Murder, Mystery and Makeup

You know when you've found something juicy to write about when you have to tear yourself away from the screen to write it.

I've made no secret of the fact that I find anything to do with horror, murder and forensics soothing. Being disturbed is my Disney film comfort, every jump scare makes me feel a little more at home. While some people find endless documentaries about who murdered who and why to be a behind-the-pillow cringefest, I cant help but reach for a full bag of popcorn, shut my phone of and dig in to the most macabre of stories.

I came across Bailey Sarian through Facebook's "Al Gore Rythms", and usually when they suggest something to me I can only assume its a whacked out product from wish but this time, boy were they dead on.

I'm not a fan of direct to camera youtubers as my attention span simply wont cooperate, but I stumbled across a video entitled "murder, mystery and makeup, the honeymoon killer", and thus began my addiction to the phenomenal Bailey Sarian.

Having just moved into a place of my own and being a chronically troubled sleeper, you'd think that a stream of YouTube videos talking about dismembered bodies would only add to the anxiety, but for me I've found its done the complete opposite. I'm truly happy enough to sit under my duvet with a flashlight on like I did when I was ten.

Its not always murder that's got me glued to Baileys screen, I love the fact that she covers disappearances, aliens, and my most favourite topic of all, cults. The curiosity of her is something I really relate to, I encourage and indulge curiosity at every point in my life because to be honest, who wants to get to a point in their life where they stop asking impossible questions? The video below is about the very weird "Heaven's Gate" cult, to get you started.

The 31 year old Bailey says that she knows its an odd combination, but she couldn't pick just one subject to focus on and talk about, the fantastic accidental hit mashup grew from her makeup channel in 2019, and has attracted hoards of curious viewers, especially since we've all been screen hungry during lockdown.

While Bailey calmly and succinctly tells a new story about a horrific crime I as a viewer may as well be sitting next to her on the sofa slack jawed while I listen to her talk about cases that I had no idea about, and considering I am somewhat of a murder buff, I'm often shocked to discover I've heard next to nothing about the case.

The addition of makeup in my opinion is genius. So often I find myself skipping videos and not bothering to watch until the end because I've heard what I needed to hear, (who cares who you're sponsored by), but in this case watching someone do something so beautiful while telling us about something so gruesome is dare I say it...whimsical.

Its refreshing to see someone on screen where nothings perfect, the subjects are things that she has actually taken the time to research thoroughly and something that she is genuinely interested in, rather than trying to sell products, and it works like a charm. The only gripe I have is that we never see her dog on screen, bummer.

Since becoming the new purveyor of grisly tales and stunning looks, she's been interviewed all over the place about her new found 2 million subscribers and her subsequent fame. (Also 2 million subscribers?! Can we have more powerful far reaching female badass personalities like Bailey please and thankyou).

She tackles some really difficult stories and always seems to remain humble and informed while having an opinion on them, she had this to say about men vs women killers;

"I always feel like if it's a woman that kills, it's more of a crime of passion. They do it because it's personal. Someone has truly upset and hurt them. Though I'm not trying to justify it [and] I’m not a doctor. This is pure observation, whereas men [while targeting women] will just kill randomly, which is scarier. And then you think about the '60s and '70s, therapy wasn't a thing. No one was taking care of their well-being. It's like [these killers] were trying to be heard and made their voices heard by killing people. Here I am, and here are all of my victims too.”

On my usual Bailey binge last night, I came across a video that I was particularly impressed by. As a fetish person myself I often find a lot of sexual crimes are immediately put into the box of "deranged sexual perverts", but while filming a video about the case of a woman who had been consensually killed by a love interest (he's still a bad dude, click the link to watch), Bailey gave a detailed disclaimer that people who engage in a BDSM lifestyle are not dangerous or weird most of the time. And as a person who does live that lifestyle, I couldn't be happier that youtubers are being responsible with their opinions and disclaimers, go Bailey!

YouTubers have been the target of cancel culture recently, and watching people like Bailey prove that its not actually that hard to be responsible if you're in the public eye. She always reads her comments, and takes into account what her viewers have to say and how stories are being received. If there are particularly disturbing scenes involved, she'll always tell you at the start so even if you are a little green in the face when it comes to murder, there's something for everyone to get into.

I don't think there's a single other youtuber that could make these subjects light-hearted, but the way Bailey engages with her audience, and even makes subjects funny is completely endearing, and I can only hope that more youtubers expand their field of what makes awesome content. It's a strange thing to hope that someone doesn't run out of murder stories, but I really hope she doesn't any time soon!