We were lucky to catch up with Yakira Finkelstein recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yakira thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Funnily enough, I never looked at myself as a creative person. I thought I was meant to go into business and work a 9-5. I’ve always been really good at keeping to a schedule and checking things off the list. When I started creating makeup looks, I never thought it would go somewhere. I wanted to share my art with the world! When I got back from my year abroad that was disrupted by Covid, I started creating again. I discovered that I’m in love with not only makeup but art itself. When I got bored of creating makeup looks I started painting canvases, jackets and hats! Really anything I could get my hands on, not to mention my own walls! From then I knew I had to do something creative with my life. I have been working so hard creating and putting out new and fun content. Last year I finally started seeing it go somewhere. I went from receiving one pr package ever to being on major companies pr lists! This year, my goal was to prove to myself that I can earn money and live off of my creativity. After I did my first tiktok ad, I knew this is it. I could do anything I put my mind to. I haven’t earned enough to live on or anything like it but it opened the possibility up and I will work even harder to get there!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Many people since Covid have seen how incredible the “influencer” life is and decided that they wanted to try to be like them. You could look at me and I think I was the same. In actuality, I started my journey over five years ago! I fell in love with creating and sharing my art with other people. I love going back to my old looks and seeing how much I’ve grown. My creative makeup looks are a little bit of everything. I like to explore every type of art, from basic glam to bloody gore and of course colorful crazy looks. This year I even bought an airbrush and have been learning and playing around with that! Can’t forget to mention that I did my first prosthetic this year too! There are so many new things to learn and it’s so fun to explore everything. There was a few months last year where I was very focused on creating what other people wanted and not for myself. I started becoming generic and not myself. I started questioning if I even enjoy what I’m doing or if I need to continue to prove myself to others. Slowly, I started creating looks that I want vs the public and fell back in love with it. Sometimes you need to take a step back and reevaluate yourself. I struggle with what sets me apart from others because this field has become so saturated. I used to think it was my art but there are so many other amazing creators. I’m a religious Jew and I really want to start showing that more but it’s hard for me. I’m scared of the backlash/anti- semitism that I would get from opening up. That’s the next step for me, getting through that hurdle. I want my channels to be a place where one can escape reality for a while and just enjoy art. Just plain and simple:)

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is when someone tells me that my art made there day! It’s so nice to hear that my makeup made someone feel connected to them. I recently did a series showing the start and ends of a tv show. I never realized how happy it would make people. I had hundreds of people commenting how finally someone did there favorite show or how they’re happy to see this because that’s a show they watch with their parent. It was nice to see how many people connected with something I created.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Honestly, the easiest and biggest thing one can do in this day and age is interact! Social media platforms are a huge part of most creative people’s careers. It’s so easy to like, comment, share… what takes you maybe a minute can really help make someone’s career! I know it sounds silly, but it’s true!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/makeupbyyakira?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079959215688
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC7Bp7tmHbWHRYbPTSk_7iDA
• Other: My tiktok is Makeupbyyakiraa! All my social media platforms are Makeupbyyakira with either one or two a’s!