Annalee building her brand out of beauty
It started with posting photos on Facebook, now makeup artist Annalee Muggeridge has a popular YouTube channel. Helen Harvey investigates.
Annalee Muggeridge just fell into the career that has gained her more than 90,000 followers from around the world.
A self taught makeup artist, the 25 year old has 94,000 followers on Youtube - her videos have been viewed about 3.5 million times - more than 30,000 likes on Facebook and about 28,000 followers on Instagram. The largest group of followers are Kiwis and Australians, she says.
‘‘The next one is the States. Mexico, Brazil is a big one, Italy. It’s cool when you think these people want to see what I create on such a large scale. It’s very humbling.’’
Muggeridge’s career started a little more than two years ago - by accident.
‘‘I just didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school, so thought I’d go out and work and see where that would take me.’’
She was working at Rebel Sports and one day she sold cricket shoes to a father and son. They raved about her service to the then owner of a New Plymouth pharmacy. ‘‘She chased me down and wanted to hire me purely on my sales and on my manner. That’s how I fell into the job [at the pharmacy]. Then working here - it all felt right.’’
Muggeridge has now been selling makeup for more than three years and a year into the job she started to highlight her skills online.
‘‘I just thought it would be really cool to start up a Facebook page and showcase my clients before and after photos. I gained a lot of following through that. And then I would do some looks on myself and people would be like, ‘I’d love to see how you created that can you do a tutorial?’
‘‘So I thought oh my gosh maybe I’ll put together a video.’’
Looking back at her first video makes her cringe, she says.
‘‘I had a $100 Panasonic old thing that had no audio on it. It took me like three weeks to edit. It was so new to me, but I uploaded my first YouTube video and the rest is history.
‘‘It’s just been kind of a snowball effect. I think word of mouth has been a really big thing for me,’’ she says.
Her freelance work, mainly weddings, is booked 12 months in advance and anyone wanting her to do their make-up at the pharmacy where she works has to wait at least three months.
Her career took off when her YouTube channel started to build momentum. Then a company sent her a free product to test. She freaked out, she says.
‘‘I thought it was just the most exciting thing that someone wanted to send me something to try and to review. I’m really lucky, because I’ve have such a passion for the beauty industry. I get so much joy out of it that it doesn’t feel like I’m working.’’
Muggeridge, who boarded at St Mary’s in Stratford, struggled academically and didn’t think she would have much of a career, she says.
‘‘So I feel very proud to know I’ve created my own brand and it’s all off my own back, working weekends and after work. I have to make it happen, no one else can.’’
Her success has resulted in some special opportunities, she says. These opportunities include overseas travel. Earlier in the year she went to Sydney as an ‘‘influencer’’ for Clinique. Last month she was in Fiji speaking alongside Olympic champion rowers Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.
‘‘We were all guest speakers to speak about life experiences. I was speaking to the pharmaceutical industry about what I do and how it affects their business.’’
At the end of last year she won the Star to New York award, a free trip to the Big Apple.
‘‘I won out of all New Zealand. I work in regional - all the others are Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, and I’m up against huge huge accounts with five or six people manning [the counter] at a time.
‘‘And there’s just me. I worked very hard last year. I did an event to fundraise for breast cancer and a silent auction. Those little things show representation of the brand.’’
In New York she attended a conference with more than 90 other consultants from around the world.
‘‘We got so spoilt I can’t even describe it. It was a money can’t buy experience,’’ she says.
Treats included dinners at the Loeb Boathouse at the lake in Central Park and at a restaurant on boat cruising up the Hudson River, as well as an evening at Copacabana Times Square.
‘‘I did make it my mission to meet the vice president of media and marketing of the brand globally. It was really cool to realise that she knew who I was. I made an appointment to see her at head office the next day.
‘‘I’m a big believer in networking. It’s not what you know but who. It was cool to have a chat to her about future plans and a bit of mentoring because I do want to go very high, whether in the corporate sense or what I’m doing online.’’
On the way to New York, Muggeridge and her partner Trent Kemsley did some travelling, including visiting Disneyland, where Kemsley got down on one knee and proposed.
It was so romantic, she says. He had the ring and it fit perfectly.
‘‘He had to ask me a second time because I kept saying ‘oh my God’ and crying. People all around us were cheering.’’
She is making money out of her online business. Every thousand views on youtube earns her $1 and she collaborates with different companies. Everything is going well, so now she needs to decide where she wants to take her brand, she says.
‘‘I’m at a bit of a crossroads, trying to figure out what happens next.’’