It’s 14th December 2007. At her humble council house in Tyne and Wear, a visibly nervous Lauren is filming a make-up tutorial inspired by Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’ video. She posts it to YouTube, and awaits a response from the masses of people that requested the look.
Fast-forward two years, and that same video has been viewed over 3,200,000 times. Lauren has launched her own make-up line in the States, been featured in countless magazines and newspapers, and has appeared on This Morning and Paul O’Grady demonstrating her talent. She has had unimaginable and certainly unforetold success in America. Her products are stocked in over 130 retailers, and during the summer of last year, her face was plastered over billboards in Times Square at the Sephora launch of her product line. Advertising campaigns featuring global superstars such as David Beckham have appeared on the very same spot, so Lauren is already in esteemed company. How did this bubbly young woman become an overnight phenomenon?
Lauren lives in a sleepy suburb of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with her boyfriend Ken, who is 12 years her senior, and her son Jordan, 11. Before finding fame and later fortune through YouTube, Lauren worked as a taxi dispatcher. As a single parent raising a son single-handedly from a teenage pregnancy, Lauren looked to other ways to raise funds. She looked to her passion in life – make-up. She began by selling masses of her favourite products on eBay. Lauren took photos of herself wearing the products to give ideas to her customers, however she was inundated with requests and it was not long after this she realised the potential of YouTube in providing tutorials.
Under the alias “Panacea81” (named after the Greek goddess and her year of birth) Lauren started accepting requests for make-up looks copied from celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. The tutorials that started as a part-time hobby soon turned in to a daily event, and to date she has uploaded over 200 videos to the site. The process of recording her tutorials is simple: she films all her videos using a standard camcorder set up in the corner of her tiny bedroom, a certain hum is familiar to the majority of her videos, her loveable little pug, Phoebe, snoring in the background. Lauren’s tutorials on YouTube differ from others, she has no professional training, and as she has admitted herself that she doesn’t edit her videos: “I don’t know how to.” She buys her own make-up; refusing to accept deals from companies paying her to feature their products in her videos. The development of her own products, named bylaurenluke, means that Lauren often uses them in her tutorials but she does suggest alternatives. Despite the hectic schedule resulting from her new-found fame
, Lauren still finds time to go to evening classes at her local college to study the basics of beauty therapy.Nine million channel views later and Lauren has built her own business empire. She has published a book, had a Nintendo DS game named after her and writes a weekly column for the Guardian beauty section. Include the lucrative deal with Sephora and TV appearances on both sides of the Atlantic and it is obvious that Lauren has come a million miles from her taxi dispatcher past.
Lauren’s unofficial video reviews and tutorials of beauty products led to her being noticed by major cosmetic companies globally, and currently she is representing the UK sector of Barry M cosmetics, creating exclusive looks for them on their website. This combined with her role of beauty product critic at the Guardian has proved that she has a massive sway on the market, influencing women worldwide, giving honest advice on the best buys. The fact that Lauren still remains unbiased to any products on the market, despite her contracts to major cosmetic companies such as Sephora who stock her make-up range in the United States and Barry M, just shows that she is what we as a nation of consumers truly want from a critic.
Growing up, Lauren had a very difficult life living in one of the poorest areas of Newcastle, where she still lives now, although her home has had a major re-vamp by an American firm who were inspired by her kindness. From an early age she was tormented by playground bullies who cruelly called her “fat” and “ugly”, from this she took her inspiration to give other girls and women the confidence to be proud of who they are, telling everyone that they are beautiful in their own individual ways. Lauren admits herself that she is often brought to tears reading the comments left by her die-hard fans on her social networking pages and on her video tutorials, her humbleness shines through her personality as she is completely
overwhelmed by the profound effects which she has on many young women’s lives. For many, Lauren is a modern day heroin.On her YouTube channel, Lauren says “Let’s show the world together that everyone is just as beautiful if not more with just the confidence we hold.” That may be a cheesy line, but Lauren is a true inspiration to those out there who don’t conform to modern-day standards of beauty. She is an example of a talented person who has found well-deserved success. And all she started with was a camera, a computer and a make-up kit.
