Des’ree and her journey to fame with a makeup brush

If you are a TikTok lover, it is likely that you have come across viral videos of a creative makeup artist who transforms into different things, including cartoon characters, crazy coloured deep sea creatures and wild flowers within seconds of applying diverse make up products on her face.

Her videos usually start with her brushing herself with a medium-sized brush on her face while singing along to the song used in the video.

This creative makeup artist based in Dar es Salaam is and she has been gaining fame with her jaw-dropping talent.

She uses her body as blank canvas onto which she draws to life colourful yet abstract patterns of different creatures and things. These patterns are made of objects that are detailed in a manner that they become a part of her.

Her talents have earned Des’ree half a million followers and over 17 million likes on TikTok and it does not end there.

Des’ree’s talent started crawling its way to life after she graduated high school. Due to the boredom that came with spending a lot of her time alone, Des’ree started to learn to do makeup on her face through YouTube.

“Before I got into makeup, I always wanted to be a musician. When I was in secondary and high school, it was all I could think about. At some point, I also wanted to become a fashion designer, but that ship sailed too. Spending time with myself after high school led me to become a makeup artist that I am today,” Des’ree says.

After she mastered the YouTube indirect courses, Des’ree started freelancing as she took in different clients to apply makeup on and other times she was perfecting her skills on the faces of friends and families. A year after experimenting with colours, Des’ree fell in love with body paint and special make up after she came across several makeup artists such as Nikkie de Jager and Alexys Fleming doing body and special effects on YouTube and Instagram.

“The first look I ever did using body paint took me four hours to complete. I was just starting and I did not know much as I do. Fast forward to now, I can spend over 10 to 11 hours doing a special effect make up. The drastic change in time is because of how detailed the makeup looks can be,” she explains.

In the beginning of body paint, Des’ree began with diverse nature creatures and she later on started to transform into wild animals, moths, mushrooms, cartoon characters and anime characters.

“I draw inspiration for my work from any and everything, Nature has always been my first go-to for inspiration but it does not stop there,” she details.

Des’ree further says “One of the things I seek inspiration from is the ocean. It is filled with some of the most interesting and beautiful creatures, so when I decided to get more creative with my looks, I felt taking inspiration from such species for a start was more fitting. I then slowly moved to forest species, cartoon characters such as Kids next door, Teens Titans, Powerpuff girls and Rick and Morty as well as anime characters including Junko Enoshima and Baki Hanma.”

She describes makeup as the kind of art where a person can turn themselves into anything by using a few products.

“Makeup is art. It is a form of expression that comes with different feelings. It makes people confident, happy and it enhances one’s natural beauty, even if you prefer glam to special effects makeup, you can still express yourself through it. As for me, special effects makeup enhance my confidence,” says Des’ree.

Her most viral video on TikTok was posted on July 11, 2021 and it has been watched by over 16 million people. The video has about 4.8 million likes alongside 38,000 comments of people wowed by Des’ree talent. Some of those people are world recognized makeup artists such as Emma Norton and Kates Jamboree. In this video, it took Des’ree nine hours to create a look that was based on fully bloomed violet petals as she rocked her mile-long magenta lashes with the look.

Her talent that was started as a hobby is now Des’ree full time job as she now creates makeup related content for her platform as well as brands from different parts of the world such as Pinterest, Searchlight Pictures, Jack in the box , Anastasia Beverly Hills & Norvina cosmetics, Inkey list and Smashbox.

“The rise of social media, especially TikTok has been one of the best things that has happened to my makeup career. I was able to grow my platform organically which was always hard to do on Instagram because in my experience, its algorithm is not very supportive to creators,” Des’ree unravels.

She further reveals that social media is the reason for all of the makeup related opportunities that have come her way.

Des’ree prefers all of the products she uses to have special effects. Such products include modelling clay, plaster of Paris, Liquid latex and scar wax. Her preference extends to colourful eye shadow palettes and eye liners.