Lauren Luke was at a theme park last week when she saw a couple nudging each
other and whispering. “That’s her,” said one. “That’s the girl off the
internet.” The girl off the internet is a phrase that follows Luke a lot
these days. She is the 27-year-old single mother from South Shields who
somehow, against all the odds, managed to become world famous.
Two years ago she was working in a dead-end job as a taxi dispatcher and
wondering how to create a better life for her son Jordan, 11. Now she has
her own make-up range, stars in a Nintendo game, is fêted in America and has
been watched online more than 50 million times.
To many, her name may well draw a blank. But Luke’s make-up tutorials, relayed
from her pink and black bedroom on a webcam and so unscripted and unfinessed
that you can hear seagulls squawking outside or her dogs snoring, are
watched religiously throughout the world. She is the most popular YouTube
user in Britain. Young women scream her name in the street. Walking around
New York recently, she was recognised and stopped by fans. Yet hers is a
very modern kind of fame — all this was achieved without television.
When we meet at the house in Jarrow that she shares with her partner Ken she
is busy shoving her three dogs into another room and putting the kettle on.
She still cannot quite believe what has happened. “I don’t feel famous at
all,” she says. “It’s strange. But I know people are nudging each other and
staring in the street. It happened the other day at Flamingoland.” On her
desk, alongside a giant teddy bear, are a computer and a small camera — the
only clues to this global “industry”. It is from here that she conducts
about three tutorials a week on YouTube , plus “Twittering like mad”.
Luke’s remarkable success is about more than just the power of the internet.
She knows that her mass appeal arises from how ordinary she appears. She is
a size 16, working-class girl who left school with no qualifications because
she fell pregnant at 15. Until recently she had never been abroad and didn’t
have a passport. Her audience see themselves in her. She is, without wanting
to sound cheesy, every woman.
To call her tutorials unpretentious would be an understatement. Luke speaks to
the camera as she would to her best friend, mispronouncing the names of
make-up brands and handing out earthy tips on products. “I was disappointed
with this,” she’ll say, or “you don’t have to fart about with that”. She
never edits them because she doesn’t know how. Yet she has an instinctive
gift for eye make-up. Although she had never had a make-up lesson when she
began broadcasting and refuses to follow any rules, her results are,
frankly, stunning. Luke is the perfect antidote to the intimidating,
exclusive, self-mythologising beauty industry. Her popularity is an
indication of the hunger for “real” people with real bodies and faces that
have not been airbrushed beyond recognition.
“People have had enough,” she says. “They want people to be shown as they
really are. I think I’ve come along at a good time for that.” On the day we
meet there is a furore in the media about a stylist walking out of London
Fashion Week, reportedly over the use of size 12 to 14 models. This makes
Luke angry and she launches into a tirade about normal-sized women not being
catered for. “What they are telling people is that thin equals success,” she
says. “Real people are made to feel freaky — but we are the ones buying
their clothes and their products.”
She believes, like millions of others, that “there is a standard set by the
industry that is unobtainable by the vast majority of us normal folk who pay
for it. We’re entitled to have products that work and bring out the best in
us. I really hope that people will look at what’s happened to me and think
there’s a bit of hope. In a way, I suppose I’m taking on the beauty
industry.”
If she is, she will have a lot of followers. The thousands of messages left on
her videos are effusive. “Most other make-up YouTubers never show their
mistakes. Lauren gets out her wet wipes and shows us how to fix it,” reads
one. “Sweety, you are gorgeous, I simply adore you. Can’t WAIT till your
products are here in Australia!!!” reads another. Luke says she has had
these thoughts about the industry for years but only now has felt able to
voice them: “I can speak me mind now I’m getting more self-confident.” For
years she felt intimidated by the white-coated women on the cosmetics
counters of department stores — and sometimes, she admits, she still does.
This insecurity possibly dates back to her schooldays, which she describes as
“a nightmare”. She was bullied. “Nobody was my friend,” she says. “For the
most part it was a lonely and frightening experience.” Some teachers opined
that she would amount to nothing — and when she foolishly confided in a
classmate that her dream was to make something of herself in America, the
bullies’ riposte was to paint on a wall “Lauren’s going to America, yeah
right!”. She would experiment with make-up to make herself feel better.
In her new book, she describes losing her virginity at 15 to Jordan’s father.
“I was lying there watching Felix the Cat on TV, thinking to
meself ‘I’m having sex’ and feeling that all the curiosity preceding sex
didn’t match the feelings discovered during the actual event.”
After giving birth she continued to live with her mum, who herself had twin
babies, and took different jobs to make ends meet (by then she had separated
from Jordan’s father). It was while working at the taxi office that she came
up with the idea of buying make-up wholesale and selling it on eBay.
“Instead of using photos of the products, I would use it on meself and take
a photo,” she says. Before long e-mails started pouring in, asking how she
had done this or that with her eyes. There were so many to reply to that she
found it easier to upload demonstration videos instead. A phenomenon was
born. Now her products are selling fast. More than 130 retailers stock them
in America. Her book features a picture of a gigantic Lauren Luke
advertisement in Times Square, New York, with the word “Me!” scrawled on in
pen — a rejoinder to those mocking bullies.
Her book is dotted with almost evangelistic mottos — “Have faith in yourself
and it will happen”; “I want to make everyone feel special” — as well as
handy tips on, for example, refreshing tired eyes and creating the
impression of high cheekbones.
She has resisted giving people makeovers. Although that would undoubtedly be
lucrative, she insists that it is not her “thing”. Her thing is showing
people how to do it themselves: “I see it as empowering people,” she says.
“When you go to the hairdresser your hair looks lovely but there’s no way
you can make it look that way at home. Well, I bet you could if they sat
down and showed you how. This is why I’d rather sit down with someone and
show them.”
I ask her advice. I should try experimenting with pink eyeshadow, she says (I
have never done that in my life) and “browns make blue eyes pop” (again, I
had no idea). I must use a different colour every day of the week to see
what works best.
Most people, according to Luke, are in a make-up rut. I ask how you stop
eyeliner clogging in the corner of your eye. You can’t, she says, you just
have to have good friends who will tell you when it happens.
Another thing she must resist, now that her career is taking off, is being
“branded”. Luke’s lack of slickness is the key to her charm; polish it too
much and the magic may disappear. She knows this all too well. “It will only
mess up if I let people interfere,” she says, adding that she has already
said no to a few things she has been asked to do. “It has to be ad lib. I
have to do it my own way.”
She is right. Ironically, for a young woman whose authenticity is her
currency, one of her biggest challenges will be keeping it real.
Lauren Luke is published by Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99.
Lauren’s colour tips
Blonde hair, grey eyes: Dark blue eyeshadow, mid-pink blush, nude peach
lips
Blonde hair, brown eyes: Lilac eyeshadow, raspberry blush, rosy pink
lips
Blonde hair, blue eyes: Gold eyeshadow, gold peach cheeks, peach gold
lips
Black hair, dark brown eyes: Pink peach eyeshadow, berry blush, pink
frost lips
Reddish brown hair, green eyes: Light green eyeshadow, peach blush,
terracotta lips
Dark red hair dark, brown eyes: Dark green eyeshadow, terracotta blush,
deep cherry lips.
Brown hair, blue eyes: Chocolate eyeshadow, golden bronzer, nude peach
lips
Brown hair brown eyes: Green eyeshadiow, peach bronze cheeks, dark
peach lips
Brown hair, green eyes: Deep purple eyeshadow, peach pink cheeks, pink
berry lips.
If you wear glasses Keep eyeshadow to a matt or slightly satin finish.
Make sure you have the lightest colour on the majority of the eyelid with
the chosen dark or vibrant colour added to the crease and just above.
Smile when applying blusher because it highlights your cheekbones.
Never use liquid eyeliner on the water line. Use only a soft, creamy pencil or
you’ll be crying for days.
Put on black mascara then touch-up the ends with a colour wand. It looks funky
and different.
Recommended products
Mac Plush Lash Mascara
Collection 2000 Dazzle Me eyeshadows
Kiehl’s Centella Recovery Skin Salve
Blend brush Elf hypershine lip gloss
Christian Dior Pro Cheeks blush in Limelight
Stila eye pencil in onyx
Lancôme Flash Retouche
Pampers wet wipes
Vaseline (brows and lips)
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