Having amassed almost five million subscribers on YouTube, beauty guru Patrick Starrr has become a household name in the makeup space.
His dedicated fans continue to turn to the creator for his beauty knowledge, and the star never tires of answering any questions.
WATCH: Patrick Starrr at VidCon Australia
“I’m the world’s most glamorous teacher,” Patrick jokes to Girlfriend. “I love teaching makeup. I’ve had techniques from day one that I still promote to this day, whether it’s baking, whether it’s applying fake lashes, or overlining the lips, I still do it, I still show it.
“I feel like for people that haven’t yet tried makeup it’s important for me to answer everything and anything that people want to know, because makeup is truly transformative from the inside out.”
For those who “haven’t yet tried makeup”, the beauty world can be an extremely overwhelming space to dive into. Patrick offers his tips for those who are just dipping their toes into the immense sea of makeup.
“Watch a lot of YouTube; watch a lot of TikTok,” he says. “There’s so much that you can learn from self-taught makeup artists.”
The guru himself has learned a lot over the years, both from fellow makeup artists and experience doing drag makeup. Patrick shares the best advice he’s received when it comes to beauty.
“When you’re doing your eye makeup, looking straight in the mirror is very key. Because sometimes if you’re closing your eyes too much and you open, all of a sudden, the intricate eye work, with the eye liner, you can’t really see.
“I learnt that from doing drag makeup myself back in the day; take a step back, look at the makeup far away, see how it looks, and then come back close, so playing with the angles of the mirror is a good tip and trick.”
Of course, there are many tips and tricks out there in the beauty space – some more worthwhile than others. When asked what makeup trend he is simply not a fan of, the content creator had his answer at the ready.
“Blending with any other product but a beauty sponge or brush. I think that was so crazy. People were blending with soft boiled eggs, condoms, and we’re seeing now people are mixing lube and foundation; I think it’s so crazy; I think we just gotta do better. I saw the lube and I was like ‘Am I interested? No’, but it’s just funny to see.”
Needless to say, when Patrick gets the opportunity to do celebrity makeup, he sticks to the classic beauty tools. From Tyra Banks to Jessica Alba, the makeup artist has worked with many famous faces in his career. The 31-year-old tells Girlfriend that the Kardashians were his favourite collaboration so far.
“We filmed in Los Angeles with the Kardashians and that was really cool, really spectacular, to touch them, let alone meet them.”
As for who he’d love to team up with in the future, the YouTuber has one name in the front of his mind.
“Mother O. Oprah Winfrey,” he says. “I think it’d be so cool to just have a moment with her and learn and witness her presence and just have a chat and do makeup.”
When Patrick does eventually get to collab with Oprah (yes, we said “when” – we’re manifesting on his behalf), he’ll no doubt be using products from his own Sephora range, ONE/SIZE.
He’s already seen a ton of success since his launch last year, telling Girlfriend that his Point Made eyeliner has become a “cult favourite” before a night out when you need to get the perfect wing.
What’s more, the star’s powder foundation, Turn Up The Base, earned a spot on Allure’s Best Makeup of 2021 list. Patrick explains how, in mask wearing days, buildable powder foundation is ideal.
“You can literally customise the beat and elevate the look depending on how much coverage you want. This powder is totally beautiful, blurring, buildable, bulletproof, it’s our darling product.”
The ONE/SIZE name is particularly special to Patrick, who was inspired by his own mantra “makeup is a one size fits all”. The genesis of the phrase comes from his own disappointing experience buying clothes.
“I was shopping for clothes and they did not have my size whatsoever. I remember being frustrated and wanting to have retail therapy, but clothes were not an option. So I was like, ‘You know what I can buy? I can buy makeup, because makeup is a one size fits all’. I tweeted it in 2016 and we ended up with the brand and the tagline ONE/SIZE.”
Patrick admits that with the name comes a lot of “pressure” as he wants to accommodate for different skin tones. It is for this reason he has introduced a “shade finder” to help everyone find their ideal shade.
“I know we are servicing people that could have possibly never tried makeup before, like me once upon a time, I was so scared to try makeup, so nervous to try makeup, the language was so foreign to me,” he tells us.
“But what we’ve done on our shade finder, and also in our shades, is include six shade families: fair, light, medium, medium-dark, dark, and deep – assigned a numerical number from most fair to deepest and assigned an undertone to make it easy for people to digest their undertone in abbreviations.”
As passionate as ever about his makeup journey, Patrick emphasises that his brand is “for the unseen and unheard”. We love to see it.
You can shop ONE/SIZE by Patrick Starrr via Sephora.
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