Makeup is usually used for slightly adjusting the everyday look but some actually realize its true potential. Mimi Choi from Vancouver, Canada is one of them. She is a 31-year-old makeup artist who creates intense hyperreal optical illusions, and her amazing work has earned Mimi 274,000 followers on Instagram.

Before discovering makeup art, Mimi trained as a teacher and worked in a pre-school for three years. "I felt like my creativity was suppressed. I enjoyed teaching but I wasn't completely happy," she said. "I needed a new challenge." After leaving the classroom, she started experimenting with her makeup brushes at home.

"I've always been arty and had done bridal makeup before, which people really liked. I'd not done anything as crazy as the work I do now, though." Enrolling at a local beauty college really helped Mimi to take her skills to new heights. But things really took off when Halloween was just around the corner. "I wanted to do something different for October 31, so I had a look on Instagram and found a photo of a woman, who looked like her face had cracked."

"I'd never tried any kind of crazy make-up on myself, but I just got out my black and white eyeliner and gave it a go." And the rest is history.

Choi creates her mind-blowing work through masterfully understanding perspective, creating three dimensionality on a flat surface. She manipulates makeup like an artist uses his paint and places shadows onto her body to make her skin either pop out or recede back into the body.

More info: Instagram (h/t: mmm)

#1

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Mimi Choi Report

N G
Community Member
8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How is this even possible, they're amazing

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    #2

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    Luck Yeah
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Tom Cruise should hire her to make him look like Tom Cruise

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    #3

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    #4

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    Harvey Tydeman
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    i want to see what it looks like if she opens her eyes

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    #8

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    Daria B
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Someone must have said something really REALLY stupid to make her roll her eyes like that....

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    #9

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    Daria B
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Talking about having a split chin....

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    #10

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    Daria B
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My face every summer in Korea. Ehehehe

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    #11

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    Luck Yeah
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This thread is a serial killer's dream

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    #13

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    Lara B.
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It looks like someone casually wiped some cloth with paint over her face, but i guess it took her ages to make it look like that.

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    #23

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    Sorai Jordan
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    someone wrote something about nightmares in the comments before this pic, but I think... this pic here is worst. worst, but best. very nicely done

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    Karen Nomura
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    FALSE ADVERTISING! This isn't smudge proof, waterproof makeup😡‼️

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    #31

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    Luna Kittenwarrior
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Stop it with the checker illusions! It's scaring me!

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    #35

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    Luna Kittenwarrior
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Forget my last comment: THIS looks like the girl from the opening scene of Botched.

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    #36

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    #38

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    Hillary Rossell
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If I were her, I'd go out in public and act as if nothing were unusual.

    #39

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    Tabbi024
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It really does look like she've got four eyes. haha

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    #48

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    Liz dJ
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And to think that I can't even wing my eyeliner like that

    #49

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    #52

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    Sorai Jordan
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    that's incredibly creative! it's disturbing, but funny at the same time

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    #53

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    #54

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    Linda Sellers
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Melody thinks ice cream and I think motor oil, lol.

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    #59

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    ispeak catanese
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Looks like mehndi (sp?) and a Maori facial tattoo to me

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    Taryn Wallace
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Is this a koi fish kind of look?? She's brilliant

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    #71

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    JP Goss
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I'm telling you. That doll is alive!"

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    Janette Murray
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    While these are different and get your attention, there is no doubt this lady is loaded with talent. A consummate artist indeed, and why not use the face as a canvas? Most impressive.

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    #81

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    Sorai Jordan
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    this one looks so real, I feel pain in my face

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    #85

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    Wyndmere
    Community Member
    8 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Your blind date just rang the doorbell.

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