Like true crime documentaries? Podcasts? Ever thought they could use something more? Like, maybe, a makeup tutorial?
Wish no more!
Makeup artist and vlogger Bailey Sarian has been creating videos for several years, but her series “Murder, Mystery, and Makeup” has been going since January of 2019. In the series, Sarian details true life murder stories while she applies makeup. She explains in an interview with Allure that, while other vloggers talk to the camera, it wasn’t something she wanted to repeat.
A lot of true-crime videos on YouTube are people talking to the camera, but they aren’t necessarily doing anything. That’s great and works for them. But I didn’t want to do that.
Her series took off after putting together a piece on Chris Watts, the Colorado man who killed his wife and children and hid their bodies in oil tanks. After obsessing over the case, she put the piece together in an “Murder, Mystery, and Makeup” video that was met with positive enthusiasm from her fan base.
[The Chris Watts story] was the first true-crime story in a while that I became obsessed with and later had all this built-up knowledge about, and nobody to tell it to,” she said. “[After it went live], I kept seeing comments asking to make [“MM&M”] a thing. I didn’t think it was going to be permanent on my channel.
Aside from Watts, Sarian has done episodes on well known murder stories. Murderers like Jeffrey Dahmer, the Jonestown Massacre, Ed Kemper, and the Unabomber. Not satisfied to cover infamous murderers and massacres, she delves into obscure stories like the man who killed his family after they cut him off from using the internet to contact a cam girl.
Viewers beware, Sarian often reveals graphic details of some of the murders. Part of it, as in the story with the cam girl, are relevant to police discovery and how the murderer was caught. In other circumstances, as with Jeffrey Dahmer, it is details pertaining to the animal abuse he took part in prior to murdering victims.
In spite of that, Sarian is very aware of how sensitive the subject matter is. From the Allure article,
“I don’t ever want to come across as disrespectful toward the victims,” Sarian explains. “I try to state that numerous times because what I do continues to be questioned, as far as my intentions. I just want to talk about this.”
Sarian does not include graphic photos in her videos, instead using the application of her makeup as a visual distraction from the awful details of her stories.
Her videos are available to view on YouTube and Facebook.
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