We recently connected with Kelsi Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kelsi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of my most meaningful projects I was able to work on was my very first job on set for a student horror short film. I remember when the director, Jake, first reached out with his idea of creating this child demon for a Halloween horror short film he and his friends had written for one of their final projects. I was so excited to create this character with him, but also so extremely nervous, because this was my first time being hired professionally for special effects makeup (SFX). Showing up the first day on set with my big makeup kit I couldn’t wait to get started and when I got there, everyone was so amazing. Being in this environment of filming for the first time was such a great learning experience, and it is something that I will never forget. We worked for three days straight, almost 11 hours a day filming scenes and re-filming scenes. My job was to first create these SFX looks and get them checked off by the director and then be there to do touchups as well as make any changes that they needed as they were filming. When you’re a makeup artist on set you have to be ready to change things on the fly and problem solved in such a fast paced environment. And even though it was challenging, it is also the most fun I’ve ever had. When we were able to see the final draft of the short film, it was a dream come true to see my makeup come to life on screen. And they were able to enter it into a film festival, and everyone was able to go see it together, which was so rewarding. I’ve done more projects with Jake since then and they have all been such a blast. I can’t wait to continue working on projects like this!

Kelsi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I fell in love with makeup when I was 16. I was always practicing on all of my siblings and my friends. I really started to get into special effects makeup (SFX) when I was 18, I learned everything I could from trial and error, and of course good old YouTube. I mostly work on photoshoot and film sets as well as teaching makeup artist classes. I love anytime I get to create a character look or really anything where I get to be creative. I’m definitely proud of my “Glam and Gore” series, I have been posting those to my social media accounts as I create more ideas and looks for the series. One of my strongest beliefs is that you can always find beauty in the darkness. I wanted to find a way to show that through my makeup so I started to photos shoots were I would use a gory SFX technique with a glamorous technique. This journey has been really healing for me as well as I mix the two genres to create these pieces of art.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is such a tricky thing, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I remember that first time I had a reel on Instagram go viral and I actually had to turn off my notifications for weeks because my phone was blowing up with likes, comments, and followers. My following grew by almost 600% in a matter of days and it was exciting. But I’ve had to learn that if I always have my expectations that high for all my posts then I will always be disappointed. You have to be happy and proud of yourself no matter what. Post things for you and you alone and if people love it that’s great. Don’t get caught up in how many likes or views you can get. You are creating art and by doing that you are instantly making the world a better place and that’s what counts the most.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When someone reaches out to me and tells me that my work touched them in some way or made them laugh or inspired them to create something of their own, that’s all the reward I could ask for. All I want to do with my art is share it with others and hope that it’s makes a difference and offers a new perspective.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kelsi.LaRae.beauty
• Other: TikTok @kelsilarae

Image Credits
Photos by Gabriel Finlinson, Kelsi Johnson, and Derek Miller