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Beauty guru Michelle Phan surprises fans with return to YouTube

When she decided to quit YouTube after a decade on the platform, Michelle Phan wrote in a description box that she’d return when she was “inspired to share new ideas again.” 

After two years, it seems like she might finally be ready. 

On Sunday night, the beauty guru uploaded a new video that includes footage of herself, her cat and a photoshoot for her makeup line EM Cosmetics. The video description for “Hello :)” simply reads “I miss you.”

The video description simply reads “I miss you.”

“I wasn’t even planning on dropping a new video, but yesterday moon was in Aries and I was feeling spontaneous as hell,” Phan wrote later on Twitter. “Anyways. Hi!”

Phan started her YouTube channel in 2006 and became the first person to do makeup tutorials for a living, according to Entity Mag. She is widely acknowledged as a pioneer of the YouTube beauty community.

According to Elle, Phan trended worldwide on Twitter after “Hello :)” was posted. Many people expressed excitement and nostalgia in response to her surprise return.

When Phan left YouTube suddenly in 2016, she was at the height of her power, CNN reports.

A year later, she uploaded a ‘Why I Left’ video explaining that she had become unhappy after getting caught up in money and success. She also mentioned several copyright infringement lawsuits she was involved in for her use of popular music on her channel.

According to CNN, Phan kept busy on her hiatus by relaunching her beauty brand, EM Cosmetics.

Some fans seem to look to Phan as a reminder of a simpler time for beauty YouTubers. Earlier this year, Insider called the YouTube beauty community “one of the most turbulent and drama-filled places on the internet.”

Beauty YouTubers James Charles and Tati Westbrook famously feuded this year, and in 2018 so many gurus fell from grace that the time period was nicknamed “Dramageddon.” According to Insider, the audiences of beauty YouTubers seem to be “particularly prone to mob mentality, which can be shown in the dramatic losses and gains of subscribers in the midst of drama.”

For now, it’s not clear if Phan’s upload is a sign she will be back in the community for good. She hasn’t shared specific plans for her YouTube channel moving forward.

But her subscribers, 8.86 million and counting, may have reason to hope.

The final shot of her surprise return video leaves viewers with a promising message: “See you later :).”

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