Meredith Duxbury wants to make something very clear: The foundation technique isn\u2019t just a schtick for TikTok. She\u2019s actually been doing some version of it since middle school. \u201cI would do a lot of makeup at that age,\u201d she says, recalling the Maybelline Dream Mousse foundation she swore by as a preteen. \u201cMy mom literally had to take it away from me because I put so much on.\u201d If only her mom had known she was sowing the seeds for her future career, where the \u201cMeredith Duxbury Foundation Challenge\u201d (10 pumps, applied with the hands) is the very thing she\u2019s best known for.<\/p>\n
Duxbury, 24, is one of the biggest sensations on beauty TikTok, with a following of 18 million \u2014 a number bigger than the followings of Chris Olsen<\/a> and Alix Earle<\/a> combined. Even if you don\u2019t know Duxbury\u2019s name, you\u2019ve seen her videos. Think: close-up shots of a gorgeous blonde rapping to popular music (usually Nicki Minaj) while doing full glam makeup, spreading foundation thickly on her face in the first few clips. If you \u201ctrust the process,\u201d<\/a> as Duxbury always reminds viewers, the end result is almost always worth waiting for: false lashes, colorful eyeshadow, and a perfectly contoured face with cheekbones snatched to the gods. She\u2019s mesmerizing to watch, even if you don\u2019t own a single lip liner or makeup brush.<\/p>\n When we meet for coffee at the Roxy Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan, in early May, I\u2019m expecting to see Duxbury wearing her signature full face. But the woman I walk up to at our outdoor table is a much more relaxed version of the TikTok star \u2014 she\u2019s wearing a white T-shirt, pale purple cargo pants, and Christian Dior sneakers, with a slicked back ponytail and \u201cclean girl\u201d-esque glowy natural makeup. (Yes, her skin really *is* TikTok-filter level perfect.) She\u2019s come from a brand event that morning, and now, chocolate croissant in hand, she\u2019s ready to dive in. \u201cI haven\u2019t had a piece where my story is out there,\u201d she tells me. The bold, confident Meredith we see online is really her, she assures, even if she doesn\u2019t wear her viral foundation technique and full beat every day. But behind the camera, she\u2019s a warm, soft-spoken person with more to say than a 60-second TikTok clip allows.<\/p>\n Like many creative, Internet-obsessed teenagers before her, Duxbury was raised on the gospel of beauty YouTube. (She and I have that in common: hours spent daily after school learning how to use a stippling brush and apply the perfect black eyeliner wing.) \u201cI wanted to be a YouTuber so bad. I had a channel in middle school,\u201d she recalls. Duxbury grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where she moved at age 5 from England<\/a> with her parents and two older siblings. She was creative from the start. \u201cI\u2019d do a \u2018What\u2019s in My Bag\u2019 video and take out a Maybelline mascara that was five years old,\u201d she says of her early videos. \u201cI would use any resources I had in my bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her best efforts, her dream of YouTube fame didn\u2019t pan out. It wasn\u2019t long before an older girl found out about her channel and made fun of her, which embarrassed her so much that she deleted it. Deterred, Duxbury shifted her focus. She went to college at Southern Connecticut State University to study business administration with the goal of focusing on social media marketing. \u201cI still wanted to be within the industry,\u201d she says. Toward the end of her junior year, the world came to a standstill when the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n Suddenly faced with endless free time, Duxbury started making content again. \u201cI had so much time during COVID that I would practice makeup three times a day, every day,\u201d Duxbury recalls. She filmed herself applying a full face, then taking it off, then starting over. Though she\u2019d been practicing makeup for years, doing it daily in front of a camera helped her learn her own face and how different products and makeup styles looked on her. A full-glam girl from the start, though, she didn\u2019t waver from her heavy foundation and colorful eyes and lips.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the best time to be on TikTok,\u201d Duxbury recalls. The platform had been available in the United States since 2017, but 2020 was when it solidified itself as a central part of Internet culture. During an era when many of us took minimalism to the extreme \u2014 not wearing a smidge of makeup or changing out of sweatpants \u2014 Duxbury\u2019s videos provided a seductive glimpse into a more glamorous life. (But the irony is that she wasn\u2019t changing out of her sweats, either. \u201cI\u2019d have these earrings on and people would be like, \u2018Show us the outfit!\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cDuring COVID, there usually was no outfit.\u201d)<\/p>\n Between December 2020 and January 2021, as Duxbury began her final semester of college, her audience grew from 1 million to 7 million. Suddenly, the possibility of influencing full-time became a very real and feasible goal, and with that, came a mindset shift. \u201cI have ADHD, so sometimes it\u2019s hard balancing my schedule,\u201d she says. \u201cAt first I was like, \u2018What am I supposed to do? I don\u2019t have a 9-to-5.\u2019 I need to make sure I\u2019m planning it out, otherwise I wouldn\u2019t get my work done.\u201d She started treating TikTok as a full-time job, graduated in May 2021, rented an apartment in New York City, and paid off her student loans through sponsorship deals within the span of one month. \u201cIt was so surreal to me,\u201d she says. She had wanted this life for so long, but still, \u201cin the back of my mind I was always like, \u2018I don\u2019t know, is it going to work?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As Duxbury\u2019s following has grown, her account has evolved to show the opportunities she\u2019s been getting through TikTok. In the last six months, she\u2019s gone to New York Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, and viral press trips to Dubai and Turks & Caicos, among others. She\u2019s done collaborations with major brands like E.L.F. Cosmetics<\/a> and Dime Optics<\/a> \u2014 and while she\u2019s never revealed how much she charges for a branded video, creators with considerably smaller followings have reported bringing in tens of thousands of dollars per post<\/a>. She\u2019s met Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber at beauty events \u2014 she and Bieber are friendly enough that the Rhode founder recognized Duxbury walking her dog in SoHo. (\u201cShe\u2019s petting him and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Oh, Crumpet, you have no idea what just happened.\u2019\u201d) Gomez tried Duxbury\u2019s foundation technique<\/a> in a TikTok video in February, calling her \u201cmy dear love Meredith.\u201d (FWIW, Duxbury loves Gomez and Bieber equally and isn\u2019t here for the drama surrounding them. \u201cEverybody needs to get off their keyboards saying all this mean stuff and let people live,\u201d she says.)<\/p>\n Duxbury also speaks positively of her time on influencer press trips, which have recently come under scrutiny by the wider public because of TikTok virality. \u201cOn the trips, there is no drama,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone loves each other, everyone has so much fun, and we\u2019re all grateful to be there.\u201d Not all creators have had such glowing things to say \u2014 after the Tarte trip to Turks and Caicos in late April<\/a>, several minority creators reported feeling like there was an unspoken hierarchy perpetuated by the brand. Duxbury is adamant that there aren\u2019t any competitive vibes on these trips, at least from her POV (though as a white woman and one of the biggest names on beauty TikTok, Duxbury is most likely to get that top-tier treatment and access).<\/p>\n Tarte CEO Maureen Kelly cites Duxbury\u2019s \u201cauthenticity\u201d and \u201ccommitment to staying true to herself\u201d as reasons why she\u2019s such a good brand partner. \u201cMeredith has mastered that scroll-stopping quality where she pulls you in with her content,\u201d Kelly tells Elite Daily. \u201cShe has her own disruptive beauty style and has stayed true to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, her massive popularity hasn\u2019t changed who she is at her core. \u201cMeredith is one of the nicest people in the industry,\u201d says Serena Kerrigan<\/a>, a fellow influencer and close friend of Duxbury. \u201cFor someone at that level \u2014 who is so beautiful, with so many followers, and is so well-dressed and put-together \u2014 what sets her apart is how genuine she is,\u201d Kerrigan tells Elite Daily about an evening when Duxbury came to her card game launch in NYC. \u201cShe texted me the next day at 9:30 a.m. saying, \u2018Hey, babe, it\u2019s Meredith. Thank you so much for having me. You\u2019re killing it.\u2019 That\u2019s the type of person she is. She\u2019s always made me feel good and empowered \u2014 that\u2019s her essence, and people can feel it through a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n Influencer life is perfectly curated to look idealistic \u2014 the whole point is to have such a perfect-looking life that your audience is clamoring to buy every product you use or to use your feed as a form of escapism. But the pressure to be \u201calways on\u201d is very real, especially when so much of the job involves going to beauty events, making connections with brands, and going on trips \u2014 all of which involve a copious amount of socializing. \u201cIt feels like every day is a networking day for me, and if I\u2019m seeing people, I want to be my best self,\u201d Duxbury says. \u201cBut if you\u2019re having a bad day, sometimes it\u2019s hard. You\u2019re like, \u2018OK, I just need to stay in this morning.\u2019\u201d She admits she\u2019s bad at separating her actual life from her work life. \u201cEven if I\u2019m on vacation, I\u2019m still creating content,\u201d she says. She\u2019s planning a three-week personal trip to Europe this summer not affiliated with any brands, but she still plans to create content the whole time. She can barely scroll TikTok without being flooded with ideas for new videos. \u201cThere\u2019s always stuff going on in my head,\u201d she says. \u201cIt never really stops.\u201d<\/p>\n When every moment in life can be content \u2014 and when your audience expects that access to you \u2014 anything not filmed can feel like a missed opportunity. But sometimes, Duxbury has to force-quit for a second to recalibrate. She recalls a recent morning when she was in Miami for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. \u201cIt was a crazy day. I was very stressed, and I needed an hour to do my makeup in peace: no social media, not filming it,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n One facet of life Duxbury doesn\u2019t share very often? Her relationship of three years with her boyfriend, Brandon Remer. The two met<\/a> when she was working bottle service at a nightclub in college, and Remer showed up with his friends. \u201cI give so much of my life to social media,\u201d Duxbury says. This is one thing she likes to keep for herself \u2014 mostly. Remer rarely makes appearances in her TikTok videos, but he\u2019s a regular on her YouTube channel<\/a>, where she shares longer vlog-style videos about her life. \u201cHe\u2019s very involved in my career,\u201d she gushes, but his dental school schedule prevents him from traveling with her very often. She hopes to bring him on more press trips, though, because he\u2019s the extroverted one out of them both. \u201cI definitely have a social battery,\u201d she says. \u201cHe can go, go, go.\u201d<\/p>\n As for *that* foundation technique, Duxbury knows it\u2019s not for everyone. She\u2019s always been self-aware of this on TikTok, making videos where she cheekily responds<\/a> to critical comments and jokes about the constant requests to do a more \u201cnatural\u201d look<\/a>. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, I love doing the fluffy brows and natural makeup, but it doesn\u2019t challenge my brain,\u201d she says. \u201cMakeup is like art to me. It\u2019s like I get to paint a picture every time.\u201d<\/p>\n Duxbury\u2019s signature full-coverage foundation look may have stemmed from an insecurity she\u2019s gotten over \u2014 she used to do heavy makeup to cover up her freckles<\/a>, though now she appreciates them and says she \u201cjust needed to grow up a bit\u201d \u2014 but at the end of the day, she stands by the polarizing technique.<\/p>\n That preference has drawn her a nearly endless stream of critics \u2014 everyone from your average beauty novice to bigger names. In May 2022, Bobbi Brown made a video<\/a> seemingly poking fun at Duxbury\u2019s application process, in response to the influencer\u2019s critical review<\/a> of the foundation from Brown\u2019s brand, Jones Road. But when I ask Duxbury about negative comments, she genuinely doesn\u2019t seem too bothered. \u201cEveryone is entitled to their opinion, and I like constructive criticism to an extent,\u201d she says. She reviews products herself and has no problem sharing less-than-glowing opinions if a product falls short of expectations.<\/p>\n But she draws a distinction between disparaging a product versus a person. \u201cIf you have an opinion about something, that\u2019s fine. You can say it, but it doesn\u2019t mean you have to bash the person.\u201d Still, she seems mostly unaffected by the noise. \u201cThere are so many positive comments, too,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople really care, and there are 18 million of them who follow me for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Duxbury hopes to share more of her life moving forward \u2014 she\u2019s been meaning to do an apartment tour, but she hasn\u2019t gotten around to cleaning and organizing her place for it. \u201cI struggle balancing it because I do so much makeup content that at the end of the day, when I\u2019m tired, I just want to lie down,\u201d she says. Her boyfriend has been encouraging her to talk more about how she got started on TikTok, but she\u2019s wary about how it might come across, especially given her privilege as a cis white woman. \u201cI worked hard to get where I am, but other people are also working very hard,\u201d she says carefully.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day, she swears she\u2019ll always be a makeup girl first and foremost. \u201cMakeup is my main thing \u2014 it\u2019s how I earned my money, and I\u2019m doing it full force,\u201d she says. \u201cMy goal one day is to own a makeup brand.\u201d And if TikTok gets banned or another app overtakes it in popularity? Duxbury is confident she\u2019ll be OK. \u201cI have enough knowledge of marketing and social media that I\u2019d be able to fit in somewhere,\u201d she says, even if it\u2019s not exactly the same thing she\u2019s doing now.<\/p>\n Case in point: As part of a recent partnership with Est\u00e9e Lauder, Duxbury gave a presentation to the brand\u2019s corporate team about TikTok, teaching them what types of videos perform and what features make content go viral. \u201cIf Est\u00e9e Lauder\u2019s asking me to teach them about TikTok, I must be doing something right,\u201d she says, smiling.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve built an online empire from your bedroom, it\u2019s hard not<\/em> to believe that anything is possible. \u201cLife works in very mysterious ways,\u201d Duxbury told viewers in a December 2022 video, as she was getting ready to buy her first Birkin bag<\/a>. \u201cBut one thing I can tell you is that if you manifest anything you want, you will achieve it. I think I\u2019ve been manifesting this life since I was in middle school.\u201d That Maybelline Dream Mousse might not have been such a bad investment, after all.<\/p>\n Photographs by Gemma Fleming<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2023\/5\/1\/a872ae82-aa3e-4924-bd1d-39599a3c498d-2023_04_18_elitedailyxmeredithduxbury_look003_092.jpg?w=1320&h=1980&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format%2Ccompress)
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