“Get Ready With Me”: Makeup Tutorials and the Aesthetics of Self-Care

This paper seeks to initiate critical inquiry into a popular, but as of yet understudied, YouTube genre: the “Get Ready With Me” (GRWM) makeup tutorial video. Using three case studies sourced from successful “beauty guru” channels, I examine the GRWM genre’s established norms and conventions, including camera set-up, staging, and the YouTuber’s verbal address to their followers. Often set in the intimate space of the home, not unlike the “shopping parties” which were popularized in the latter half of the 20th century, the GRWM format enables the YouTuber to foster trust and connection within their community of followers, which impels the viewer to purchase sponsored products as a means of engaging in self-care. Building on previous research that examines the intersection between contemporary beauty cultures and neoliberalism (Elias et al. 2017), I explore how the GRWM genre simultaneously offers the viewer therapeutic reprieve from the pressure to manage the body in accordance with current beauty standards, but at the same time, capitalizes on feminized social practices, the language of empowerment, and the semblance of intimacy