Mimi Choi dropped her career as a Montessori pre-school teacher and took the path of being a makeup artist with the goal of doing something that would make her happy. The decision did make her happy, but it was not the traditional makeup that she took. The things she was learning in her special effects classes had a pull on her.
“It was Halloween 2013 and I was a month into my course. I typed in #halloweenmakeup into Instagram and I saw a girl whose face looked like it was broken into pieces,” explained Choi. “I had never done creative makeup before and I recreated it in my parents’ bathroom using two eyeliners, posted on Instagram for the first time, and tagged the girl who I was inspired by. She re-posted my look, saying that I did it better than her. That motivated me. I wanted to explore and wanted to find out more about this style.”
For this years Met Gala, she had the privilege of doing the makeup of Ezra Miller, which featured an iteration of the kaleidoscopic eyes which she did on herself in 2018.
“I was thinking about doing eyes on him anyways because most of my illusions are angle-dependent but eyes are impactful from different angles,” Choi explained.
She ended up doing an iteration of the original kaleidoscope eyes for Miller’s Met Gala red carpet. Because the fitting for his suit took longer than expected, Choi didn’t have time to do a trial run of the look so she “spontaneously painted that look (on Miller) at four in the morning on the Met Gala day.”
Take a look at her interview with Vice's Garage to know more about her works and how her sleep paralysis experiences inspired her as an artist.
Photo Credit: Mimi Choi / Instagram