Michelle Phan has always had a fascination with art and cosmetics. Rather than pursue a career as a doctor as her mother wanted her to, Phan decided to pursue her fascinations instead. The result was her becoming the most recognizable face in the YouTube beauty community as well as an accidental millionaire.
In 2006, Michelle Phan started a personal blog in which she discussed different makeup tutorials. After receiving requests for further instruction, she began posting tutorial vlogs on Xanga under the username Ricebunny and began publishing on YouTube in May, 2007. Although they were uncommon at the time, Phan implemented some special effects and voice-over narration in her videos. These unique styles proved to be quite popular and Phan’s video’s became viral after they were featured on Buzzfeed in 2009 and 2010.In particular, her “Lady Gaga Poker Face Tutorial and Lady Gaga Bad Romance Look brought her over a million subscribers.
After noticing that Phan included some of their products in her beauty product review videos, Lancome made Phan their official video make-up artist. In 2011, Phan co-founded a monthly beauty subscription service (now called Ipsy) that is filled with various beauty products that are associated to tutorials on her website. Phan also became a YouTube advertising partner and launched FAWN, a YouTube MCN (multi-channel network) in 2012. In May 2013, Ipsy hosted Generation Beauty, a conference in Los Angeles for beauty bloggers and online beauty content creators. And in August, 2013, Phan in conjunction with the L’Oreal Group launched a new cosmetic line called EM Michelle Phan.
I have watched several of her videos and she is very good. I had no idea that Loreal created a beauty line for her. This is a classic American story and is exactly what entrepreneurship is all about. She followed her own dreams and eventually hit it big!
It’s crazy to see how much power the internet has to make people millionaires. So many people have found their fortune on youtube by doing what they love. It’s great to see that so many opportunities have come to Phan through her internet presence and her dedication to her subscribers on youtube.