I wasn't even planning on coming back.
Hi everyone.
Michelle Phan admits she had no intention
of returning to YouTube.
I think like, this headline
should be like-- Oh, let's hear it.
(Leigh laughs) Yeah, like, um.
Michelle Phan life update, 'cause I haven't done that.
I haven't made a video for life update,
so I know a lot of people type in Michelle Phan life update,
so that will, that will definitely get views.
Update: Michelle's back on YouTube,
and if you haven't already noticed,
all her videos have a much different vibe.
I mean, back on,
I feel like I'm kind of like, a normal person.
I'm just sharing my life, and I'm just showing things
that I'm really interested in.
Hello, good morning.
I caught up with Michelle to see her new office
and learn what she's been up to.
How did you feel reading comment from some fans saying,
"Come back, we miss you."
It felt like I left my hometown.
That's how it felt.
The first video the beauty guru posted
in more than two years was this one of her cat.
She titled it Hello.
Hello!
And I thought, this would be like, a nice little surprise.
We have arrived.
For people who are still subscribed,
so I uploaded it, and I honestly didn't think
anyone would watch it, but a lot of people did,
like millions of people were so happy that I came back,
and that's when I realized, all right, flood gates are open.
I guess I'm back, like, I'm just gonna have fun now.
And that's what I've been doing.
Michelle joined YouTube in 2006
and was one of the OG beauty bloggers at the time,
making videos in her college dorm room.
Michelle's celebrity quickly climbed.
This Barbie makeup tutorial Michelle posted in 2009
has 68 million views.
In 2010, Lancome signed her
as their first official makeup artist.
My brand new Lancome kit.
Michelle was 22 years old.
She started her very first makeup line,
EM cosmetics with L'oreal in 2013.
You helped create this brand with me.
She was a guest on national shows like The View
and The Today Show.
We're gonna learn all about
Michelle's five-minute morning makeup routine,
remember, in five minutes.
Five minutes.
She also won the Icon Award
at the 4th Annual Streamy Awards in 2014.
Two years later in 2016,
her face graced multiple magazine covers: Nylon, Fashion,
Forbes, which reported she was worth $500 million.
With about nine million subscribers,
she felt the pressure was on.
Sometimes you can get discouraged when you upload a video
and it's not hitting the numbers that you want.
You get really discouraged
because you put so much work into it.
And so you start thinking like,
"Okay, what can I do to get more views?"
That begins this obsession of
compromising your own integrity to hit these numbers.
It's very stressful, it's very demanding.
When I would go online, it was just work.
Literally, the online world was my office.
That's how I felt.
The viewers demand a lot, and they consume it really fast.
So, it's very draining.
In 2016, Michelle suddenly disappeared
from YouTube.
I didn't plan it.
I think I was in France.
I was at, like, Cannes.
There's like, some event there,
and I remember I was eating,
I was just staring off at the water,
and I'm just thinking to myself,
"Wow, Europeans know how to live."
Like. (chuckles)
Americans, we work so hard. Yeah.
We work really hard.
That was when I realized, you know, I'm still really young.
I'm not 30 yet.
I wanna enjoy my youth, at least.
At least the next few years.
I don't have kids, I'm not married or anything, and so,
I realized, this is a great opportunity for me
to just enjoy because not a lot of people have this.
Those videos fans knew to tune in for, gone.
Quitting, was that the only option for you?
No, I didn't have to quit, honestly.
I didn't have to.
I just knew that was the only thing
that would force me to really stop everything.
Did you get help at all?
I did, yeah.
I was able to talk to a therapist.
There's a lot of symptoms of depression,
and I think I also inherited it from my mom.
'Cause she came from Vietnam after the war,
so she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the Asian community,
mental health is still considered a stigma,
and I was kind of taught to just bury my feelings.
For the past 10 years,
I just kept everything in the back burner,
and totally neglected it,
and I just started to bubble and boil over.
In 2017, one day she posted a video explanation
of why she left YouTube.
They say, if you want to fly,
you have to give up everything that weighs you down.
Sleep is what came next.
I slept a lot.
You know, a lot of people don't realize,
YouTubers don't sleep.
If a YouTuber is active
and they're actively uploading weekly,
they don't sleep.
Michelle also ventured around the world,,
including to Egypt.
I had a chance to really take that in, in the most like,
majestic place on the planet.
And that helped me lower the volume, yeah, recharge,
but also lower the volume.
I had so much noise in my head from everywhere.
Even from my family, like, they demanded more time from me.
They wanted to see me, they wanted to talk to me more.
Everyone just wanted a piece of me,
and I realized, I don't even have a piece for myself.
And myself, what I think I care most about is
family and experience.
And those are the two things
I wanted to buy my time back for,
is to spend more time with my family,
and to invest in beautiful experiences
that can help me grow as a person.
When you were in Egypt, were you still on your phone
taking photos and keeping them for yourself?
Or you just said, "No, I'm just gonna experience this.
"Through my eyes." I mean, yeah,
I still took photos but it was really more for myself.
This time, I just wanted to experience it
like a normal person.
Then, Michelle took back her life.
Welcome to my office.
She bought her company
EM Cosmetics from L'oreal and rebranded.
So, if you follow me, I can show you
our entire collection of EM Cosmetics.
(upbeat music)
2018, we only did one launch.
2019 was our busiest year because we finally had a full team
and we were able to launch all these amazing products
that I'm so proud of.
She now has her own office space
here in Culver City, California.
This space used to be a dilapidated warehouse
and it was really gross looking.
But my business partner brought an architect
and basically built up this incredible space.
(laid back music)
I don't really have a typical day.
I would say, one day out of the week
is dedicated to only meetings,
so it's the only consistent day which is Wednesdays.
Michelle's YouTube videos are way less produced.
These days, all she uses is an iPhone, selfie stick,
and a laptop.
Now, coming back on,
I feel like I'm kind of like a normal person.
I'm just showing my life and I'm just showing things
that I'm really interested in.
So, I would say that's the biggest difference is,
subtracting that obligation that I had before.
Now, I enjoy making content so much more.
I'm kind of doing it for fun.
I love editing just because it's very therapeutic for me.
And it's also a great way for me to reflect on my day
'cause I'm literally documenting everything.
She's in awe that her fans are still there
watching all these years later.
One YouTuber wrote recently,
"12-year-old me wants to be like Michelle Phan.
"22-year-old me still wants to be like Michelle Phan."
10 years into this business, including a hiatus,
people are still admiring your work.
Yeah, that's crazy.
How do you,
how does that make you feel? I dunno, I feel,
I feel like a normal person.
I'm just a normal person
with a camera. (Leigh laughs)
And that's what I tell a lot of people.
In addition to overseeing EM Cosmetics,
Michelle also launched Thematic.
It's a tool YouTubers can use to find license-free music.
I had this video that's originally mine,
everything is mine,
and I think like, some Russian pop star singer
stole my entire video.
She made a music video off of it,
and she was able to put a copyright claim on my video.
But thankfully, I have a team at Thematic
and they took care of it for me.
Imagine if I didn't have that team.
And this is why I built tools like Thematic,
where creators can find really great music
they can use on their channel
without having to worry about copyright claims or takedowns
because that's a really big issue.
Many other beauty experts
have launched their own channels since Michelle's hiatus.
Call it the new Hollywood.
It's entertainment.
People are very entertained
by all the different personalities in the beauty space.
And I like to call it Hollywood and sports,
'cause makeup to me is a sport.
With the makeup industry, you have people who love makeup,
beauty junkies.
They're gonna put on makeup
and follow their favorite players.
What's next for the YouTube world?
The next big trend?
Probably, I could potentially see
3D YouTubers becoming a thing.
I'm Leigh Schepps for InsideEdition.com.
(dramatic music)