Michele is someone you can’t help but kick back and enjoy watching. She is laid back all while still providing in-depth information on beauty. She can also be quite funny which is a welcome delight. Oh, and she is drop dead gorgeous! Her channel is dedicated to luxury beauty and lifestyle and you will find it so relaxing to spend a hour or so catching up on all her new recommendations!  Please welcome Michele to the blog!

Welcome! You are such a breath of fresh air.

I remember being directed to start watching your site and when I did – WOW! I love how real you are and how much thought you put into your reviews. Can you share a bit about how and why you started your channel?

Thank you so much! I started my channel when I had just closed my yarn store. I loved connecting with my customers at the store and wanted to recreate it somehow. I had recently started watching YouTube beauty videos after coming across them while doing a google search for makeup bags and a cousin of mine had recently mentioned how she loved watching them. So I started my channel based on knitting. I was a hand knitwear designer at the time and wanted to bring the beauty video style to knitting. I did some hauls (large purchases of items reviewed with others) and favorites, but quickly realized that it wasn’t translating well. Less than a year later, I decided to try a beauty video and was hooked.

You are the friend I would love to have. I envision it would be SO fun to come over and spend hours ‘playing’ with all your high-end makeup. Do you ever invite family and friends over for a makeup day? If not, can we start please? 

That would be so much fun! I do have friends come over and they’re always interested in my makeup collection. All my friends are welcome to poke around and play with whatever they want. We usually end up chatting about the makeup instead of actually applying it though. But occasionally, we will apply some and I do love sitting around with friends applying makeup, chit chatting about life, catching up and really bonding. There’s something about applying one’s makeup that is so meditative so when I’m doing it with someone else, it always feels very calming.

 Covid-19 has changed us all. Specific to makeup, what do you see are the new trends given the requirement to continue to mask up? Do you believe this is changing what cosmetic companies are or will offer?

I do think cosmetic companies will be coming out with products specific to what is going on. Production takes some time, but I’m sure we’ll start to see more long-lasting lipsticks again, like reformulated liquid lipsticks. But in the overall scheme, I think more attention will be paid towards skincare and self-care. Personally, I’m spending more money on bath, body and hair products. It hasn’t been deliberate, but I must be reacting to something subconsciously and I would guess others are too.

I also think mask-wearing is less impactful than locking down. When I wear a mask out, I’m essentially putting on the same makeup. I may bring more makeup with me to touch up, but my routine won’t change too much. But during lockdown, I just wasn’t wearing that much makeup at all. I wasn’t going out. There was no point. So, I think sheltering-in-place had a greater effect on makeup-wearing. 

What part of providing videos and information to your followers provides you the most joy? Why? What would you like to do more of and why?

I really love it all. I love creating content that people love to watch – all their reasons for loving my videos are different and that’s always fascinating. When I first started making videos, I was very focused on providing useful information. But now that I feel closer to my community and that they’ve gotten to know me a bit better, I feel a real sense of joy when I inspire. Nothing warms my heart more than reading a comment of a woman who’s decided to finally let their hair go gray, because I have somehow normalized it for her. Or someone who’s never been daring enough to wear a bright red lipstick, and they loved one I showed and wore it in public for the first time. I love hearing those stories!

What are your own top 2 favorite videos and why?

Wow that’s tough! It’s funny; when I make videos, I pretty much forget about them once I upload them. I’m onto thinking about other video ideas or the order of next week’s videos that I need to film. But thinking back, my favorite videos would be ones where I came up with a unique idea. I’m not very good at that, so when I do it’s a small miracle! One is the “Hero Makeup Challenge” where I had to do a full face of makeup using brands’ hero products but I couldn’t use the same brand twice. I did two of those videos and it was great fun. Another video I had a lot of fun making was my “9 Products I’d Like To See In 2019” where I talked about what products I’d like specific brands to launch – like loose powder from Tom Ford.

What is the one thing you would like to do with or for your subscribers?

I’d love to go shopping with my subscribers. I think it would be a lot of fun to see what they pick out and have them advise me on what to buy. I think that would be so much fun.

You, like everyone today, have quite a bit on your plate. How do you define and measure success while achieving work life balance?

I think we define work life balance on a daily or weekly basis, but I think we can view it over a lifetime. And right now I’m in a very work-focused chapter of my life and I’m ok with that. (When I was in my 20’s, I was definitely much more life-focused – haha!) I think if you have an understanding and supportive partner and/or family, it’s fine. As far as measuring success, I definitely separate work and life. For work, my definition of success is pretty straightforward – is my channel growing? Are my views improving? Am I gaining subscribers? Am I still enjoying what I’m doing? But I define and measure success in my life completely differently. If I go to sleep and think I’ve done my absolute best that day, then I feel successful.

We all have ‘bloopers’ in our lives. Can you describe the most memorable one you have experienced since starting your YouTube channel?

I just made a horrible blooper! I filmed a haul video and showed something that wasn’t announced yet. I felt terrible. I took my video down right away, re-edited it, and re-uploaded. I contacted the company right away and told them about it and apologized profusely. I felt horrible. It wasn’t my news to share and I did. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I don’t like when they impact anyone else. It really ate at me for a long time.

If you had the opportunity to make over three famous people who would they be and why?

I think it would be fun to try a drastically different look on someone who has a very strong aesthetic. Like putting Marilyn Monroe style makeup on Kim Kardashian. Or put some very goth makeup on J Lo. I think anything like that would be fun!

Think back to five years ago. Did you envision this is where you would be? Where do you envision yourself five years from now?

I definitely did not envision myself doing what I’m doing or even living where I’m living five years ago. A lot can happen in five years. I was living in NYC, designing hand-knits five years ago. And now I’m a beauty YouTuber living in Las Vegas. Life can be funny, and fun! I really have no idea where I’ll be in five years and I’ve stopped trying to plan. I hope I’m still loving YouTube, but I’m open to anything as long as I enjoy it!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

Believe in yourself.

What are the top 1-5 things that we can look forward to from you in 2020-2021?

I’m hoping to diversify my content. I’ve started to talk about luxury fashion and want to explore that more. It’s my first love and it would be great to be able to share it with my audience.

If you could be any character in a Monty Python movie who would it be and why?

I’d have to say the Black Knight in the Holy Grail. I don’t like giving up.

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