Profile: From Newcastle to New York

By Maria Soleil and Melissa Green

It’s 14^th 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 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.

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 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 it on eBay. Lauren took photos of herself wearing the make-up 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. Her tutorials are diverse and to date she has uploaded over 200 videos to the site. The process is simple: she films all her videos using a standard camcorder set up in the corner of her bedroom. Sometimes she uses her bathroom as the lighting is better.

Lauren’s tutorials on YouTube differ from others, she has no professional training, and as she has admitted herself she doesn’t edit her videos: “I don’t know how to.” She buys her own make-up; she won’t accept companies paying her to promote 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.

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.

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.