“Spotlight” is a series that focuses on young Nigerian creatives and the amazing things that they’re doing in their various fields. It was started because we wanted to share stories of these young creatives and their individual journies on the path to greatness.
This week, we’re featuring creative makeup artist, Oluchi Ahamefule. Oluchi is a makeup artist that we discovered on Twitter when she went viral for posting some of the most creative/VFX make-up looks we had ever seen.
We interviewed Oluchi because we had to know how she comes up with these crazy drawings she draws on her face and we also wanted to know why she decided to go into this type of make-up.
Here’s how the interview went:
What did you study in school?
Well, I’m currently in my final year of medical school
How’s that going?
It’s going okay actually. This last phase is a lot though because we were supposed to write our last Medical Board exams and be done by September. But COVID-19 came to change plans
So that’s the one major thing in your life that Covid-19 has affected?

So how do you have time for makeup and at the same time go to medical school and read for board exams?

Did you always know you wanted to do makeup?
Yeah I’ve always loved makeup. I had an interest in it from a young age. So I used to practice on my face. In fact, the first time my brows were trimmed, I was the one that trimmed them and it ended up a disaster by the way, and my mom was horrified. So I taught myself, practiced what I saw in pictures on my face, and anyone willing to allow me to learn on them. And by the time I got into my first year in university, I did makeup for a few friends for our departmental dinner, and after that I started doing for other people. For the creative makeup side, I like drawing and painting. I saw a certain influencer on Instagram draw on her face and it was so cool! So I tried it out and the feedback was great
What are some of the challenges you faced when you started makeup?
Ah a lot! first of all my parents aren’t really fans of makeup like that, so convincing them was an issue. Most of all they didn’t want it to interfere with my academics. Next, my phone camera was quite bad so I had to borrow my friend’s phone to take pictures, and I hated feeling like a bother. Another issue was having light to use. During the day I would be in class or in the clinic, and the only time I had was night time and I had no ring light so it was pretty hard until I was able to save up and get one later. Those were the major issues
Do you just do your creative makeup for fun or do you plan to make a career out of it?
It’s God mehnn. He gives me ideas on how to go about stuff, and ideas on cool things to do. And as much as some of the things I’ve painted were inspired by really amazing MUAs online, God gives me ways to go about it easily
Who are some creative makeup artists that you admire?
Abby Roberts, Gabrielle Alexis, Mimi Choi, and Katie Butt. They are mind-blowingly good!
What’s the most challenging drawing you’ve ever done?
I would have to say the Jackpot one. That took me about 4 hours or so
If I wanted to become a creative makeup artist, what would you advise me to do?
Well just start from somewhere, don’t overthink it. Everyone started small and grew along the way, so no need to be in a rush. The world is looking for something different, don’t limit yourself. If you put in the work, practice and pray, slowly and surely your work will begin to speak for you.
If you’d like to follow Oluchi, you can find her on Instagram and Twitter
By: Dammy Eneli