YouTube used to be the place I ran to to distract myself from my responsibilities, brush up on my makeup skills, and ogle at power couples on extravagant trips to the Maldives, Bali, and Iceland. Recently though, it’s become oversaturated with new accounts doing the same exact thing. Seriously, how many more “no-makeup” makeup routines do we need? Are YouTube couple breakup videos a requirement now? Is the famous Bali swing okay?
I was ready to give it all up, but then, THE Naomi Campbell arrived—fashionably late, of course with her very own YouTube channel.
Subscribing to it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made all year—and it’s now a part of my self-care routine. Naomi is one of the most famous supermodels ever, so I was utterly shocked that between running her Fashion for Relief charitable organization, returning to the runway, and inking her first-ever beauty contract with Nars Cosmetics, she even have time to document her life.
Well, spoiler alert: she doesn’t. That’s someone else’s job. Campbell literally hired someone to lug the camera around documentary-style while she does normal stuff, like grocery shopping, working out, and flipping her bone-straight hair around the globe. Sometimes, she even forgets what country she’s in. That’s the level of rich I aspire to be.
If you’re as obsessed with seeing celebrities doing normal things as I am, allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of Naomi Campbell. Ahead, the six best moments that prove Naomi Campbell deserves her own TV show—stat.
When she posted a video titled “My Relationship With My Mother,” which was really just a video about herself.
One of Naomi Campbell’s early videos was dedicated to her mother, Valerie Morris. In the video, Naomi and her mother, who is clearly drinking from the Fountain of Youth, reminisce about their mother-daughter photoshoot for Burberry. Valerie didn’t open up much about what it was like raising the supermodel as a single mother, but she did reveal she should be credited for helping Naomi out with her runway strut. According to Naomi, her mother taught her “how to have my swag in my walk and how to listen to the rhythm of the music, and how to walk when there wouldn’t be any music.” Now, the supermodel has one of the most recognizable and iconic walks in fashion. Momma knows best!
When she revealed she carried hot sauce in her bag (swag!) way before Beyoncé.
Naomi quickly became hip to YouTube culture and teamed up with platform vet Patrick Starr for a video in which the stars both sipped and spilled tea. Apparently the superstar has been slipping hot sauce in her bag for “decades” long before Beyoncé coined the term in her 2016 song “Formation.” Campbell mixes her own spices together and pours it into “a little plastic bottle that costs me 50 cents” and carries it around, a concoction she believes is responsible for protecting her from catching a cold. Where can I buy one?
Naomi also shared a sweet story about fellow models Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington who refused to walk in a show because a designer chose not to cast Naomi. Naomi added that if Instagram were around during her heyday, people would see how supportive the models were instead of the catty mean girls they were painted out to be.
When she introduced us to her hot trainer, Joe Holder.
“I’ve never liked working out until I worked out with Joe,” Naomi said in the video, and I understand why. Have you seen him? Not only is Joe hot, but he’s seemingly patient, cheers her on as she completes her reps, and records her workouts like the perfect Instagram husband.
Naomi and Joe have been training together for nearly two years—thanks to an alley-oop from Naomi’s friends, Burberry’s Riccardo Tisci and Off-White’s Virgil Abloh—and the supermodel actually works out. The 49-year-old model doesn’t play any games when it comes to her full-body workouts and makes double-arm battle rope routines, one-arm dumbbell rows or overhead walking lunges with a huge medicine ball look so regal and graceful; watching this video of her working out even encouraged me to get back in the gym. (I only lasted a week, though.)
When she gave us a six-minute makeup tutorial that put all your beauty gurus to shame.
In an era where the typical makeup tutorial requires a laundry list of products and an ungodly amount of steps, Naomi Campbell’s makeup tutorial is refreshingly simple. After all, the model has a slew of makeup gods on speed dial, from Pat McGrath to Francois Nars so of course she picked up a few makeup tricks along the way.
Naomi’s Tips:
Use concealer instead of foundation.
Naomi doesn’t use foundation, she uses concealer to highlight under her eyes, her t-zone area, and around the mouth before she sets it all with pressed powder. ““I don’t like my base to ever look like a mask,” Naomi explains in the video, as she applies the product using a Real Techniques brush. “I don’t really wear base on my forehead because I want to look like I don’t have anything on.”
Apply blush above your cheekbones, not directly on the cheek.
After lightly contouring her face with Nars’ Gienah, Naomi reached for the brand’s Gaiety blush and dusted it above her contour because directly applying the blush to the apples of your cheek looks “clowny” and “takes away from the bone structure.”
There is no such thing as too much highlighter.
While many would say highlighter is a product that should be used in moderation to prevent you from looking like a disco ball, Naomi used quite a lot in her video, but applied the shimmer with a light hand to give her a subtle glow on the cheeks, forehead, nose, and anywhere else the light might hit on your face.
When she wiped down an entire plane seat with disinfectant wipes.
When it comes to traveling, Naomi Campbell is just like us: She steps into a convenience shop for snacks and leaves with bags of Haribo gummies and a good read. Then Campbell slips on a pair of gloves when she boards her flight and goes on a cleaning spree—leaving me with no other choice but to stan! Dettol wipes in-hand, she cleans every part of business class space—the seat, the arm rest, the windows, and the TV screen—because you should “clean everything you touch, anything you could possibly touch,” she says. “This is what I do on every plane I get on. I do not care what people think of me, it’s my health and it makes me feel better.” One woman even asked Naomi to clean her seat as well, to which Naomi replied, “I won’t do it for you but I’ll share it with you.”
From there, it just gets better. Unsatisfied with jut disinfecting the seat, Naomi pulls out a seat cover, which she purchases at the airport every time she travels and hand-washes it at her hotel. To finish up her routine, Naomi puts on a face mask to protect herself from people who cough and sneeze during the flight. Her mind!
When she took us shopping with her at Whole Foods.
You’d be forgiven if you assumed Naomi Campbell has a designated person or on-call nutritionist who buys her groceries but the model likes doing her own shopping because it’s “therapeutic” and honestly, same. She explains that she can no longer eat gluten, wheat, and dairy, wondering “what the f–k am I going to eat? All my comfort food just went down the drain and I’m sad,” she says. We learn that the supermodel is a late-night muncher, enjoys “crappy TV,” sometimes forgets what country she’s in (LOL), and really loves basil—I counted all eight of the containers she placed in her cart.
Oh, and she doesn’t mind stopping for a picture with a fan, just let her hold the phone because she knows her best angles—and yours, probably.
YouTube/Naomi Campbell
She also loves chocolate, although it upsets her stomach, doesn’t drink (what?!), and gave up smoking. “So all that I’ve got left that I can do is dance,” she says at the end of the video. Hopefully, that means a dance workout video is next.