We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabi Mcmillan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Gabi, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Learning how to do makeup the way I like took alottttt of practice….and a lot of YouTube videos. I’m still learning different techniques and ways to improve my skill everyday. I always loved putting on makeup but I never got serious about it until I was about 18. I loved watched videos and tutorials of girls doing their glam and all the “do my makeup with me” videos and decided that’s what I wanna do one day. It took me forever to really be comfortable enough with my skill to wear it out in public and not feel silly or insecure about it. Consistency is so important and unfortunately I’m not always consistent with my makeup or videos. I stopped doing my makeup videos and posting on my makeup page for a long time because I felt like I wasn’t as good as all these other real makeup artists I follow and see on social media with thousands of followers and it makes me back away from posting my looks. What I’m still learning now though is there isn’t a “right” way to do makeup, you do whatever makes you happy and whatever makes YOU feel beautiful and confident no matter what anyone else says about it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Gabi McMillan, I’m 24 years old and I started to seriously get into doing makeup when I was about 18/19 years old. For now I mostly do makeup on me and film little makeup videos on tiktok, but one day I would love to be able to be a celebrity mua! I’ve always said doing makeup for the Met Gala would be a dream come true, it’s like the Super Bowl for makeup artists. I love doing all different types of makeup looks from straight glam looks to the more creative looks to even doing a nice natural look. I would also love learning how to SFX makeup, I think those looks are so insane and absolutely love watching those type of videos on TikTok and YouTube.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I just want my skills and talent to become recognized! I said before that one day I want to become a celebrity makeup artist and be able to bring my creative skills to the met gala. I think having people really see your work and loving it after you’ve worked so hard on it is so special and rewarding.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me I think it’s just making someone feel beautiful and confident in themselves. Like I said earlier I don’t do makeup on other people as much right now but when I have it makes me so happy seeing them love what I’ve done and have them feeling so good about themselves.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/makeupby.gabi
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@makeupbygabi4675?si=px9PSA8DMgfIn6f2
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@gabimcmillan