News

My friend Lauren showed me some makeup tips the other day. After putting her son Jordan to bed, she shimmied up to her webcam to recreate Anne Hathaway's Oscar look.

"Ooh, I've got an itchy nose," Lauren giggled as she swept powder across her face. "I keep picking up fluff from me carpet."

Lauren Luke isn't just a pal to me. A YouTube sensation, the self-deprecating 27-year-old boasts more than 185,000 subscribers. Her DIY makeup-tips channel, Panacea81 , is being touted as the most-watched in the U.K.

Her success raises the question: Can 185,000 people really be so clueless when it comes to makeup? What's her secret?

"If I knew, I could bottle it. I haven't a clue!" said the single mum, a former taxi dispatcher who lives with her mother and son in South Shields, northeast of Leeds.

Reached by telephone, she took a moment to consider. "It's real; it just is," she said. "There's no pretense, no Photoshop, no editing. I look like an average girl next door, so it's not intimidating."

Luke started her videos in an effort to sell wholesale makeup on eBay, but now most of her viewers simply take advantage of the free lessons.

Besides the fact that she's a regular girl, Luke also thinks that she appeals to women who are tired of spritzer ladies at beauty counters.

"When I've gone to the makeup counters, [the women] are so done up, they're so pretty, they're so thin. You just think, 'Why am I bothering? Let's just go home,'" she said. "And a lot of people have said that through e-mail, that they feel ashamed."

Fans also like the DIY element.

Subscriber Carolina Saenz from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. likes the convenience and privacy of Luke's online makeup tutorials. "You can practice from home and learn tips without having to get yourself to a makeup store or counter at a mall," she said.

"Also, sometimes things are strained at these places, since you usually have to pay or buy some of the makeup there to get a makeover."

Saenz, 20, says she knew "virtually nothing" about makeup before watching web tutorials. Now the nursing student at Broward College posts her own makeup lessons on YouTube.

Gone are the days when stay-at-home mums plunked their daughters on the bathroom vanity and taught them how to blot lipstick, yet women are still expected to know how to do it naturally, says Toronto makeup artist Claudine Baltazar.

"A woman who doesn't know how to apply makeup can pause, rewind and watch over and over and over again until she gets [it]," says Baltazar. "She doesn't have to be scared of asking a question, because it's her and the computer."

The helplessness some women feel is exacerbated by the sheer choice out there today, says Neil Schmidt, a 36-year-old makeup artist and consultant at MAC Cosmetics in Toronto's Eaton Centre.

"There are a lot of options," he says. Those who educate themselves are more likely to get what they want. "They'll be full on 'Give me this look' or they'll bring their favourite pictures in," he said.

Some makeup brands include instructions with their products. "We know that makeup can be intimidating and we always want our customers to know how to apply our product," said Jean Ford, co-creator of Benefit Cosmetics, the hot San Francisco-based brand that adds cute instruction pamphlets to its cleverly packaged goods.

While Luke has never pushed any particular brand of makeup, she's about to. Her own makeup line, simply called By Lauren Luke and produced by New York's Zorbit Resources, will launch online April 10.

According to Luke, fans will be able to snap up five "affordable" eye shadow pen and compact duos at www.bylaurenluke.com. The sets are called My Smoky Classics, My Sultry Blues, My Fierce Violets, My Luscious Greens and My Vintage Glam (a red and gold pairing).

But times are tough for retail and, despite her legions of fans, Luke still has jitters about the launch. "I keep expecting to get a phone call to tell us this is a lie or something," she said.

I don't know about that. Would 185,000 people lie?