Photographer: Dalvin Adams | @mr_dadams

Stylist: Doug Hickman | @doughickmanjr

Hair Stylist: Synphony Ward | @signaturestylesbysynphony

MUA: Armando Kole | @kole_mua

1. What inspired you to get into the beauty world? How do you stay motivated?

I’d say what inspired me the most to get into the beauty side of social media was seeing how people genuinely reacted to looks that I put together by myself. People were always so impressed or satisfied by what I did with my hair and makeup looks and they wanted to know how I did them, so I would show them tutorials and routines. When they saw that, they would question what products I would use, and then from there they would request certain styles and makeup methods, or they would ask for tips and tricks and routines to help them feel better. I always thought that was interesting as well because I wasn’t really allowed to do makeup until my senior year of high school, and even then I only wore it to prom. So I went from being a complete beginner to finding my own methods and ways within about two years!

So it was all this feedback and love I got from just being me, and doing my hair how I want, and doing my makeup how I want, that made me get into it. I wanted to see what worked, what didn’t work. What made me feel cute, what made me feel sexy, but most of all what felt most like me. Maybe it was embracing myself and my features for what they are and just finding makeup that compliments my natural attributes that drew the audience.

2. If you were to give someone advice who is thinking about getting into the beauty industry and the world of influencing, what would it be?

Being yourself and being completely confident in yourself when it comes to your success in the matter. I know that sounds cliche and corny (and it probably sounds more corny that I said it was corny), but that’s really the truth. Being 100% yourself or at least being honest with yourself while finding yourself. I’d say a lot of success on social media is getting those one or two videos to go crazy and then not much following after. What is really going to make you great is consistency and you can’t be consistent with your craft if you’re not being consistent with yourself. Work and effort shows through always. Creativity shines through always. Influencing is kind of like sharing a piece of yourself with the world (whether that be your artistic side, your comedic side, your mental crises, family moments, whatever). But if you’re feeding your audience something that isn’t what they know to be you …then when you do try to be yourself or get caught up with trying to be someone else, they aren’t going to like the taste of it. Be who you are, post what you want, don’t care what anyone thinks. Be respectful, mind the space, and just focus on doing what you want with your platform and the audience that is meant to be with you will come. There is an audience for EVERYTHING. Make what you make and you’ll find some others that want to support you.

3. Is there a time when you really impacted someone’s life with your social media content? What does that mean to you?

I don’t think I impact every single one of my followers in an extremely deep way, but I do have a large number of individuals I know I’ve helped in a way. It’s actually one of the biggest things that kept me motivated when I wasn’t getting the likes and the views. I would get at least one DM a day or people sharing with me how much of an impact I had in them and it was so crazy to me because I felt like I was only doing hair videos—like how can that be something that affects you other than ya know, learning how to do a hairstyle!

4. How do you maintain your authentic voice in your channels while still partnering with brands?

It’s actually so funny, it’s so hard to not sound professional when I’m in a professional setting, especially since I do talk a little funnier than usual already, but I just take a couple deep breathes and keep doing the take over and over until it sounds like I’m not trying to make someone spend money, and I’m instead trying to just share my experiences of the products with them! That’s a big part of trying to make videos look authentic. Of course we want you to try the products from brands we partner with, but at the end of the day our job is to try it for you and tell you how we feel about it so that you can get a better idea of if you want to try it or not! If you know me and you’ve tried a couple products of mine before and you liked them, that means we have a similar taste, which means I’d most likely make products you actually want to try because you’ve liked my suggestions in the past! I love my job; I love trying stuff out for you all!

5. What do you look forward to the most in your career? Any goals for 2023 and beyond?

Shooting for the stars! I have many goals and many things I would like to be a part of course, but I’m really taking my time. This year I had to learn how to live in the moment a little bit and stop treating my job like it was life or death. Which sounds crazy—like how do you treat TikTok like life or death? Trust me, we found a way. But now really I just want to embrace any and all opportunities that come my way. Acting is at the top of my list—anything and everything acting I would love to experience. Modeling I would love to actually dive into. Social media I’ll continue to expand on, but I’m really looking to branch out in more directions! I’ve made my socials my main focus for quite some years now, I’m ready to carry what I’ve learned with me and take it all to the next step. I have the Joseph hoodie collective coming together in February with some scheduled line drops to follow in the months after. I will be traveling a bunch more and doing many more meet and greets now that I think the covid climate has calmed down significantly and things can be practiced a little safer! Really though the goal is to be content and happy. I hate being stressed—life is too short. So whatever gives me the drive and passion I get from working with a dash of adventure, I’ll be doing!

6. How are you using your platforms to improve the world, especially in the beauty industry? Why are you passionate about improving the world in these ways?

By really emphasizing that trends are fun and cute to try, but you’ll see the real beauty in makeup with you get comfortable with how you look naturally. I say this because when you start to fall in love with how your face looks naturally, you start to see what you like about your features and from there it guides you to what makeup styles you think would suit your features the best! Of course it’s all similar ideas with contour and foundation, but everyone has a different base and learning how to draw/highlight the key points on that base will only make the art prettier. If you notice you have big eyes and you love how big they are, there are certain lash styles you wouldn’t wear because some purposely make your eye shape look smaller depending on how you apply them. If you like juicy plump fresh skin makeup looks, then the matte makeup tutorials you’re following won’t give you the look you want. Fall in love with you first, and then watch how your makeup changes. I noticed when I first started doing makeup that I used to say I like heavy dark makeup more because I felt sexier with it, but I knew I didn’t like actually like how it looked on me. Once I let go of the trying to hide my innocent baby face stage, I learned how to bring out the features I love about myself and what makes me and it just came together. That’s why people are always like “you look different”—it’s because I just went with what is already there and built from it instead of on top of it!