Construction of personal brands in beauty vlogging

Abstract

The popularity of digital content about make-up and self-care has been steadily growing during the recent years. Most of its producers and consumers are young people. The article analyzes three Russian YouTube-channels (“Arina Viscera”, “ND Beauty Channel” and “Gev Mua”) to study how their hosts construct their personal brands in the context of beauty content production. The article employs the technique of discourse analysis and a qualitative content analysis. The research results show that the beauty vlog format provides users with various ways of presenting themselves to the audience as they can choose different ways of demonstrating their expertise, comparing themselves to viewers, manifesting their passion for makeup and showing emotional and physical resources that are used in the production.