Instaglam: The World Of Cosmetic Social Media Domination

Fashion and Make-up De-Mystified

Andrew rolled in to his next client’s apartment, his livelihood in a small black tote bag on wheels, similar to the bags flight attendants glide along the freshly waxed tile of airport corridors. On his face was more carefully crafted make-up than a girl could hope to accomplish by studying her mom, staring in the mirror, applying layers of lipstick. His latest client found Andrew on Instagram. A few comments later, he was in her Los Angeles studio apartment, doing her makeup. Her friends waited anxiously as he worked on his next masterpiece, his page serving as a preview of the beauty he was crafting behind that bathroom door. While Andrew Estrella doesn’t consider himself instagram famous, his thousands of followers suggest otherwise. Recently painting on the faces of VH1’s latest reality drama Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, Estrella has used instagram as his public portfolio. With each post, he has transitioned from the all-black smocks of the M.A.C. (Make-up Art Cosmetics) makeup counter to celebrity photo shoots and television sets, but for Andrew this career just fell into his lap.


"Throughout high school I was always that weird boy with bright vivid hair color, eyeliner, eye shadow and false lashes on. I was shopping at a M.A.C. Counter located in Georgia when I was spotted and recruited by one or the managers based on my makeup skills displayed on my own face at eighteen-years-old,” says Estrella. Without instagram, many of Estrella’s celebrity clientele would have no way to find him or work with him. By making his portfolio public and sharing it with the Internet world, he was able to gain work, money, and attention to his career that took him from the counters of M.A.C. to backstage dressing rooms. Even though Estrella is working with celebrity clientele, he feels like this is just the beginning for him. “Every time I got promoted or another certification within M.A.C., I felt like my career was taking off. Every time I saw that I was gaining repeat clientele within my own freelance business I felt like my career was taking off. It's funny because now three-plus years later, I'm beginning to gain celebrity clientele and once again, I feel like my career is just taking off,” says Estrella.

Safia Michelle started Lipstick Mixtapes to bring something diffrent to the city of Orlando, her former home. "There were no makeup teams out there doing makeup for events and shows so I wanted to collab with other artist and entertainment professionals to create cool looks and just work with people that I liked that were doing cool projects." What I enjoy most about my job is being apart of someones 'I look great moment.' What I've realized about my job as a Makeup Artist is I work with a lot of insecure people who instead of realizing what they love about themselves physically are always pointing out what they hate or want to "cover up" It's my job to bring out the true beauty in them and be the best at that. I gained my popularity by being known for creating looks that were beautiful but people still looked like themselves. I did a lot of events and collaborated with a lot of talented people. And more importantly I am always really professional on set, at photoshoots, and when working with people. That's the way to really make it in this business. Social Media has changed my career in ways that I have a larger platform for people to see my work, and people can connect with me when they don't have my email address or phone number. I've gotten jobs through twitter, a few years ago I worked with Master of the Mix which aired on BET. The show was taping in Orlando and production wasn't able to find a MUA so a colleague who knew I did makeup hit me up on twitter and asked if I was available.

Gaining social media success isn't easy, but for Safia, it's all about staying true to your passion.


My tips for social media are be consistent, whatever message you're trying to deliver for your business be clear so followers know what you're about. Engage your followers if they ask you a question respond (long as it's about your business,) Don't just post for likes but post to engage, spark a conversation and post clear mages of your work. What's next for me is working in tv & film doing makeup, I want to open a make-up, nails and blow dry bar, and I also want my own show or beauty segment where we talk beauty, women and fun," says Michelle.

This is what Lipstick Mixtapes is all about

Lizbeth Hernandez uses her instagram page to promote her style blog by combining her passion for fashion and writing to attract both readers and fashionistas, leading to blog traffic that attracts advertisers to keep her in business. "So, I started my first blog in 2008 after I graduated high school and it was fashion related. I was posting regularly but I wasn’t tapping into my social media outlets to network and grow it. In college I was interning at different fashion internships and interned at Vogue. I put my experiences with that on the back burner. After college, I realized I needed to start up again. I started imvh. I launched it in 2013 of May or June. It’s doing really well and different companies or brands notice my activity on social media. The instagram platform, I always was using that and got inspiration from that. I connected by blog with followers from that. Each social network has helped blast out my blog," says Hernandez.