Hi! Yeah, does anyone have $1000 laying around that they’re not overly attached to keeping? Because I, too, could use that money to turn myself into an Instagram model. Just leave me a comment, thanks.
While I wait for that to work out, why don’t we all get acquainted with Mai Pham, who spent $1k to find out just what goes into an Instagram flex. Spoiler alert: she’s my new favorite person, and probably yours, too.
Meet Mai
Mai is a YouTuber and lowkey comedian with 479,000+ subscribers on YouTube. The last time Mai spent $1000 for a video, she was doing her “spending $1000 to not be ugly | glow up challenge,” which has over 2.5 million views. Damn, girl.
Mai wants to be an Instagram baddie
So, the premise of the video is this: Mai is going to spend $1000 to turn herself into an Instagram baddie, because she asked her followers what she should turn herself into…and they chose that. Never trust a poll, guys.
I believe in her, though. She can do this.
Mai also knows the phrase “Instagram baddie” is just awful
Mai explains, “But I feel so cringey using the term ‘Instagram baddie.’ I asked you guys what I should do to transform into an ‘Insta baddie…'” She then trails off and just says, “Cringe.”
I get it dude, I get you.
Here’s how it’s going to go
Mai asked what she should do, and then picked the things her followers mentioned the most.
On the list: get acrylic nails—really long ones. Also, dye her black (or platinum blonde), get a new outfit, and to cake her face in makeup.
The before: regular human
Before the transformation can begin, we need to see what Mai looks like now.
Because when she’s done, she’s going to be able to flex like an Instagram baddie with money to burn.
It’s nail time, y’all
“What if I just left my nails this long?” She says, to which I say…I’ve seen nails that long, you wouldn’t be alone.
Anyway, she’s going to get coffin-shaped nailed, because her followers told her to. A+, good shape choice.
The nails are done
But god, at what cost.
Mai contemplates how she’s going to use the bathroom as she vlogs outside in the freezing cold.
Luckily, she’s Canadian, so she’s used to that. Anyway, her nails actually look amazing.
“hair fryin time”
Through cheesy transitions and hilariously generic background music, Mai makes her way to the salon to get her hair dyed.
She’s decided not to go the black route, as her followers suggested, but to go more blonde from her already blonde hair.
Not…quite platinum
Something obviously went wrong in the toning process, because Mai ends up with hair that is way more silver than platinum.
However, because silver is super trendy, it kinda works tbh. I’d rock that hair.
Meet Langley
Mai hops in the car with her friend Langley and reveals that they’re headed to West Edmonton Mall for the shopping part of the transformation.
Also, people apparently ship Mai and Langley together, according to them. Mailey? Langpham?
Let’s workshop it.
Shopping at West Ed
Mai and Langley kick around West Edmonton Mall (or West Ed, as we Edmontonians call it—WEM, if you’re nasty) to find her an outfit fit for an Instagram baddie.
Her goal is to find cargo pants, because that’s what her followers told her to do.
Guys…why. Isn’t the baddie look high-waisted mom jeans? Adidas track pants? Sleek leggings in neutral tones? No? Cargo pants? Fine.
The search continues
Langley and Mai ditch Simon’s to hit up Garage, where the music is blaring just, like, so loudly.
She picks out a camo jacket for her look while forcing Langley to hold all her stuff. Respect.
Next is just a ton of jewelry
In silver, naturally.
Her followers told her that she needed hoops specifically, as well as just a ton of different necklaces. “I feel like every single baddie has lots of jewelry.” That is correct.
Nearvana
Moving onto Urban Outfitters, Mai wisely skips over a Nirvana shirt for her outfit.
She says that people would roast her for it because she doesn’t listen to them.
I’m gonna say she’s right because she keeps pronouncing Nirvana as “Nearvana.” Nobody’s perfect, okay?
Langley is all of us tbh
Mai eventually picks out a Budweiser t-shirt.
She starts to talk about what the shirt would look like, to which Langley replies, “Redneck.” He’s right, and he should say it!
But counterpoint: it’s Alberta, redneck is an acceptable (and, in fact, encouraged) look.
Is there a Doctor Marten in the house?
Mai points out that every YouTuber has a pair of Doc Martens (I’m not calling them Dr Martens, and you can’t make me), which she is absolutely correct about.
Langley is…not a fan. “Those are actually disgusting. Yellow stitching? Yuck.” Ok listen, Langley, you’re right. But they make other colors sometimes!
The transformation is getting close to being complete!
Mai has her eyelash extensions put back on. I say back, because she fully admits that she picks them off when she gets them done, purely for her own entertainment.
I mean, who hasn’t picked at something they weren’t supposed to? Looking at you, acne on my face.
The brows get a glow-up, too
“Measurements? Don’t know that.”
Oh good, that’s totally what you want to hear when you see someone tinting their own eyebrows.
Luckily, Mai actually nails it? Somehow? We love a miracle.
How to get fuller lips without really paying for it
After a quick shower, Mai shows us how to get full lips without injections or lip liner. I’m gonna go ahead and not recommend doing this.
She also recommended not doing this. Do not do this. Okay, so now that you’ve been warned: She takes a towel a just rubs the crap out of her lips until they’re swollen.
Don’t. Do. That.
Time to bake
Mai cakes her face, basically. She layers on foundation, concealer (make sure it’s like 4 shades lighter than your skin tone), contour, and a ton of highlight to achieve the Instagram baddie glow.
She’s using Becca’s Champagne Pop, btw.
The look is complete
Meet Instagram baddie Mai, who has cargo pants, a necklace that says, “baby,” a chain on her belt loops, and a highlight that can be seen from, like, Mars.
The only thing left now is to snap some pictures.
It’s finally time to snap some pics
Mai and her friends head out into the Canadian winter to snap some quick pictures outside and also, inexplicably, inside a Save-On-Foods.
This idea also turns out to be absolutely genius, because…
The reveal
According to[the video, this Instagram post is now her most-liked post. At the time of her posting the video, it had 19,000 likes.
At the time of me writing this article, it has 127, 603 likes. So yeah, I’d say this experiment was a success.
And a take two
The pics we briefly saw her snap outside turned out amazing, too.
Her effort netted her 104,562 likes at the time of writing, and she now has over 200,000 Instagram followers.
Mai…you might be an Instagram baddie now.