Laura Lee, known for her eye-catching eye makeup tutorials on YouTube and Instagram, recently started her own brand.
In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals behind popular Instagram accounts to find out the secrets of their success.
All entrepreneurs hope that they can turn what they love into a thriving business. For popular vlogger and beauty guru Laura Lee, a love of cosmetics and a devoted social media following helped her launch a line of eye shadow called Laura Lee Los Angeles.
The first product, a vegan, cruelty-free $40 eye shadow palette of 10 fall color options called Cat’s Pajamas, sold out in days — which is not surprising since Lee has more than 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.9 million followers on Instagram.
Lee says that the first product is only the beginning. “We’re looking to grow the brand,” she tells Entrepreneur. “We want to be a full makeup line and turn into something great. So we’re just getting started. But we know it’s going to be huge. We just have to stay working at it every single day.”
We caught up with Lee to get her insights about how to grow an audience and make sure that your passion always shines through.
Related: This Self-Taught Artist Uses Instagram as Her Gallery — and Has Attracted Some Big Name Clients
How did you get your start with Instagram?
I always loved makeup, and where I’m from in Alabama, there just wasn’t a lot of cool artistry going on. So I started my Instagram page. I started posting pictures of just my eye with my makeup done really cool over and over and over again.
What other platforms do you use and what percentage of the time do you spend on them vs. Instagram
YouTube is the main social media outlet I use. I post three videos a week on YouTube and I normally post one piece of content a day on my Instagram, whether it be a video, picture or a boomerang. But it’s so much faster to create content for Instagram than it is for YouTube. I spend a little more time on YouTube. I also do my Insta-Stories. And I also do my Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook.
How much of your time do you devote to it?
It is my career. I would say every day we probably spend 10 plus hours working on some odd or end that ends up being for social media, whether it be filming a video or getting ready to film the video of prepping or pulling makeup or applying makeup, it all leads back to social media. So I would say around 10 hours a day because we work seven days a week right now.
How do you…
