Lithuanian artist Toma Skabeikyte uses body paint and makeup to turn her own body into various optical illusions.
Toma Skabeikyte, a 32-year-old makeup artist and body painter extraordinaire, has been getting a lot of attention on social media for her intriguing optical illusions. Using her own body as a canvas, Skabeikyte, who hails from Akmene, in Lithuania, spends hours creating all sorts of surreal designs inspired by anything from films to videogames and other artworks.
Esther Aular, a talented makeup artist from Bogota, Colombia, has been attracting a lot of attention on social media because of her impressive optical illusions.
The 29-year-old influencer, who goes by ‘Nekita’ on TikTok and Instagram, has been posting photos and videos of her transforming herself into various pop-icons and fantastic creatures using only her makeup skills and rudimentary props. From characters of popular cartoons like The Simpsons or Naruto, to brain-twisting illusions that leave viewers scratching their heads about how she did them, Nekita always finds ways of leaving her tens of thousands of fans in awe.
A talented makeup artist has been getting a lot of attention online thanks to her short TikTok clips where she apparently uses her skills to turn into stars like Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish.
We’ve seen makeup artists use tricks of the trade to transform into doppelgangers of celebrities and iconic characters before, but not in the way the artist posting under the @gilianisme TikTok handle does it. The end result, in most of the clips I’ve seen, is suspiciously realistic, which make me wonder if she is using some sort of digital manipulation to achieve this impressive result. No way to no for sure, really, but if she can pull this sort of transformations only with makeup, she is more of a sorceress than a makeup artist.
Hikaru Cho is a Tokyo-based body painter who specializes in surreal body art created using a combination of body paint and makeup.
Tokyo-based artist Hikaru Cho may only be 27-years-old, but she is already one of the most highly regarded body painters in the world, having worked with big brands like Samsung or Shiseido, and organizations like Amnesty International, among others. A graduate of Musashino Art University, Cho is one of the world’s most promising young body painters, and if her work so far is any indication, there’s a lot of impressive stuff to look forward to in the future.
Sarina Nexie has made a name for herself as a true makeup artist, by using her face as a canvas for some incredibly detailed artworks.
The community of makeup artists on Instagram is growing every day, but there are some gems on there that are truly worth the attention of millions of people. We’ve already covered makeup legends like Mimi Choi and Dain Yoon, and today we’re taking a look at another rising star carving her own path not with mind-boggling makeup illusions, but with thought-provoking and downright impressive face paintings.
Tal Peleg is an experienced makeup artist who goes beyond the usual tricks of the trade to create beautiful artworks in the space between her eyebrows and her eyes.
They say makeup itself is an art form, but if that’s true, what do we even call what Israeli Tal Peleg does, magic? The talented makeup artist uses both standard makeup and watercolors to create all sorts of intricate scenes – from iconic film or cartoon scenes, to original designs – on her own eyes, using very thin paint brushes. The 34-year-old artist takes between 1.5 hours and 4.5 hours (2.5 hours on average) to complete on of her amazing eye artworks, depending on the level of complexity.
Hannah Grace, a creative mother-of-one from the UK, has been doing makeup illusions for only a couple of years, but she is already one of the most talented artists in the business.
A former chef turned self-taught makeup artist, 32-year-old Hannah got into facial makeup illusions back in 2018, while painting her face for fun. She realized that she was pretty good at it and decided to pursue the art form further. Since then, she has transformed herself into popular cartoon characters, as well as original illusions, some of which are truly stunning to look at. Although her makeup art started as a hobby, Hannah has managed to turn it into a successful career, at least on social media, where she boasts thousands of loyal fans.
Alexis Stone a makeup artist so skilled that he can virtually transform into anyone, including male and female celebrities, movie characters and historical figures.
Elliot Joseph Rentz, aka Alexis Stone, is a drag queen and online influencer from Manchester, UK who rose to fame for his talent of using makeup to transform into various pop icons, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Adele. Some of his impersonations are so good that most people think his photos are digitally altered, but the artist swears that it’s all in the makeup and the careful mimicking of stars’ facial expressions.
After using her face for stunning make-up illusions that left people scratching their heads, Instagram superstar Mimi Choi is focusing on other body parts, primarily her arms and legs, with similar results.
A former schoolteacher turned makeup artist, Vancouver-based Mimi Choi took social media by storm three years ago with her incredible optical illusions. Using makeup, body paint, mountains of patience and innate talent, Choi managed to turn her face into a canvas for all sorts of trompe l’oeil artworks that fascinated millions of people around the world. It’s no wonder that she boasts over 1 million followers on Instagram alone, as her account is definitely one of the most attention-worthy on the popular social network.
He Yuhong, a 27-year-old beauty blogger from China, has become an online sensation thanks to her amazing ability to transform herself into a doppelganger of celebrities and iconic characters, using makeup.
He, who posts photos and videos of her work on various social networks under the pseudonym Yuyamika, shot to fame last year, when she used her makeup skills to turn herself into a real-life version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The video of her remarkable transformation got tens of millions of views on China’s Weibo platform alone, and quickly went viral on Western social networks as well. Since then, Yuhong has been entertaining her growing fan base with more makeup magic, turning herself into doppelgangers of celebrities like Johnny Depp and Taylor Swift, as well as Albert Einstein or the Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Romanie-Jade Tulloch, a 20-year-old self-taught makeup artist from Nottingham, in the UK, combines her love of makeup and art to create mind-blowing optical illusions on her face.
Romanie has always been into makeup, but she only started focusing on it two years ago, in the hopes of becoming a freelance makeup artist. She never studied professional makeup, preferring instead to hone her skills by watching online tutorials and experimenting with various cosmetics. Having studied fine arts for two years in college, she naturally drifted from conventional makeup to painting artistic optical illusions on her face and posting her best work on Instagram. Before she knew it, she had hundreds of thousands of followers on the popular social network.
At just 24 years of age, Dain Yoon is already a master when it comes to optical illusions. Using only makeup, face paint and brushes, she uses her own face and body as canvas for mind-bending visual effects.
Yoon’s talent for painting was obvious from a very young age, and it later allowed her to attend some of the most prestigious art schools in South Korea – Yewon Arts Secondary, Seoul Arts High School and the Korean National University of Arts. But instead of pursuing what you would call a conventional artistic career, she decided to focus on ‘illusion art’, a modern art form that has proven very popular thanks to social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.
31-year-old Mimi Choi, a makeup artist from Vancouver, spends hours turning her face into mind-boggling optical illusions that look photoshopped at first glance.
A former schoolteacher, Choi got into makeup only three years ago, attending classes at Blanche Macdonald, a local beauty school, to learn the basics of the craft. She’s come a long way since then, though, and today she uses her makeup skills to turn her own face into incredible optical illusions.
