Insider Spotlight: Ming Hui Spills About Being A Beauty Influencer in Malaysia

Ming Hui; photographer, avant garde makeup artist, and style enthusiast. As an online content creator who has been actively posting her work on social media such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter for the past several years, Ming Hui celebrates expressiveness in art through her passions. Besides being a content creator, she is also a graphic design student at RMIT in Australia who is currently taking a gap year from studies due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Her amazing artwork and talent has made her one of the top avant garde makeup artists in Malaysia. Read on to find out more as Beauty Insider chats with Ming Hui about her interests, hopes for the Malaysian makeup industry and more.

What made you interested in makeup?  

I used to paint on paper before I started doing my own makeup. Back in 2018, I stumbled upon Me Love Me A Lot on Instagram and fell in love with her art. I decided to try it out for myself and discovered how much I loved expressing through makeup. With makeup I was able to make art and be the art at the same time! 

When I first started exploring it, I did not set out to be an influencer. I liked posting my work online as I did with my drawings and paintings. It felt good to share my art with my friends and followers. However, I was blessed with the opportunity to be an influencer as my following grew and brands began to notice my work. 

This video I created in 2019 was when more people started to notice my work. The idea for this sparked through my passion for animation and I decided to combine it with makeup. It gained over 30,000 views and featured on an American TV show called Right This Minute. 

Who are your biggest inspirations in Malaysia? 

My three main interests are style, makeup, and photography. Hence, the three people I am inspired by in Malaysia are Sheena Liam, Catherhea Potjanaporn, and Ilham Alshahab. 

Catherhea is a phenomenal Malaysian photographer that highlights diversity and inclusivity in her work and I am particularly attracted to her portrait photography. I love her work with the Kintsugi theme. Kintsugi is the concept of highlighting and emphasizing imperfections which she did a remarkable job at doing with her photography and made imperfections look beautiful, which they are. 

Sheena Liam was the winner of Asia’s Next Top Model and I am inspired by her style and embroidery work. As I enjoy embroidery as well during my free time, I love looking at her work and the work of other embroidery artists. 

I look to Ilham Alshahab as a fashion and illustration inspiration. As a visual artist, Ilham’s work motivates me to create as an artist whether it’s photography, style, or makeup. 

How do you manage your time and avoid stress? 

During my recent internship with Cult Creative KL which I took on to gain knowledge and fill my time during this gap year, I did not have much time on my hands to create content as I do now. I create most of my content at night  or during the weekends and listen to music while I do so to avoid stressing myself out. Now, as I’m done with my internship and awaiting the beginning of my next semester, I have more time on my hands thus I’ll be creating more frequently than the past few months. I’m excited to share my looks with my followers and focus on delivering the best content. 

What is the best and worst part about being an Influencer? 

The best part about creating content publicly online is that I get to share my interests with others and gain new friends in the community. I love interacting with other artists in Malaysia and across the world. I also love getting to know what people think of my work, even the (constructive) criticism which helps me improve myself. I enjoy testing out new products from brands that approach me for collaborations as well. 

The bad part about being an Influencer to me is brands that take advantage of my willingness to collaborate. I believe that at the end of the day, products do not pay the bills. A lot of time and effort is spilled into making videos, creating makeup looks, and taking photos. Some brands offer payments for creators or celebrities with a high following and only free products for smaller creators but demand the same amount of work, if not more. I hope to see less of smaller artists being taken advantage this way in the future. 

What are your future plans? 

My future plans are to continue to grow as a content creator, to create more, inspire more, and receive more opportunities especially in product photography. I would like to graduate from university and receive my bachelors in graphic design. Additionaly, I also hope to have my own studio one day where I could spend time and comfortably create makeup looks and do more photography and design work. 

I aspire to be the best version of myself and have the people I love with me as I strive to achieve success. 

What is your advice to those who look to become a creative content creator as well? 

My advice would be to go for it. Try out everything you want to and learn more about the art and yourself in the process. Always accept constructive criticism because it will help you be better (It worked for me!). If you are looking for growth on social media do your research on the hashtags that are best suited to your work. You’ll be able to discover more artists through those hashtags and help others discover you as well. Different communities use different hashtags so including specific hashtags that are used by similar creators would help you with growth. 

To those who would like to know about the applications and devices I use for my posts, I use a Canon M50 camera for product shots and a lot of my portrait shots as well. On some occasions where I use natural lighting, my iPhone camera comes in handy to take the selfies and shots that I want. I used to use a ring light but recently I bought new lighting that I absolutely love which is the professional umbrella lighting. For edits on my photos I use Photoshop and Facetune to touch up the photos and add some filters using VSCO.