If you’re like me and have been watching Fleur de Force’s YouTube channel for years, soaking in all of her product suggestions and tips, then you'll love this major news: The vlogger is launching her own makeup line. After announcing it — where else? — on her channel, Fleur caught up with Refinery29 to share some exclusive details.
The range, which Fleur developed with Feel Unique, includes two eyeshadow quads: Cosmic Bronze (which includes cream, toffee, bronze, and deep-brown shades) and Lunar Rose (featuring pale-pink, aubergine, nude, and shimmery taupe powders). She also released six pigmented lip glosses: Little Star (pale-pink), Written In the Stars (nudey-pink), Starlight (coral), Lucky Star (tomato red), Starry Starry Night (berry), and Seeing Stars (peach). If you hadn't guessed already, Fleur is really into stars. There's also a cosmetic bag and a compact mirror, as well as faux lashes created by Eylure.
"For me, it was all about creating my dream products," Fleur says. "I [tried to] perfect things that I already liked — taking, say, a formulation from one product that I love and a scent from another product and a color from another product, and putting them all together." She did just that, spending the better portion of a year working with her team to create the perfect set of makeup basics for her audience.
"It took about a year from when Feel Unique originally got in touch with me and proposed the idea," she says. "For anybody who's into beauty, it's a dream to be able to make your own products."
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To get started, Fleur brought in dozens of her favorite products to serve as benchmarks. Of the 20 to 30 products she took inspiration from, Clarins lip glosses were among the most important because of their signature vanilla scent. Fleur was adamant that her line feature a similar sweet smell. "The best part for me was going to the factory and seeing the formulations being made, and being able to change the colors on the spot," she says. "[With my line], I really wanted to create a capsule collection of colors that I felt [everyone] would wear." She has plans to release more products around the holiday season, but she wouldn't spill any details just yet.
But, even with a new cosmetics line, Fleur has no plans to retire from vlogging — even if it costs her sleep. "I think people underestimate the amount of work that goes into maintaining YouTube, especially when you have other side projects," she says. The Brit wakes up at 6:30 or 7 a.m. every day to film and edit her videos, and go to launch events and meetings in London. (In addition to her makeup line, Fleur released her first book, The Glam Guide, this year.) It's hard to juggle daily vlogging in addition to all her other tasks, so she's looking for someone to lend a hand with editing videos in the future. "It's hard, though, because when you've created something on your own, it's hard to let go," she says.
For those looking to start their own YouTube channel, Fleur has three pieces of advice: 1. Be consistent and upload regularly. 2. Be persistent. "It never happens overnight... It's important to remember that building an audience can take time," she says. 3. Put everything in perspective. "It's easy to think, 'Oh, I'm just a tiny YouTuber; I've only got 50,000 subscribers,' but even 10,000 people is a huge number!" she says. "If you're talking about something you're passionate about, you'll have a lot of people to connect with."
Fleur de Force Eyeshadow Quads, $12.38 each; Lip Glosses, $10.83, available at Feel Unique.