DIARY Influencer: Jake-Jamie Ward from The Beauty Boy
DIARY INFLUENCERS
| BEAUTY
| CELEBRITIES / INFLUENCERS
DIARY Influencer: Jake-Jamie Ward from The Beauty Boy
Date posted on DIARY directory: Monday 3rd July 2017
DIARY directory recently caught up with male beauty influencer Jake-Jamie Ward. YouTuber and blogger Jake-Jamie founded the #MakeupIsGenderless campaign that went viral and was supported by celebrities and world-famous makeup artists such as Charlotte Tilbury and was one of the face’s of L’Oréal’s Total Cover Foundation and Concealer Palette, as well as an ambassador for LYNX ‘Is it ok for guys’ campaign. He has also featured across 100+ media articles around the globe, and came no.5 in Teen Vogue’s Top 8 Male Makeup Artists.
“Being a blogger takes dedication, patience and
continued commitment to your platforms."
| Date of birth: | 21/12/1991 |
| County & country of residence: | West Midlands, UK |
| Biggest Readership Locations (list top 3): | 1. United States 2. United Kingdom 3. Brazil |
| 3 main areas of focus: | Beauty, Skincare & Lifestyle |
| Skin type: | Light-Medium |
| Hair colour: | Light Brown |
| Hair type: | Unruly ha ha |
| Shoe size: | UK 7 |
| Height: | 5ft 6 |
Listed in DIARY directory in the digital influencers subsection, along with 1500+ categorised influencers for PRs to work with, Jake-Jamie discusses the rise of male beauty, his favourite brand and why his tutorials are genderless.
How did you get into beauty and what made you decide to start blogging and YouTubing?
My blog was actually born through my own personal frustrations with the beauty industry! At the age of 19 I began having terrible acne breakouts, so I turned to cosmetics in the hope of restoring my confidence. As a man, I felt like I had nowhere to turn because the market was so predominately aimed at women, so after failed attempts of approaching a beauty counter and after struggling to find advice online I had no choice but to learn completely through trial and error.
I spent thousands of pounds over the years (around £400 a month) on beauty products desperately trying to find the perfect products to conceal my skin. Whilst other teens were out partying, I was spending my disposable income on trying to work out how to apply foundation when you have a beard to contend with! After testing what felt like every product on the market, and having spent a couple of years perfecting my own completely natural make-up look - naturally, after a period of time I did become very good at it and that's mainly because I had spent a very long time practising.
I thought to myself - surely there must be other people out there who are going through the same struggles? If I can take my experience and this journey that I have been on for the last 3-4 years and stop individuals from having to go through the same horrible ordeal that I went through (spending thousands of pounds and putting themselves into a depressed state because they can't for the life of them find anything that works!!) then it’s 100% worth me putting in the time to try and make that much-needed change.
Give us a breakdown of your typical day...
Away from the blog I work full time too, so my weekends and evenings are usually reserved for blog work.
It’s the same every Saturday and Sunday, 7am arrives and my wake up alarm begins to ring - I jump out of bed excited and ready to take on the coming day! I’ve always been a morning person, I find I am the most productive at the start of a brand new day.
I am typically British and usually start my day with a good old cup of English breakfast tea, and a healthy breakfast which is usually made up of fruit and yoghurt, porridge, smoothie or some kind of egg-based dish.
I grab the weeks beauty deliveries and head upstairs to my beauty studio, excited and ready to dive into the present week’s beauty news! It never feels like a chore, I have a genuine love for the world of beauty now and it’s one of the only things that still to this day generates a real fire in my belly!
I open all new PR parcels and sort through each of the gifted beauty items, into piles based on which products excite me! As much as I would love to review absolutely everything it would be pretty impossible, so it’s a case of picking which products you are most naturally drawn towards!
I always try my best to produce between 4-5 pieces of work per weekend as a minimum, this can be a struggle and I often have to decline many social events to allow me the time I need to keep producing good, high-quality content. Being a blogger takes dedication, patience and continued commitment to your platforms.
I’ll often find myself at my desk, editing away until the early hours of the morning! Thank goodness for coffee :)
Male beauty is on the rise, what are the main changes you’ve seen?
Men are more open now I think, we live in a very modern world!
2016 was an incredible year for men in makeup. We saw some incredibly exciting changes across the industry, and this comes from male influencers like myself (and many other amazing male artists) raising awareness and bringing what was an issue to the forefront of people’s minds.
It will become more mainstream, and it is becoming more mainstream! I’ve always said, awareness is key, I truly believe we’ll look back in five years and say “I can’t believe that was ever an issue!” I think many cosmetic houses have begun to see the error in their ways - they are missing out on a huge chunk of beauty fanatics - 55% of my viewership/readers are male! Why would you exclude a whole sex from feeling part of the fun, confidence and creativity that make-up can bring? Not only that, it has the ability to be incredibly lucrative for all brands too!
How has your experience in a female dominated industry been?
I had decided in my own head that I wanted to start blogging to help others however due to the stigma it took me so many months to pluck up the courage to even press record for the very first time
After six months my following was growing at such a rapid rate, it was at this point I began to tell those closest to me. I had proved myself, and therefore had the confidence to open up. My friends and family got on board straight away, they could see what I was doing was making a positive difference and if I’m happy, they're happy!
The vast majority of the public have embraced my work, however, I have received a large amount of criticism/hate also but I knew from the word go that I was signing up to a whole host of abuse - it’s part and parcel and I take all negativity with a pinch of salt.
You create YouTube make-up tutorials for men as well as women, what was the decision behind this?
I never made that conscious decision, I just always felt like this was the right thing to do. I believe makeup is genderless, I believe in equality and that’s why I review products from both a female and male perspective. My core readers are:
YouTube: 55% Male, 45% Female
Instagram: 21% Male, 79% Female
"I think many cosmetic houses have begun to see the error in their ways - they are missing out on a huge chunk of beauty fanatics."
Men’s and women’s beauty is traditionally very segregated, what do you think can be done to create a more unisex approach?
I think all beauty advertisements, both digital and at the point of sale should include both male and female models. Rewind six years, I clearly remember standing in the make-up aisle at Boots, being surrounded by advertisements featuring only women and this made me feel wrong and ashamed of myself for even entertaining the idea of using cosmetics to boost my own self-esteem.
Biggest lessons learnt while working/blogging in the industry?
I’ve learnt to always push myself to step outside of my comfort zone, to do the things that terrify me - if I listened to the side of my brain that is regularly filled with anxiety and fear then I would have never experienced all of the wonderful opportunities that have come my way.
L’Oréal Paris made you the face of their Cover Foundation and Concealer Palette, who have been your favourite brands to work with so far? And who would a dream collaboration be with?
L’Oréal have (of course!) been one of my favourite brands to collab with - they believed in me and they were brave enough to step outside of the social norm. Working on the TotalCover campaign is an experience that I will hold close to my heart always.
My dream collaboration would have to be with the queen of makeup, Ms Charlotte Tilbury - I find her personality utterly infectious and her products are insanely amazing!
Which cosmetic brands are your favourite and what are your hero products?
Fave Beauty Brands: Charlotte Tilbury, L’Oréal, NYX, Benefit, Estée Lauder… the list goes on!
Hero products: Estée Lauder Double Wear, Embroylisse Lait Creme and Charlotte Tilbury’s Brow Lift!
What are your top social media tips for growing a following?
- Find your own individual style
- Quality over quantity
- Always try your best to make content unique and original
What are your thoughts on influencers buying followers? Is it getting harder and harder to establish whose following is genuine?
I didn't even know this was a thing until very recently and I still don’t fully understand it. To be completely honest (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) I don’t spend time analysing whose following is genuine and whose following is not, it’s dangerous territory focusing on the activity of others. Fake accounts are only cheating themselves, so I say let them get on with it :).
Do you think traditional blogging will fade out in favour of YouTube and social channels like Instagram and Snapchat?
I think there will always be space for traditional blogging. We do live in a very digital world, however, newspapers, magazines and books are still going strong and that’s because there are still billions of people who love to read! I can’t see this changing anytime soon.
What is one piece of advice you would give to budding YouTubers and bloggers?
Stay true to yourself and don’t focus on what others are doing. Do YOU because YOU are AMAZING!