All the way around on the other side of the world in London, 23-year old Katie Ellen is more than just your average make-up artist or "Social Media Make-up artist" or "YouTube Beauty Guru" - She creates bright, fresh and some of the most interesting make-up looks in a unique way that set her apart from most Beauty Influencers on Social Media. Her love and passion is evident in the detail and time she takes to create her masterpieces and can be seen on her Official Instagram. Not only is she killing it in the Beauty Community, she has an eccentric taste in fashion to match which makes her even more likable and lovable. She sits on 136 k followers present day, with numbers sure to rise in the next year but even with a large following she is humble and credits her many followers for her success within the Cyber world that has attracted much attention. Its not hard to see why so many people have taken a likeness to her work and style.
I have been following Katie’s work on Instagram for well over a year now and have been inspired and intrigued by her craft. Her skills are phenomenal and I knew she had to be one of the many interesting and inspiring people I had to interview - recently I was fortunate enough to talk to Katie about all things Beauty and a bit about herself. Take a read below!
Q: Hi Katie! Could you introduce yourself in a few words and tell us a little bit about where you’re from.
K: My name is Katie, however in the makeup and social media community I go by Kaytee Ellen. I’m 23 years old, from London and have been doing professional makeup for 4 years
Q: What inspires you when it comes to make-up?
K: The thing that inspires me the most is colour, colour is my all time favourite thing. The amount of times I’ve learnt about colour theory I can never get bored of it. When ever I design my looks I always think of the colours I will use first. Other things that inspire me are science, astrology and mathematics (that helps with my precision)
Q: When you aren’t posting on Social Media, what can we find you doing in your everyday life?
K: I still treat my week as a work week, I’m currently in the process of creating my own business to do training and masterclasses. I also film YouTube videos. When I’m taking leisure time you’ll usually find me watching gaming videos on YouTube!
Q: Do you have a product that stands out to you, that you use religiously or a product you always gravitate towards more than others?
K: Ooooh this is a hard question as I use so many products!! I think religiously I would go for lashes (I know that’s a cheeky answer as it’s not a specific product but once you start wearing lashes you can’t stop!!)
If I can’t have that then I would say The Ordinary hydrating oil, I wear it every day!
Q: How long has make-up played a big role in your life and did you expect you’d become quite well known in the Instagram Beauty community and how has that impacted your life?
K: Professionally it’s been 4 years but I would say I was interested in make-up for around the last 7-8 years I’d always play around with it and try different looks even though I had no idea what I was doing!
I never expected at all, I’m just lucky to have so many wonderful and supportive followers! It definitely came as a shock to me as all I wanted to do was inspire people and help artist who don’t have the confidence to go out and flaunt their creative and bright looks! I’ve always seen makeup as an art form not as something to make myself pretty.
Social media has impacted my life a lot! I actually left a top brand makeup artist job to do YouTube and Instagram full time! It’s a lot of work but I enjoy it and I’m doing something I love.
Q: Being on Social Media, you’re open to a lot of Online bullying - how do you deal with that?
K: I get it a lot. It’s actually quite funny as it’s usually people who don’t wear any makeup or it’s middle aged men who obviously have an opinion on what I put on my face (joking!) I take no notice really unless it gets a bit more personal. But it’s usually me getting called ugly or a feminist and to be honest it gets a little boring. I have enough confidence in my skill to know I’m doing a good job
Q: If you weren’t doing make-up and posting on social media, what do you think you would be doing or would like to be doing?
K: I think I would probably still be doing something creative however my dream job would be becoming a medical examiner, the person who does autopsy’s but it’s a lot of hard work but you never know I might get back into a forensics course! So definitely on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
Q: If you could collaborate with anyone at all in the Beauty community - dead or alive. Who would it be?
K: I would love to collaborate with Kat Von D she’s been an inspiration to me for many years not just with makeup but with tattoos as well.
Q: To anyone aspiring to be a make-up artist or wanting to grow a large following on Instagram, what advice would you give?
K: The advice I would give them is to treat Instagram as a job, invest the time and effort you would in any job. Post everyday, different looks, definitely keep on top of trends as that will help build your following and lastly communicate with your followers let them know you see them and they’re not just numbers to you. They’re the ones who get you to that spot.
Q: Thank you so much Katie for taking the time to talk to us. Can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us on instagram!
K: Thank you so much! I’ve enjoyed the questions! Oh I’m sure I’ll be non stop in the next few weeks!
