Jaclyn Hill has been making major changes over the past three months, but you might not have noticed them. Although the YouTube star has been open about personal life on her popular channel over the past eight years, Hill is re-inventing herself while the ring lights are unplugged and the cameras are off.
"It's not so much about product or collaboration or what you guys will see," she tells Allure. "Reinventing myself is definitely more of an inner thing. It’s me on my journey of happiness and not caring as much about what other people think of me, just doing whatever it takes for me to be happy and independent."
Shutting down her channel or changing the content on it to, say, a cooking channel is definitely not on her itinerary, though. "Could you imagine Cooking with Jaclyn?" she jokes. "Oh god, watch me burn the kitchen down."
One of the subtle tweaks she's made off-screen is wearing less makeup. In the past, she considered herself as someone who went all-or-nothing with makeup. Taking her tutorials on contouring and smoky eye looks into account, this should come as no surprise to the millions of people who have watched them. "If I didn’t have 45 minutes to sit down, I wouldn’t do my makeup," she says. However, Hill has been looking to her sister Rachel Barkules for tips on scaling back on her full-blown routine, and she admits that she's adjusting to seeing herself with her newfound no-makeup makeup look. "Now I sit down for five to six minutes and just throw a little something on," Hill adds. "I don’t always have to do fake lashes." Instead, she focuses on concealer, cream bronzer, and mascara.
If I didn’t have 45 minutes to sit down, I wouldn’t do my makeup.
Surprisingly, Hill hasn't hopped on the lash extension train to save the step of expertly gluing on falsies, and she doesn't plan to. Reason being? The way she sleeps.
"Everyone has told me that if you’re a side sleeper, that totally destroys lash extensions after a couple of nights," she says. "I literally sleep on my face, on my stomach, so I know they’d be so wonky, curled up, and falling out, so I’m like what’s the point? You literally have to sleep like a mummy." As a fellow side sleeper, I wholeheartedly agree.
One major thing that hasn't changed for Hill since becoming one of the most recognizable faces in YouTube's beauty community is that she's always wanted to create makeup. Having her own line was a dream of her prior to starting her YouTube channel. "When I worked at M.A.C., I would go around, look at the new products, and constantly test out the shadows, the blushes, and everything that came in," she recalls. "I was like, 'Ugh, I wish they would change this or this because it would be a little bit better.'" She'd also take note of the products customers complained about, returned, and requested.
This discerning eye has come in handy not only for her blockbuster collaborations like Becca's Champagne Pop highlighter and Morphe's Jaclyn Hill palettes, but also as she works on finally putting out her very own line, which has been in the works for the past four years. (She hasn't officially revealed when it's launching.) "I got a good feel over those four years of what the average everyday woman was looking for in her beauty products and her beauty routine," she adds. "I feel like it helped step me up for developing products that not only I love but others love, as well."
I always want to create products like that, not just a product that’s a gimmick.
I want it to be so functional and easy for every single man and woman out there.
And Hill is right. Friends constantly ask me about Jaclyn Hill's first Morphe palette. If they haven't tried it, they want to know everything about it. If they have, they rave about how it's the only palette they'll use. Hill is gracious when I tell her this, but she's also fully aware that the 35-pan palette offers a shade selection and price that is seemingly unparalleled in the market right now. It's not an all-warm-toned or all-cool-toned palette like many on the market now. It's a versatile combination of hues and finishes for both neutral and bold makeup routines. "We put so much time and thought into it being a truly universal palette that's going to match literally every single skin tone that is possibly out there," she explains. "I always want to create products like that, not just a product that’s a gimmick. I want it to be so functional and easy for every single man and woman out there."
Inclusivity has been a huge shift in the beauty community since Hill posted her YouTube channel, and she is very aware of this and does her best to represent everyone she can in her content. In regards to breaking down gender boundaries in makeup, she notes, "Now, the boys who used to have to hide makeup under their beds from their parents and put it on and wash it off before they left their room have that ability and that freedom to actually go out there and be themselves. Social media is opening that door up for so many boys out there."
Social media has been evolving throughout her career, too. With it, "a new, younger, fresher person will come in or a new crowd will come in all of a sudden and they bring this whole new flavor to the menu," Hill says. Although she finds it hard to adapt to it at times, she loves it. It keeps her well-oiled machine, well, oiled. Hill grows from having to teach herself new makeup trends and translating them to her viewers. She's constantly looking up new ways to evolve her skills and stay ahead of the game. Through it all, she shares with her 5.3 million subscribers what she learns with honesty. No matter where she is on her journey of re-invention or the state of social media, she has that. "That’s our bond, that’s our connection," she says. "It's just the honesty, and I'm not going to lie to them."
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