Michelle Phan is a Vietnamese-American make-up artist who posts make-up and beauty tutorials on YouTube, sometimes under the online alias ricebunny. Phan has not had formal education in make-up artistry; however, she does do professional make-up and is the first and only video spokeswoman for the French make-up line Lancôme. Phan is an alumna of Ringling College of Art and Design and Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Michelle Phan was born in Massachusetts; both her mother and father were born in Vietnam. Her mother raised her in Massachusetts and California, before settling in Tampa, Florida after Phan’s father left. Phan began her artistic training at the age of 12 by teaching herself how to paint with watercolors and oil paints.
Phan originally intended to become a dermatologist by the request of her mother. However, she later convinced her mother to allow her to major in illustration. She was inspired by her mom’s career as a nail technician. Formerly, she was a student and worked as a part-time waitress at a sushi restaurant.
Phan joined Youtube on July 18, 2006, and has created over 150 videos. In November 2010, she reached over 1 million subscribers and became the #1 most subscribed woman on YouTube
Phan is known for her video style that incorporates her voice-over instruction with music and text subtitles. Her videos are created entirely using iMovie on a MacBook Pro.Popular beauty tutorials released on Phan’s YouTube channel have included her “Romantic Valentine Look,” “Brighter Larger Looking Eyes,” “Makeup for Glasses,” and “Mysterious Masquerade Look.” Her most popular videos include the “Lady Gaga ‘Poker Face’ Tutorial” with over 25,000,000 video views on YouTube,,”Lady Gaga Bad Romance Look,” “Romantic Valentine Look,” and “Seductive Vampire”. In January, special effects were used in her new Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” video, the first for a makeup guru.The Buzzfeed profiled Phan on January 23, 2009 overnight, turning it into a viral video. She is also the first female YouTuber to reach 1 million subscribers in November 2010. As of December 23, 2010, Phan has introduced Chriselle Lim, a fashion wardrobe stylist and one of Phan’s friends, who owns the fashion company Chriselle INC., to showcase fashion tutorials alongside her make-up tutorials on Phan’s Youtube page. About a month later, on February 2, 2011, Phan introduced Krista Bradford, a hair stylist who will be posting hair tutorials featuring herself and Phan, to her Youtube Channel. Krista Bradford also owns Couture Hair Extensions & Salon in Santa Monica, CA.
Phan’s success on YouTube have garnered her significant press and recognition across the globe. She appeared in the August 2009 issue of Seventeen Magazine, the St. Petersburg Times on August 23, 2009, the Sun Sentinelon August 24, 2009, and on the popular blog BellaSugar on April 19, 2009. Phan was also featured in a Chilean newspaper for her Barbie video.Recently, Phan was also published in May’s issue of NYLON magazine.She appeared in Forbes Magazine as well. In 2010, Phan was hired by Lancôme. Her videos will include Lancôme beauty products. In 2011, Phan started a charity channel ricebunny where she posts videos about her everyday life. Every month, she donates money to two organizations selected. The amount of money depends on the number of views. She has also launched a gaming channel alongside video game host Adande Throne called PressStart.