Born in Massachusetts as a Vietnamese descendant, Michelle Phan was raised by her mother in Massachusetts, California, and Florida. Inspired by her mother’s career as a nail technician, Phan successfully convinced her mom allowing her to major in illustration instead of dermatology by the request of her mother.
The self-taught painter showed her talent in beauty illustration when she was five years old. Phan painted herself a mask for Halloween by using a paper plate and red lipstick when her family was on food stamps. “So at around five, I was already drawing on anything that was blank—a wall, napkins, backs of paperback books, etc.”, said Phan. With a unique insight of beauty, She has been blogging about beauty since age 16.
She got into the makeup-teaching business by popular demand. “Many of my fans on my personal blog wanted me to make a tutorial on achieving a natural look, ” Phan says of her 2007 debut. “I decided to create a video tutorial instead, and it’s been a hit ever since. ” Besides her insightful interpretation of beauty, another attributor that made Phan stand out in the social media flow is her surprisingly professional filming and editing abilities. “I’m lucky that video editing is actually a hobby of mine. I love to work with motion graphics, and developed an eye for it”, added by Phan in her 2007 debut. Phan’s video style incorporates her voice-over instruction with music and text subtitles. Because of her soothing style of narration and methodical makeup demonstrations, Phan has been affectionately dubbed “the Bob Ross of makeup” by commenters on her YouTube channel. Phan has created over 200 videos concerning beauty tips from basic daytime makeup to more complex club or catwalk themed looks. Popular beauty tutorials on Phan’s YouTube channel have included “Romantic Valentine Look”, “Brighter Larger Looking Eyes”, “Makeup for Glasses,” “Mysterious Masquerade Look,” “Lady Gaga Poker Face”, and “Seductive Vampire.” In January, special effects were used in her new lady Gaga “Bad Romance” video, and with the Buzzfeed’s profiling of Phan’s new work overnight; it turned into a viral video. Up till 2011, Her viewer-convenient videos have made her the most subscribed woman on YouTube, with more than 455 million views and 690,000 subscribers.
The rare instance of YouTube stardom turned real life job offers. Today, Phan works as a spokesperson and online video producer for luxury cosmetic brand Lancôme. Besides being featured in magazines like Vanity Fair, Forbes, People, Nylon and Vogue, Phan has also done work behind the scenes at fashion shows (New York Fashion Week!) and on-set for music videos.
However, the 23-year-old is far from just stopping in social media spotlight, Phan, with a partner, launched a niche skin-care brand IQQU for online sale only. “It’s aimed at acne-prone skin,” she says, and the acne serum is the line’s best-seller. The social media titan also had the spark with charity this year by starting a charity channel ricebunny to post videos about her everyday life. Every month, she donates money to two organization selected. The amount of money depends on the number of views. She also launched a gaming channel alongside video game host Adande Throne called PressStart.
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