Cindy Chen Designs

“Bulgari”

Art by Cindy Chen Designs

Cindy Chen is a multifaceted talent who has found great success on TikTok. In just over one year, the makeup artist and beauty influencer has grown her social platform to a collective 750k followers. Cindy has “been an artist her whole life,” exploring different mediums including art and dance. However, she says that cosmetics had never really been a part of her life growing up; that has certainly changed in recent years. Cindy is now known for using her face as a canvas for her work, displaying breathtaking images and intricate designs. Her content varies from TikTok challenges, to makeup tutorials, and the occasional comedy video often featuring her husband. This style has given the artist significant notoriety with over 19.3 million TikTok likes. As Cindy’s content continues to evolve, one thing is for certain; her videos will never disappoint. We recently spoke to the influencer about her history with cosmetics, her start on TikTok, and more!     

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m an avant-garde visual artist who uses makeup and editing to help people escape reality. I am also a beauty influencer coach and freelance brand design consultant. I create content that makes people feel inspired, laugh, or learn something new.

What was it like the first time you picked up a makeup brush? 

It wasn’t very different from picking up a paintbrush. It was just a different canvas. I’ve been an artist my whole life. I loved drawing, and I danced for 16 years, so I honestly don’t remember that “first” time makeup came into my life.

Growing up, how big of a role did cosmetics play in your life? 

Not much at all! I wasn’t surrounded by people who really wore makeup. My mom never wore makeup, and my sisters both were in the US by the time I started middle school (we all grew up in the Philippines until we were 18) so there was no familial exposure to cosmetics early on. However, since I performed in recitals and theater productions my whole life, I fell in love with stage makeup and its transformative quality. It wasn’t until I hit senior year of high school that I saw the true artistry of makeup after watching some YouTube videos, so I only started ‘painting’ my face after I graduated.

What prompted you to join TikTok?

A friend of mine reached out on IG and recommended I post my videos on TikTok about a year ago. I hadn’t heard much about the platform, but like many, I didn’t think that there was an audience for me because I wasn’t a girl in a bikini lip-syncing to a popular song. I also had never dabbled in making videos on my phone, so I was having a hard time figuring out how to create viral content and actually posted very little in the beginning.

How has the advent of the app impacted your career both positively and negatively? 

It’s been mostly positive, thankfully. I actually lost my job during the pandemic, and I decided that it was finally time to give full-time content creating a shot. At this point, TikTok was rising in popularity extremely fast, so I started doing a photoshoot every day for 2 weeks straight, and each photoshoot could produce up to 10 pieces of content, which meant that I was posting 2-3 times a day. Within 2 months, I had grown over half a million followers, landed the “It Starts on TikTok” ad campaign (my first paid campaign ever!), and a TON of brands started reaching out. I was later accepted into the creator fund right a few of my videos went insanely viral (10M+ views on a makeup removal, for example), which meant that I was able finally support myself and pay rent.

As an Asian person, my family was deeply concerned about my career choices, considering I was JUST working in Silicon Valley with a cushy salary. However, I felt crushed by the high-pressure environment of a startup, so by the time I left, it was a breath of fresh air. Hence, being able to show my parents actual earnings from TikTok (the ROI) has given me a ton of confidence that I made the right choice in changing my career. On the negative side, I had to deal with haters for the first time, and boy, I was NOT used to that. At first, I was extremely hurt to see people who didn’t know me judge my voice, judge my relationship, and say really callous things in the comments section. But now, I’ve learned to understand the risk of being too emotionally invested into what other people say (whether they love you or hate you) and built a thicker skin. Plus, the more they argue on my post, the more viral my videos become…so, at the end of the day…I still win.

How do you choose which looks to create? 

I have so many sources of inspiration outside of makeup, including graphic design (which explains why my work is quite geometric), fashion (especially couture), and traditional art (the tape technique I’ve become known for was derived from how painters put down tape around their canvas to create clean edges). I choose whichever I feel most inspired to do that day. It’s a very intuitive and stress-relieving experience.

What’s the look you’re most proud of? 

I get asked this a lot and there are honestly so many looks that I’m proud of. But there’s one Porcelain look inspired by another illustrative artist that went viral on TikTok, which took me over 6 hours to make. It was so complex that I would say, in terms of how proud I am for accomplishing a look, that would be my favorite. Each look I make is a milestone in itself, so I’m proud of each one for a different reason.

What are your favorite beauty products right now? 

I love Flash Color Cases (grease paint) because they are so creamy and smooth to blend. I’m obsessed with color, so any eyeshadow palette that has highly pigmented powders gets me super excited. Finally, I like to use water-activated face paints for complicated details.

We love your relationship with your husband! How did you two meet, and what does he think of your career? 

We met on a boat cruise 5 years ago that was hosted by the undergraduate government, which I was a VP for. He had been working for the yearbook as a photographer that night and he caught my eye so I kind of stalked him around the boat as he proceeded to forget my name about 4 times before giving in and getting my number. Apparently my fake septum ring and dollar-store falsies scared him off initially, but he asked me out a week later, and 4 years later we got married! He loves how creative I am and is definitely my rock because I tend to forget to eat or sleep as I work insanely hard building a coaching business, freelancing, AND creating content everyday. He also used to photograph me when I did this part time, but now he's helped me set up my studio so that I can automate that process since I shoot so often. During quarantine, I roped him into doing some skits, and the first few videos went so viral (over 1M views in under an hour) that we made it into a whole series. I think he’s just waiting for me to make millions so that he can kick back and play more video games: his one true love haha (just kidding).

What’s next for Cindy Chen? Anything planned?

There’s SO many exciting things happening! I’m launching my private 1:1 coaching business for aspiring beauty influencers to break 10K followers on IG in November, so there’s a lot of preparation around that and a waitlist is being filled up with people who want to become full-time content creators like myself. Other than that, I’ll be posting more on YouTube now that Instagram and TikTok are both growing at a rapid pace, so I can provide more in-depth information on content growth and makeup artistry.