could not be verified; it appears to be confusion with Morphe-at-Target distribution. The brand remains active, launching Outer Dimension Bronzing Sticks around August 2025.
Personal Life
Gutierrez is openly gay and keeps his dating life private; there is no confirmed partner. Patrick Starrr is a colleague and friend only: a 2016 Refinery29 interview and a staged 2016 wedding-minister photo were content, not a real wedding. Rumors of a hookup with James Charles were denied by Gutierrez on the record in his December 2019 video “Finally Addressing the Rumors About Me.”
Controversies
The defining controversy of his career was Dramageddon in August 2018. The sequence: Gabriel Zamora’s middle-finger tweet aimed at the beauty community, fallout with Jeffree Star, an old caption of Gutierrez’s about an Uber driver resurfacing, and Zamora calling him “toxic” in a video titled “My Truth.” Gutierrez posted a roughly 25-minute apology video (“My reality check”). Reported follower losses ranged from 250,000 to 500,000 depending on the source.
A few clarifications the record requires. The 2020 Black Lives Matter apology-video controversy sometimes attributed to Gutierrez does not check out: the documented record shows BLM support, including a donation to the Gianna Floyd Fund reported by BuzzFeed, and the apology-video episode from that period was Jeffree Star’s, not his. No direct involvement in the “Bye Sister” saga or the Jaclyn Hill lipstick controversy was found beyond peripheral ties to Tati Westbrook. In March 2020, Makeup Revolution pulled a product after Gutierrez raised a copying dispute; no lawsuit was filed.
On the legal front, Black Moon Cosmetics sued Gutierrez and Jeffree Star over a logo in 2017; the matter was later resolved. No Lunar Beauty litigation was found.
Net Worth
No reliable named source has published Manny Gutierrez’s net worth. Aggregators guess anywhere from under $500,000 to $5 million, and one site’s claim of a “Forbes $7 million estimate” cannot be traced to any real Forbes reporting. No figure is stated here.
2024 to 2026 Developments
Gutierrez has stayed visible on both business and advocacy fronts. Lunar Beauty continued launching products into 2025. He remains a co-host of the “Fool Coverage” podcast with Laura Lee. In June 2026, PEOPLE ran two exclusives with him, including an advocacy piece about anti-LGBTQ hate online. On October 1, 2026, The Source interviewed him about the revival of 2016-era beauty culture, positioning him as one of the defining faces of that era reflecting on its return.
Television and Media Appearances
Gutierrez’s on-camera career extends well past YouTube. In 2018, he appeared on season 3 of YouTube Premium’s “Escape the Night” as “The Record Producer,” finishing in second place. In 2021, he took part in a Biden administration vaccine town hall alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, a sign of how far beauty creators had moved into mainstream civic life. In 2022, he joined season 7 of VH1’s “The Surreal Life,” which premiered on October 24, 2022.
His podcast work has been steady: he co-hosts “Fool Coverage” with Laura Lee, a long-running beauty commentary show that has continued through 2026. Press coverage in this period includes two PEOPLE exclusives in June 2026, one of them an advocacy piece about the anti-LGBTQ hate he receives online, and an October 1, 2026 interview with The Source about the revival of 2016-era beauty culture, in which he reflected on his role in defining that era the first time around.
Lunar Beauty in Depth
Lunar Beauty’s catalog tells the story of an influencer brand that outlasted the hype cycle. The June 2, 2018 debut of the “Life’s a Drag” palette (14 shades, $45) leaned into Gutierrez’s persona directly. The Greek Goddess collection followed, then the Moon Prism Powders in 2019 and Moon Prism Blush in 2020, each release keeping the brand in the conversation as the broader influencer-cosmetics wave cooled.
Distribution was unusually broad for a creator brand of its generation: Sephora online in May 2019 with an in-store Pride activation that June, Morphe stores and website, Beauty Bay, and the brand’s own lunarbeauty.com. The December 2019 Morphe x Manny MUA Glam Palette (12 shadows plus 2 highlighters for $20) was a separate collaboration that showed his ongoing value to retail partners. Around August 2025, the brand launched Outer Dimension Bronzing Sticks, confirming Lunar Beauty was still developing new products seven years after founding, a longevity few influencer brands achieve.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Manny MUA?
Manny Gutierrez was born on April 4, 1991, in San Diego, California. He is 35 years old as of October 2026.
Was Manny MUA really the first male Maybelline ambassador?
Yes. In January 2017, Maybelline named him its first-ever male brand ambassador, fronting the Big Shot mascara by Colossal campaign. He was the second male beauty spokesperson at a major brand overall, after James Charles joined CoverGirl in October 2016.
What is Lunar Beauty?
Lunar Beauty is Manny Gutierrez’s cosmetics brand, founded in 2018. Its debut “Life’s a Drag” palette launched June 2, 2018, followed by collections including Greek Goddess, Moon Prism Powders, and Moon Prism Blush. The brand entered Sephora in 2019 and remains active.
Is Manny MUA in a relationship?
He is openly gay and keeps his dating life private. There is no confirmed partner. He has denied rumors linking him to James Charles, and Patrick Starrr is a friend and colleague, not a partner.
What happened in Dramageddon?
In August 2018, a falling-out involving Gabriel Zamora and Jeffree Star pulled Gutierrez into a multi-channel controversy, with an old caption of his resurfacing and Zamora calling him “toxic.” Gutierrez posted a roughly 25-minute apology video. Reported subscriber losses ranged from 250,000 to 500,000.
What is Manny MUA doing in 2026?
He continues to run Lunar Beauty (which launched new bronzing sticks in 2025), co-hosts the “Fool Coverage” podcast with Laura Lee, and gave two PEOPLE exclusives in June 2026 plus a Source interview on October 1, 2026, about the 2016 beauty revival.
Where is Manny MUA from?
He was born and raised in San Diego, California, in a Mexican-American family. He attended San Diego State University on a pre-med track before beauty took over.
What was Manny MUA’s role on Escape the Night?
He appeared on season 3 of YouTube Premium’s “Escape the Night” in 2018 as “The Record Producer” and finished in second place.
Industry Impact
Gutierrez’s significance goes beyond any single product or video. When Maybelline named him its first male ambassador in January 2017, mass-market beauty had never put a man’s face on a national campaign. He arrived second, after James Charles at CoverGirl, but the Maybelline deal carried its own weight: a legacy drugstore giant betting that its customers would accept, and buy from, a male spokesperson. The bet paid off, and the years that followed saw male creators move from novelty to fixture in beauty marketing. His 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 placement and PEOPLE “Most Beautiful” nod in 2017 formalized a status the audience had already granted him. The June 2026 PEOPLE advocacy piece, in which he spoke about anti-LGBTQ hate directed at him online, showed a creator using a legacy magazine platform to address the cost of visibility.
Does Manny MUA still make videos?
Yes. His YouTube channel remains active with about 4.82 million subscribers as of September 2026, alongside his TikTok (about 2.1 million followers) and Instagram (about 4.1 million followers).
What happened between Manny MUA and Gabriel Zamora?
During the August 2018 Dramageddon fallout, Zamora called Gutierrez “toxic” in a video titled “My Truth” after an old caption of Gutierrez’s resurfaced. Gutierrez responded with a roughly 25-minute apology video. The two were formerly close collaborators in the beauty creator circle.
