Combining tales of true crime with makeup tutorials is not a format that should work. At all. In theory, the makeup part could trivialize the suffering of the people in the true crime story. And the true crime story could, in theory, be too dark and distracting to pay any attention to the makeup tutorial. But somehow, when Bailey Sarian does itâputs on a full face, while recounting real-life horrorsâit doesn’t just make perfect sense, itâs compulsive viewing.
Sarian’s Murder, Mystery & Makeup series is already enormously popular. On YouTube, the 31-year-old has almost 4 million subscribers, but her most successful videos rack up even more views than that. As far as content goes, she talks about everything from the most famous serial killers to obscure little murder mysteries most people have never heard of.
Sarian, previously an employee of both Sephora and Urban Decay, started out on YouTube in 2013, doing traditional makeup tutorials. Six years later, when she asked her subscribers if theyâd like her to talk about news items in her videos, the response was overwhelmingly positive. And she quickly realized that true crime was what viewers wanted to see her talk about most of all.
The key to Sarianâs success is that everything she does on cameraâthe makeup, the story-telling, the engaging but empathetic demeanorâappears effortless. In fact, watching her videos feels a bit like getting ready for a night out with your favorite chatty girlfriend. And since so many of us havenât shared that ritual with anyone since the pandemic started, right now, Sarianâs channel is a strange source of comfort, even when sheâs talking about incredibly dark events.
The very first episode of Murder, Mystery & Makeup concerned Chris Watts, who was convicted in 2018 of murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann, and their two daughters, Bella and Celeste. And even Sarian seemed skeptical about the new format at the start of her video.
Last year, the Los Angeles resident told Allure: âIâve heard from people before they started to watch that automatically they thought, âOh my God, this is the most disrespectful trash I [will] ever see. But then they watch, and theyâre like, âOh, okay. I get what she was trying to do.â I don’t ever want to come across as disrespectful toward the victims.â
Bailey Sarian posts episodes of Murder, Mystery & Makeup to her YouTube channel most Mondays.Â
Copyright 2021 KQED