Addiction to Beauty Bloggers

I have a confession to make.  I have recently become addicted to beauty bloggers on Youtube.  Youtube is actually a fairly new phenomenon to me.  Although I was aware that it has existed for quite a while, I did not have an account and I really did not watch much of it.  Mostly, I watched videos that my friends sent to me sporadically.  Occasionally, I would look up a music video on it.  Last year, I had to use the site to post a video presentation for one of my classes (360 degree performance appraisals, exciting!).  Thus, I had to create an account and actually work with the site a bit.  From there, it moved into more frequent video watching.  My first subscription was Jenna Marbles because that was the site my best friend sent to me most often.  Since then, I have added three more comedy sites (IISuperwomanII, Pittsburgh Dad, and Jeanne Robertson) and two yoga sites (Yoga TX and PsycheTruth).

Then, I discovered the Beauty Bloggers.  Originally, I was just trying to figure out how to use some of the products I received in my ipsy bag.  I have spent most of my life being the Plain Jane.  Now in my 30s, I am tired of everyone looking better than I do.  So I decided to start wearing a little bit of makeup and trying to take more care with my appearance.  I got the subscription to ipsy because it seemed like a fun way to test out some new products and find things that worked for me.  I was never very good at makeup though and am seriously out of practice from little attempt to wear any in the past few years.  Even though I received the new products, I failed at wearing most of them.  So I turned to Youtube for some guidance on what the products were, whether they were any good, and how to put them on my face.  I was quite surprised to find out that ipsy subscription “unboxings” were actually a big thing on the site.

A few ipsy bag videos turned into subscriptions to several channels and hours of watching young girls unboxing samples, showing off hauls, reviewing products, giving tutorials, and talking about their lives.  It is ridiculous for me to spend so much time watching these videos, especially since a lot of it is garbage.   However, I do still genuinely need some guidance on which products to use and how to apply makeup.  I deleted several of my subscriptions and made some rules for watching the remaining ones.  I only watch girls who have similar styles and complexions to myself, because they are going to be the most likely to point me to products that will work for me.  I only watch videos that are reviews or tutorials which give me the information I actually need.  If a Youtuber starts to become too repetitive or annoying, then I delete the channel from my subscriptions.  I try not to subscribe to any new channels.  I find myself backsliding occasionally though, subscribing to that new Youtuber I could not resist when another made the recommendation, watching a haul video that only serves to make me jealous that I do not have all that stuff too, or falling prey to a drama-filled headline that has nothing to do with beauty tips at all.  Overall though, my addiction has become much more manageable and my viewing time is less than an hour a day most days (unless my motivation levels are way down…see previous blog).

Currently, I find myself focusing on three Youtubers.  My favorite is Emily Noel, who actually has two channels, Beauty Broadcast Express and EmilyNoel83.  She is one of the best at presentation due to a TV journalism background that gave her experience with conducting herself on camera.  The Beauty Broadcast Express is entirely short product reviews, which a) give me good insight into some products I would be interested in trying and b) are easy little videos to fit in when I only have 5-10 minutes free to spend on Youtube.  The EmilyNoel83 channel has a mix of reviews and tutorials that I find easy to follow.  My second favorite is Kathleen Lights.  She does a lot of tutorial videos with different eye looks that I find helpful in learning what colors to use and pair together.  She also has extremely dry sensitive skin, same as I do, and can provide some tips in the skincare realm.  The third is RachhLoves who does reviews and tutorials but also some fitness, nutrition, and organization tips that I find interesting as well.  She has a refreshingly silly style that makes her very relatable.

So that is one of my guilty little secrets.  I often find myself watching these videos feeling silly that I pay this much attention to Youtubers, and feeling a bit guilty that I am not being more productive with my limited free time.  How about you?  What are your Youtube secrets?

See you next week!