Nicole Chen (<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thenictionary">@thenictionary</a>) and Sabrina&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sabrinalexandr">@sabrinalexandr)</a>&nbsp;bonded over their love for makeup during the&nbsp;pandemic. Before even getting to meet each other offline, they&nbsp;launched a collaboration with other beauty content creators for&nbsp;a makeup series on TikTok that quickly drew attention to their&nbsp;talent.

On the beginnings&hellip;
Nicole:&nbsp;I used to feel insecure about my body and I didn&rsquo;t like&nbsp;the way I look. When studying abroad in the UK, I started to&nbsp;learn makeup and it helps me feel great about myself &mdash; not to&nbsp;cover who I am, but as a practice of showing up for myself and&nbsp;exploring different sides of myself. It eventually evolved into a&nbsp;passion and endeavour.
Sabrina:&nbsp;I started just creating content. After some time, people&nbsp;came to me and asked if I can also do makeup for them &mdash;&nbsp;I was like, why not? When the pandemic hit, I noticed the&nbsp;audiences were more engaged with short-from videos that are&nbsp;less than 60 seconds. From there, I started to experiment with&nbsp;more bizarre makeup content on TikTok. Now, Instagram is&nbsp;more of a portfolio for me as a makeup artist, whilst TikTok is&nbsp;where I express and explore my creativity.

On finding one&rsquo;s voice..
Nicole: On TikTok, being talented and having your own style&nbsp;are not enough, you need to have a personality that people&nbsp;can latch on to. You have to carve a niche out for yourself.&nbsp;For me, being authentic to myself and my audiences&nbsp;without giving away too much of my personal life hasn&rsquo;t&nbsp;been the easiest, but I found humour a good way to give&nbsp;me sustainability over a long period. With that, I get to&nbsp;interject my personality, and at the same time, protect my&nbsp;own energy.
Sabrina:&nbsp;I&rsquo;ll be honest, I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve found my voice yet. As an&nbsp;introvert, I still struggle with the fear of putting myself out there.&nbsp;But what I hope to get across with my works is that Malaysian&nbsp;creators shouldn&rsquo;t be afraid of expressing individuality and&nbsp;trying new things just because they aren&rsquo;t common in our&nbsp;country. Comments like &ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;ve never seen this before!&rdquo; and&nbsp;&ldquo;This is something new!&rdquo; are what keep me going.

On being a beauty content creator in Malaysia&hellip;&nbsp;
Nicole:&nbsp;Worthwhile. Receiving the products saves me a lot of&nbsp;money. [laughs] The Malaysian beauty community is very&nbsp;loving and supportive. Sabrina, other creators on TikTok and&nbsp;I have a group chat where we invite each other as plus ones to&nbsp;events and exchange beauty products.
Sabrina:&nbsp;Challenging as a Muslim. There&rsquo;s a stereotyped&nbsp;standard of beauty, and you receive judgements and&nbsp;doubts. And sometimes, we are too quiet about the&nbsp;range of shades. There could be a local brand who came&nbsp;up with just three shades and no one talks about it.

On turning passion into a career&hellip;
Nicole:&nbsp;Not as fun in the long term. There&rsquo;s so much room to&nbsp;grow with the thing you love to do compared to a nine-to-five&nbsp;job. But it&rsquo;s also turning what&rsquo;s supposed to help you escape&nbsp;from reality into a job. You need to accept that your hobby&nbsp;might not be as fun anymore because it has become a moneydriven&nbsp;career. My takeaway is to be realistic &mdash; if you go into&nbsp;it thinking it&rsquo;s the most ideal job, you&rsquo;ll be disappointed by the&nbsp;reality.
Sabrina:&nbsp;A journey that requires time and effort. It&rsquo;s also a fulfilling&nbsp;and sustainable profession if you do it right. And as Nicole&nbsp;said, you have to protect your safe space.

This story is originally published in our <a href="https://www.lofficielmalaysia.com/issues/cover-story-ameera-khan-on-creative-process-work-life-balance-and-future">L'Officiel Malaysia August 2023</a> print edition.

Nicole Chen and Sabrina on being beauty creator in Malaysia

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