Table of Biography
Michelle Phan is an American Makeup guru, entrepreneur, and voice artist with Vietnamese ancestry. Michelle Phan owns a YouTube channel with more than 8.91 million subscribers. She has launched her cosmetic, ‘EM by Michelle Phan’. Phan also has a start-up company named, Thematic for content creators on YouTube.
Early Life and Childhood
Michelle Phan came to this world on 11 April 1987. 33 years old, Phan was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States of America. Her parents belong to the Vietnamese ethnicity and were Vietnamese refugees. She was born to Jennifer Phan while her father’s identity is not disclosed. Her mother, Jennifer owned a nail salon. Her father was a hard-core gambler who was solely responsible for creating an unpleasant situation in the family. At the age of six, her father left her and she needed to be with her step-father who was controlling and dominating.
She is an American by nationality and belongs to the Asian ethnicity. Phan was born with the astronomical sign of Aries and follows Christianity as her main religion. Talking about her siblings, she has an older brother named, Steve Phan and a half-sister, Christine Phan. Moreover, her sister-in-law is also a YouTube star, Promise Tamang Phan.
Education
Regarding her educational background, Phan always wanted to be a medical practitioner, but she landed at an art college later. She completed her early education at Tampa Bay Technical High School. Later, she joined Ringling College of Art and Design and Massachusetts College of Art and Design to pursue an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree. But, because of her family situation, she dropped both colleges.
Caption: Michelle with her mom (Source: Instagram)
Michelle Phan – Early Career
Before using YouTube as a major platform to showcase her talent, Phan commenced a beauty blog Xanga with the username, ricebunny. She posted various beauty tips where her followers requested to make makeup tutorials on YouTube.
Phan commenced her journey as a YouTuber on July 19, 2006. Her self-titled YouTube channel, Michelle Phan has over 8.91 million subscribers and overall 1B views on her channel. Phan’s subscribers on her channel soared when BuzzFeed featured her makeup videos,’ Lady Gaga Bad Romance Look’ and ‘Lady GaGa Poker Face Tutorial’. The former video has 56M views while the latter has 34 million views now. Unfolding her YouTube channel, ‘Barbie Transformation Tutorial’ has 68M views making it the most viewed video until now.
‘Concerned but staying calm’ is one of her newest videos where she tries to pacify her viewers with her positive messages amid lockdown. Phan urges her audience to be smart, proactive, and calm. Similarly, ‘My Dramatic Hair Cut’ and ‘Chopsticks as Hands Makeup Challenge’ are other new videos on her channel. Both videos have got thousands of views and positive responses.
Caption: Michelle doing her makeup with chopsticks(Source: Instagram)
Entrepreneurship and collaborations
Her career got a breakthrough when Phan became the first Vietnamese video make-up artist of the popular makeup brand, Lancome. Phan represented Lancome all across the world. Phan proved the saying,’ If you don’t come from a rich family. A rich family should come from you. In 2011, Phan co-founded a monthly beauty product subscription service called, ‘MyGlam’ later renamed, ‘Ipsy’. ‘Ipsy’ was launched in 2012 and became a service sponsor of the Generation Beauty conference.
In 2012, she also became the YouTube advertising partner and introduced FAWN, a YouTube multi-channel network. In 2013, L’Oreal launched a new cosmetic line called EM Cosmetics by Phan dedicating the brand to her mother. However, her products started to receive criticism regarding the price and design. After two years, Phan bought the share of L’Oreal’s share of EMC Cosmetics through IPSy and made it official via her Instagram account in 2016. Again, she reintroduced the company after acquiring EMC Cosmetics from Ipsy. Phan resigned from Ipsy to shift her focus to EMC.
Partnership
In the year 2014, she partnered with Endemol Beyond USA to develop a talent network to feature people via YouTube and create content. Likewise, in September of 2014, she collaborated with Cutting Edge Group to set up Shift Music Group.
Furthermore, she has published a book, Makeup: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success — Online and Off. She had introduced this book with Random House. In 2015, she raised $100 million to value Ipsy at over $500 million. Phan commenced a start-up company named Thematic. Thematic is a company specializing in licensing music for content creators on YouTube and music artists for YouTube videos for free.
Besides YouTube and Business, she has lent her voice to Jessica Jones on ‘Marvel Avengers Academy’. Her appearances on various TV series such as Girl’s Guide With Michelle Phan, Rachael Ray, Today, The Dr.Show, and Pop Culture Underground to name a few. She appeared on ‘Good Morning America’ in 2013. Furthermore, Phan is also the executive producer of Introducing Icon, Girl’s Guide With Michelle Phan, and Simply Bella.
Brand Endorsements
While building her brand she certainly has garnered a huge fan following. In addition, she is also tied up with various companies and brands as well. As of now, she does brand endorsements for Ipsy and her own makeup company Em Cosmetics.
Michelle Phan – Net worth 2023
Michelle Phan is highly appalled by her incredible work in the beauty industry. Phan has brought the ‘Streamy Award for Inspiration Icon Award and the Shorty Award for Best YouTube Guru to her home. In the year 2015, she won the ‘People’s Voice Webby Award for Best How-To and DIY Channel’. She was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the category of Art and Style and Inc.’s 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs.
With all the hard work and determination, she has established herself as an entrepreneur, and YouTube sensation. Her main income stream is from online video tutorials and has accumulated a handsome amount of money. Phan’s salary has not been disclosed separately but her estimated net worth is $60 million as of now.
Michelle Phan – Scandal
Phan was sued by Ultra Records for copyright infringement in the United States District Court for Los Angeles. Ultra Records accused Phan of using music on her YouTube videos without legal consent. Furthermore, Ultra demanded $1,50,000 per damage which counts a total value of $7.5 million on the YouTube channel of Phan.
Later, Phan’s representatives stated that she had received permission from Ultra to use the music. In return, Michelle filed the case against Ultra Records on September 18, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. After a year, in 2015, both parties settled, and the cases were sorted.
Caption: Michelle Phan taking a picture in her car(Source: Instagram)
Personal Life
Michelle Phan has been dating Dominique Capraro since 2010. Capraro met her in the romantic city, of Paris. However, the couple started dating after two years of their first meeting. The duo is in a long-term relationship and is living a blissful life in the company of each other. She revealed in an interview that she no longer posts videos or pictures of Capraro and wanted her relationship with him to be kept private.
Likewise, she has described herself as an advocate for Bitcoin, which drew the attention of supporters and critics alike. In January 2020, she revealed in her Instagram story that she suffered from Trigeminal neuralgia, citing it as one of the reasons why she no longer uses foundation.
Body Measurements
Michelle Phan stands tall with a height of 5 feet and 1 inch and weighs 49 kg. Her other body measurements are recorded as 34-23-34. Phan’s hair and eyes are of Dark Brown color. Talking about her dress size, it’s 0-2 (US) and her bra size is 32B.
Social Media
Michelle Phan is very active and owns a verified account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Phan’s Instagram handle, @michellephan, and Facebook account, @MichellePhanOfficial have more than 2 million followers. @MichellePhan is her Twitter handle she and her followers have reached 893.6K. Similarly, her subscribers on YouTube are more than 8.91 million while her TikTok account has 106.8K followers.