With more than 1.5million subscribers, Michelle Phan has earned herself the title of 'most subscribed guru of all time on YouTube'. Phan met the media at a specially arranged video conference when she was in Tokyo recently.
Phan - born in the United States to Vietnamese parents - started her make-up career as a blogger, writing beauty tips. By 2006, she had more than 20,000 followers.
Her readers encouraged her to start a YouTube channel, back when the medium had only just begun to gain popularity. Since then she has created more than 150videos which offer make-up tips, and her fan base soared. She uses a high-definition camera to film herself as she applies cosmetics to her own face. The camera 'allows everyone to see each pore on my face', she says.
Yet starting out in the world of make-up was far from straightforward for Phan. At first, her parents wanted her to study medicine and become a doctor. But, at the last minute, Phan decided to pursue her dreams and took fine arts instead.
At college, she excelled at portrait painting - 'which is essentially what make-up application is like - just not on a two-dimensional surface', she says.
Phan, 24, is proud of her channel, which, she says, is 'empowering women with lipstick and stilettos'.