Today we’d like to introduce you to Valeriya Eros.
Hi Valeriya, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in a small town in Eastern Europe, and after a series of family events, I moved to California with my family at the age of 10. a few years after we moved, my brother and sister were born leaving us with an age gap of 11 and 12 years. My adolescence was spent in the Bay Area, where I lived with my single mom and two siblings. I started working at 15 to get some extra cash. While I did learn English pretty fast, I still faced some challenges at school which forced me to devote the majority of my time to my studies. While I was always a creative person, I never could have imagined that I would build a career in makeup and social media. I started learning special effects makeup in my high school’s theatre department. I had a dream of becoming an actress but somehow found myself backstage every show doing either makeup or set design. While I wasn’t super happy about not being on stage, I got to learn the basics of special effects and theater makeup and even attended a local competition for it. Spoiler: I didn’t win, but that didn’t stop me! I started posting my special effects work to a second Instagram account I created (I was too scared to post on my main account as I was worried about potential judgment from my peers.)
Sadly, that account didn’t get any traction, and I abandoned it after graduating High School. As the majority of the kids in the Bay Area do, I went to a 4-year University. I still wanted to be an actress, and my mom wanted me to be a lawyer, so we compromised and agreed that I should study business. Apparently business is in the middle of acting and law, the more you know! Around my second year of college, COVID hit, which left me with some extra time. Keep in mind that I was working at Starbucks part-time (cuz we were still considered essential workers) while being a full-time student, and I had a single mom with two baby siblings whom I had to babysit almost every day, so I wasn’t exactly bored at home. Still, in the spare time I had, I would post random makeup videos attempting special effects. This time, I went to TikTok, and my videos started rapidly getting more and more views. Sometimes, my videos were met with criticism, but I mostly got positive feedback! The timing worked out great for me as I was one of the first horror/sfx makeup artists to join the platform. Over the course of a year, my TikTok audience reached 1 million followers. My most common format at the time was to reinterpret popular trends as horror sfx looks. Horror was my niche, and TikTok was my biggest platform. That worked great for a while…. until TikTok updated their community guidelines! My content all of a sudden was considered “too shocking” and my videos started to get flagged for disturbing content, and no warnings or disclaimers would help.
After my channel almost got banned, I was forced to change my niche to something less disturbing. This change also encouraged me to start posting more on other socials. I started posting makeup to my main Instagram account, created a YouTube channel, and even got the opportunity to create my exclusive Snapchat channel called Makeup Nightmare. Now, I do a lot of different genres of makeup. I still do special effects, but I try to make it more PG for TikTok. I still post horror content on YouTube and Instagram. I even write my own horror stories that I read for Snapchat while doing a scary look! While this change came with its challenges, my audience continued to grow. I started getting noticed by brands and agencies, and after a few successful contracts, I was able to quit my job at Starbucks and do social media full-time. My siblings got older and more independent, so my mom needed less help from me. I finally moved out of my mom’s place and made my way to LA in May 2023.
I’ve been a content creator for over four years now, and it’s been an amazing journey honing my skills while learning the tricks of every social media platform. As the digital landscape is constantly changing, it’s hard to predict where my career will go next. I plan to continue developing my creative abilities and sharing my journey on my socials. I actually still haven’t given up on my dream of becoming an actress and I plan to try my leg in the movie industry. Wish me luck!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am incredibly lucky to be able to do makeup and social media as my full-time job. However, every journey comes with its obstacles. I briefly touched on a few challenges I faced in the previous question, including family life and TikTok’s updated community guidelines.
Work-life balance has been and remains a challenge. At the beginning of my journey, the majority of my time was devoted to college and work, and the rest of my time was used to help my family, so it was often difficult to find the time to film; especially when I started taking social media more seriously and felt the need to post consistently. Now, the majority, if not all of my time is devoted to social media. As the scope of my platforms has increased, so has the time necessary to keep up with all of them. Depending on the complexity, one look alone can take me anywhere from 4 to 12 hours to film. The majority of my work cannot be delegated so I spend my days at home designing, filming, posting, and editing. As there are only 24 hours in a day, I often get behind schedule and will have to prioritize certain tasks over others scheduling my days has been consistently difficult. While I absolutely love what I do, I experience burnout quite often. Forcing myself to be creative doesn’t always lead to the best work, which ultimately makes me feel worse, which leads to even worse creations. As you can imagine, this often creates a vicious cycle. I do try to take a step back and focus on mental health when I catch myself slipping into this state, but it has been a reoccurring challenge through the years.
Another challenge is inconsistent feedback. Every social media has different algorithms, and a video that will do well on one platform will barely get any views on another. This can often make it difficult to manage my time and content. It can be especially heartbreaking to see a look/video that I put my heart and soul into performing poorly in comparison to the content I spend less time on. There are too many inconsistencies with the time-quality-view ratio for me to predict what look will do well next. It often feels like I’m hoping for the best and taking a shot in the dark with every video I post. (p.s. I keep all my work very close to heart, and I like to fall in love with everything I put out online, but as social media is my only source of income, I have to pay extra hard attention to algorithms while keeping my work authentic)
Also, despite popular belief, my work forces me to face a lot of instability. A lot of my projects are seasonal and the best times for my work are Halloween, the Holidays, and Back to School season. Unlike working a 9-5 job, my job is often quite unstable, and my next project is never guaranteed. Once again, a lot of my planning is literally just “hoping for the best.” Navigating through these inconsistencies can be challenging and unpredictable at times, but I still wouldn’t change it for the world.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a makeup artist and content creator specializing in special effects. When starting my journey, my niche was horror, but with the update of TikTok’s community guidelines, I had to broaden my scope to more mainstream beauty trends. I do anything from makeup hacks, makeup tips for beginners, hair-related content, popular beauty trends, body painting, cosplay, fashion, vlogs, complex sfx looks, and I even write my own horror stories. My general video styles fall into three categories: transitions, vlogs/walkthroughs, and unspoken process videos. One of my most well-known looks/videos is the snowmiser-heatmiser trend. To this day, it is my most viewed video, sitting at 74.2 million views on TikTok. It has become a tradition for me to do this trend every year, and I do my best to “outdo” my previous year’s look. It’s always so exciting to find new ways to use random materials and repurpose them as makeup. I love pushing my creativity and thinking outside the box.
I think that the trait that makes me stand out is my authenticity. I’m not trying to be perfect online, and am pretty transparent about the mistakes I make. This ranges from messing up my words to completely failing a makeup look. I’d like to think that this has helped me build a great relationship with my audience. I want art and self-expression to be accessible to anyone so my goal is to create a safe and welcoming community on my channels. Inspiring people to embrace their artistic side is the best reward. Especially coming from a position myself where a lot of my artistic visions and inclinations were doubted, It’s extremely important for me to create a safe space that I didn’t have access to growing up. Seeing people tag me in their videos following my tutorials absolutely warms my heart and gives me reassurance that the content I produce is able to resonate with a wide audience. While a lot of my younger viewers view me as a role model, I prefer to have a sense of equality with my audience and talk to them like I would with a friend. I love reading my comments with feedback, questions, or suggestions for my next looks.
I’m incredibly proud of the progress I made. When I started my channels, I was still learning how to do makeup and special effects. And it’s so amazing to have my viewers along for this crazy journey. I am so thankful for the support I have gotten throughout the years, and I am so excited to see where this path will take us next!
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Trust the process! I know it’s such an overused phrase, but there is so much truth in it. This doesn’t just apply to a single project but to the journey as a whole. When you follow your passions, the success, and results come inevitably! Your efforts could bear fruits overnight but it most likely will take years to get to your dream. The key here is to find passion and motivation in the process itself instead of only prioritizing the end result. Don’t get into this industry exclusively for money or fame – it won’t work. Do it for yourself, for those who you want to help, do it for love, for your passion. Talent is great, but it means nothing without passion. There’s not a single skill that can’t be learned. Practice, practice, practice, and learn from your mistakes along the way. Don’t overthink your work because perfection is subjective. There’s a reason for the saying that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” Analyzing your work is just an excuse to not take action. Do what you love, and trust trust trust the process!
I honestly think this is the reason for my success. When I started posting my looks, it was never with the intention of “blowing up”. I held a genuine passion and interest for makeup and I wanted to share it with the world! (or however many people would see it) I also did it to record my journey, which was another really great way of finding joy in the process. Once a year I will look back to my first makeup videos and reflect on the progress I made. I also used to film my makeup wayyyy before I started posting for those same reasons. I was too young to post it anywhere at the time, but I did truly enjoy the process. Now I get to do these things for a living, and there’s nothing in the world I would trade this for. I absolutely love it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@valeriya.eros?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeriya.eros
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088422110875&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@valeriyaeros
- Other: https://www.snapchat.com/p/c8e4ef2b-5fd6-4928-a7de-d2d1db95ba44/1436209237213184?invite_id=9wRGMMFd&sid=2a64187b6e8f434492554d70103a9892&sender_web_id=aa1ee7f8-bdb9-4ee5-a72c-cada54228f08&device_type=desktop&is_copy_url=true
