I began to explore the magical world of makeup around the age 15. It was my response to the eyebrow revolution and, of course, the rise of the YouTube guru tribe. After months of admiring girls’ perfectly made-up faces, including some of my friends, I realised I wanted to get in on the action for myself.
Girls were filling in the gaps in their brows and I wanted rid of those gaps, too. I was attracted to this dark brow look, which I’d noticed on YouTube and watched all the tutorials on. The aim was to get them thicker and darker and since my eyebrows were naturally thick, I was eager to get started. But we can’t have it all (hence the use of makeup!). I longed for long, luxurious lashes to go with my eyebrows . So the moment I got hold of £7.19 exactly, I was quick to buy the Rimmel Glam’Eyes Day 2 Night mascara so I could stop asking my friend to bring hers to school. How glad was I to discover the wonders of that mesmerising isle in Superdrug.
Long before I was painting my face, I was watching young women on YouTube paint theirs. I didn’t know about the whole YouTube thing until year 9 when I stumbled across BeautybyJJ. She triggered my fascination in makeup with her tutorials and perfect, gap-filled eyebrows. I’d sit and watch her videos all day long like they were a TV series. Mentally, I had the whole eyebrow concept in check. Although, in my early days, I didn’t realise just how awful unthreaded, unconcealed, pencilled eyebrows looked. Having thick eyebrows is no joke! YouTube taught me that concealer is an absolute essential to having your ‘eyebrows on fleek’.
Not only did I stumble across the beauty community on YouTube in year 9, many friends around me were being wowed by the tutorials they found too. It wasn’t purposeful, me finding these videos, it just sort of happened. We were all excited. It was like a YouTube buzz, whizzing around unlocking the secrets to makeup. People like BeautybyJJ, Lizlizlive and Tiarra Monet were always hot topics; their videos were top class. Watching makeup videos was, like, a standard and frequent thing to do. My friends would recommend their favourites and I’d do the same (BeautybyJJ and Lizlizlive, both amazing makeup artists, I love them!). I also love MsRoshPosh because her celeb makeup imitations are unmatched. Thanks to these guys, I knew far more than the basics of beautifying a face before I finished school.
YouTube made us makeup smart! Our gurus taught us how to create the smokey eye, apply eyelashes and most importantly draw the perfect brows. We’re even becoming makeup trained; spotting that ‘Kim K contour’ on someone’s cheek or even eyelash numbers (like the lovely 120s). I’ve seen my friend Chyna become really skilful at makeup, perfecting the rosy cheeks and sharp cheekbones. SonjdraDeluxe is her go-to for contour videos, Beautybyjj for brows. “Without YouTube I wouldn’t know about using the right products for my skin,” she said.
Being 16 and having found these videos around 13, we are rather contrary to my 29 year old sister’s generation. Around 2000 – 2003, makeup for teenagers wasn’t the ‘in thing’. She says, “The most we did was shape our eyebrow at the barber shop and wear mascara when we were a little older”. She remembers her friend teaching her how to lengthen her lashes. “Lashes were just a little oomph.” It’s a different generation now. She agrees that YouTube makes makeup easier to access and if she had beauty vloggers in her time, she just might have jumped on the bandwagon; “maybe if more of us did, I might have.”
It’s no doubt, though, that YouTube has helped us master our makeup skills. We can now avoid the risk of horrific blunders (in most cases) and become self-made makeup artists. It truly is a great tool that inspires girls of all shades to pursue makeup. There are heaps of gurus out there; dark skinned, Latina, Asian etc., so everyone can enjoy watching their tutorials. I think it’s safe to say that they have blossomed a generation of girls that know how to look absolutely flawless.
@ellediorblog
Feature image a collage of BeautybJJ and Lizlizlive, insert of beauty vloggers.
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