Palauan Beauty Guru Colleen Hobson weaves culture into her YouTube content
Micronesian Wednesday Feature
One can find a makeup tutorial inspired by just about everything, even (now thanks to Colleen Hobson) there’s a makeup look inspired by her omengat1 ensemble.
Colleen is a 39-year-old Belauan beauty guru with brains! 2
She’s from Peliliu in the Republic of Palau and is now living in Hawaii. Over the past two years, Colleen’s produced a wonderful collection of YouTube videos. Most are makeup tutorials but she’s also created vlogs, skincare videos and product reviews. The makeup artist said she started posting on YouTube as a hobby.
Now she has over 1,000 subscribers, over 89,000 channel views and operates a beauty website.
“I’ve always loved the entire makeup process from skincare to prep, to the actual makeup. I started posting makeup tutorials on YouTube to share something small with others who enjoy makeup like me,” she said.
She joked that she is borderline obsessed with the process, from start to finish.
“Every step has to be perfect. Refined,” Colleen said.
Loving something is one thing. Putting yourself and your work out into the world in the form of YouTube videos, where anyone and everyone can interpret and dissect and consume as they wish, is a whole other thing. And it’s no small feat. Colleen said she was super nervous when she first started posting makeup videos. She felt she’d be judged by her own community.
Despite that, she followed through and uploaded her videos for the world.
Colleen’s videos were well received.
“A lot of that positive feedback came from our younger people. I think makeup has been unfairly judged in our communities partly because we grew up seeing foreigners in the beauty parlors doing makeup on our moms, aunties, and us,” Colleen said. “Today, I’m seeing more Palauans take charge of their own beauty and self care. We’re doing our own hair, makeup, nails, threading, you name it. It’s amazing and we’ve come a long way.”
Colleen has incorporated her Palauan roots into her content in a myriad of interesting ways. In addition to her genius idea to create a makeup tutorial based on her omengat attire, she also put together a makeup look based on the famous Rock Islands, recorded an entertaining and informative makeup tutorial while speaking Palauan and shared a classic Palauan dish cooked in her Instant Pot.
“I pull inspiration from our culture and Palau’s natural environment. One of my makeup looks was inspired by the vibrant colors of my traditional costume during my first childbirth ceremony called ‘Omengat.’ In another tutorial, I create an eyeshadow look with the colors of Palau’s rock islands in our southern lagoon. Vibrant blues and greens to show how the earth and sky coexist in technicolor,” she said.
“Being from Palau has helped so much in the inspiration department.”
In addition to YouTube and Instagram content, Colleen and her twin sister run on a blog.
“My twin sister, who lives in the mainland, called me one day after watching one of my tutorials and asked if I would ever consider monetizing my content on a website for some extra bucks on the side. I had recently resigned from my job to take care of my daughter at home so this was a no-brainer for me lol,” Colleen said.
She and her sister operate colleenhobson.com, a chic website with beauty and lifestyle articles in which they share their top picks and written beauty tutorials.
It’s another venue where Colleen can share her YouTube videos and reach a broader audience, she said. The pair have plans to expand the website to incorporate more themes like food, travel and physical wellness.
“We’ve always worked well together but there are days we disagree and would stop speaking to each other for a few hours,” Colleen said. “Ultimately, the blog has made us closer and allowed us to still be in each others’ lives even if we live thousands of miles apart.”
Colleen’s content creation journey has come so far and she’s only just begun. She said a short-term goal is to expand her content beyond beauty. She aims to create more content around travel, food and lifestyle.
“As COVID-19 restrictions are slowly easing, I plan to feature more fresh islander faces in my makeup tutorials,” she added.
“My biggest hope is for Palau’s youth to let go of the fears that hold them back from doing what they love and profiting from it. We can honor our culture and still pursue our dreams.”
Thank you to Colleen for taking the time to answer my questions. She’s got great instincts and great ideas brewing and I can’t wait to see more!
Be sure to subscribe to Colleen’s YouTube channel!
Follow her on Instagram as well:
https://www.instagram.com/colzhobsonmakeup/
And visit her website for more of beauty insight:
Thank you for reading. Write to you again soon.
Cheers,
Jasmine
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Omengat is an ancient Belauan ceremony that is still practiced regularly today after a woman has her first child. Long before Gwenyth Paltrow was steaming her genitals for Goop or whatever, people of Palau have traditionally healed the female body with steam/hot baths.