You've come a long way since your first YouTube video! What inspired you to do your first post?
YouTube sort of happened by accident. I had a small online business selling cosmetics. Instead of advertising the products with pictures of them in their packages I decided to show photos of the products being applied, it just made more sense. People soon started to ask many questions about how I had achieved each look and were asking so much that I couldn’t keep up and decided the quickest way to answer the same questions over and over was to create a video of each application and advertise the link. YouTube was the perfect place to do this.
You're now one of the most subscribed YouTube users in the UK, were you taken aback by it all?
I was taken aback by all of the attention from the media. I was the most subscribed in the UK for a long time but the biggest surprise to me was that the most subscribed channel was about make up. I knew there was a demand but never imagined it to be so huge.
What's been the highlight of your journey thus far?
A couple of things stand out but they only really sink in afterwards. The launch of my line in Sephora NYC was obviously one of them and I would say the road trip across the USA was amazing. I set off from Miami in huge pink tour bus, stopping off in every state along the way to California. Those kind of experiences don’t come around very often.
What's your day to day life like post YouTube stardom?
Busier than ever. It’s not always exciting to look at because I spend close to eighty hours a week in front of a computer. I get to do most of my work from home so it’s not too bad.
You've obviously gone through a tremendous change, what's been the most difficult one to adjust to?
Working with big business has been the hardest challenge. I’m very different to most business types and it took me a long while to get over the fact that it’s anything but personal. You have to learn very fast how to handle yourself. It was hard at first but like everything else you learn the hard way. If you aren’t careful you can become stressed with what you do and lose the excitement. These days I refuse to do anything that I’m not personally excited about and wont allow anything to deter the outcome that I want.
Fans of your channel will attest to the fact we've had the privilege of watching your confidence grow on camera! How did that come about?
I guess everything comes with practice. It’s not something I even think of until it’s pointed out to me. Making videos for YouTube is fairly simple for me. I don’t plan ahead much. I prefer to shoot video’s the moment I get inspiration. I don’t think they are worth doing otherwise.
Can you tell us a bit about your makeup line "By Lauren Luke" and how it came about?
Originally the idea was to create an online brand of cosmetics. I created a company with others in the US and together we decided on five launch palettes. Around this time Sephora expressed an interest in carrying the line so the two things sort of happened at once.
Do you have any advice for women who'd like to start their own business like yourself?
You have to believe in what you do and stay true to what you want to achieve. Everyone else will offer different advice of what they think is best for you and your business but if you don’t instinctively know you probably shouldn’t be the one in charge. If you do instinctively know then don’t sacrifice your dreams and ideas for somebody else’s. You must also listen to the people who will be buying your service or product. You aren’t going to get anywhere without them so it is worthwhile including them in the journey.
Finally, what can we expect from you in 2011?
I’m launching my own cosmetic brushes in the New Year. I’ve spent such a long time getting them right but it is worth it. They will be of high quality without the high-end price range. I’ve got an iphone app coming out at the end of this year so I will be creating lot’s more content for that. I’m working on another book or possibly set of books, it’s early days so I’m still figuring out what works best. I will be doing more TV work, can’t say much about that right now as we haven’t started filming yet but it looks like fun. And in between all of this I will still be uploading videos to YouTube. Oh, almost forgot my new website should go live in the New Year. It’s hard to believe that I’ve done all of this without a Lauren Luke website but the wait should be worth it. I’m trying to make it fun for everyone. Laurenluke.com watch this space!
You can watch Lauren Luke’s YouTube tutorials on her channel “Pancea81” , see the cosmetics in her line at www.bylaurenluke.com and follow her on Twitter.
