What You Don't Know About Laura Lee

YouTube has a little bit of something for everyone. Whether you're looking for a cute cat video or a motivational speech, there are channels to cater to every need. There's a reason that it's one of the most visited websites in the world, and it has gifted its viewers with some truly remarkable celebrities. One such YouTube star is Laura Lee, a makeup artist who boasts nearly 5 million followers at the time of publishing.  

Lee posted her first video on YouTube in 2013, and since then she has become one of the most recognizable names in the beauty industry. The Alabama native brings her southern charm and a winning personality to her wildly popular videos. While the forthcoming YouTube sensation reveals a lot about herself on her channel, there's still a lot that you don't know about the celeb. Here are some of the things that even the biggest fans probably didn't know about Laura Lee.

Transitioning from being a medical assistant to being a full-time YouTube star seems like a dream job. Lee was able to pursue her passion and now gets to wear as much makeup she wants! While it seems like this would make work a lot easier, Lee now works more hours than she did in her previous career. Fortunately, she loves what she does. "It is an incredible amount of work," she told HelloGiggles. "We stay up till 4:00 in the morning working. We take three hours to film a video and eight hours to edit it."

While Lee gets some help from her husband, even with his assistance she still works some long hours. "I do have my husband helping me do that because I physically, absolutely could not do it by myself," she said. "This is not a 9 to 5. This is a 24/7 type of job."

If you're just starting out with makeup, don't be disappointed if things don't turn out the way you want them to right away! Applying makeup can be a tricky thing, and there aren't really any shortcuts. If you want flawless makeup, you're going to have to work at it. The good thing, though, is that if you practice enough, you can become a master of makeup like Lee is. She perfected her technique through years of practice.

"You can load up on as many facial primers and full coverage foundations as possible, but if not done the correct way, you may not end up with the result you were looking for," she told Health Beauty Life. "I often film drugstore looks and dupe videos that show girls how to look flawless while staying under budget. I didn't go to cosmetology school to learn my make up skills. It was practice that taught me everything I know. Remember, practice makes perfect!"

Loving your body can be a difficult thing. Most people have something that they're insecure about and would like to change, but Lee thinks everyone should accept and love their imperfections. It might sound surprising coming from a makeup artist, but Lee is against the artificial look and would love to see the trend of the "man made body" disappear.

"Don't get me wrong, plastic surgery can be a beautiful thing," she told Health Beauty Life. "The huge trend I've seen explode is the large breast, tiny waistline, and Brazilian butt. If you were one of the rare ones born with this trending body shape, that's fantastic. But I feel like people think they have to have plastic surgery on their bodies to 'fit in' and feel beautiful and confident. This is not true. I would just like to see more people embrace their natural body, and be proud of what they have no matter what shape or size. I guess we would upset society pretty bad if we stood proud of what we have."

Vaseline isn't the only beauty hack that Lee has up her sleeve. Her other brilliant beauty idea befits her sparkling personality. Lee revealed her secret to Parade: For an instantly glamorous look, all Lee needs is a little bit of glitter. "I have been using glitter for a long time, and if I'm having a bad eyeshadow day — we all in the beauty community have a saying, 'Just put some glitter on top of it, they'll never know,'" she said. "I love glitter. I'll put glitter on top of my highlight, lipstick and all over my eyelids."

It's a simple but genius hack that is easily overlooked by the average makeup aficionado. If you've ever wondered if wearing glitter is too over-the-top for anything other than a club night or a costume party, you can now rest easy knowing that the look is approved by Lee herself.

We often hear that celebs are just like us, although we don't necessarily believe it. The average person, after all, doesn't have photographers snapping shots of them. They also don't have the money to do whatever they want. Not every famous person lives the life of a celebrity, though. Lee, for example, hasn't turned into the partying type of celebrity since she became famous. Instead, she likes to hang out at home.

She does like to travel (although she hates long plane rides) but she's happiest when she and her husband, Tyler, stay home and watch TV. "As lame as it sounds, I love sitting at home with some take-out watching Family Guy or American Dad," she told Sigma Affiliates. "Tyler and I are always on the go, so down time is the best time." Lee might be famous, but it looks like she's got her priorities in order!

In August 2018, a scandal erupted when old tweets from Lee's Twitter account were circulated on the internet. One of the now-deleted tweets, shared by Cosmopolitan, read "Tip for all black people if you pull ur pants up you can run from the police faster.." The racist tweets resulted in serious repercussions. 

Lee quickly lost most of her sponsorships, including a lucrative deal with Ulta Beauty. Boxycharm, a beauty subscription service, also denounced Lee. She was also dropped from DIFF Eyewear, and was removed from the Morphe cosmetics website, which had her listed under the "Extended Family" tab on their website. The backlash also resulted in a massive drop in subscribers. According to social media growth website SocialBlade, Lee lost more than half a million subscribers after the tweets resurfaced. Citing industry trends from Polygon, Vox projected that the drop in subscribers could cost Lee $65,000 in earnings per year.

Since the scandal, Lee has been trying to rebuild her following. After the failed apology, she disappeared from the internet for a while, before issuing a second apology video at the end of September 2018. "In the past six and a half years, I have grown so much and have gained so much knowledge and respect," she said. "I know that it's prejudice, and stereotypes are not funny ever. I know that is nothing to joke about."

Lee also apologized for the first video, saying "In the video, I come off more as a victim," she said. "I am NOT a victim in any way, form, or fashion in this situation." Since then, she's been focusing on repairing her image. At the end of 2018, Lee launched a holiday makeup collection called Slay Belle. As of this writing, however, Lee's YouTube account still hasn't recovered and she's still losing more followers each month than she's gaining; only time will tell if she will be able to regain the public's respect.