The Make-Up Artistry of Mimi Choi
In a city celebrated for its natural beauty, it’s fitting that one of the most imaginative makeup artists should call Vancouver home. But for Mimi Choi, beauty isn’t always soft-focus and symmetrical. Sometimes, it’s unsettling, disorienting, and utterly mesmerizing. With a paintbrush in hand and imagination as her guide, Choi has redefined the limits of makeup artistry—one illusion at a time.
Born in Macau and raised in Vancouver, Choi’s early life already hinted at the creative powerhouse she would become. “I was always doodling, always daydreaming,” she once admitted. Yet, like many artists navigating the expectations of a more conventional path, Choi initially pursued a career in education. After earning her teaching credentials, she spent her days nurturing preschoolers in a Montessori classroom—a role that satisfied her love for structure and creativity but fell short of feeding her inner artist.
The turning point? Halloween 2013. Choi posted a self-created cracked face illusion on social media. The post didn’t just turn heads—it blew up overnight. That viral moment became her launching pad. At that time, she had already enrolled at Blanche Macdonald Centre, a premier beauty school nestled just outside Vancouver’s downtown core. There, Choi immersed herself in technique and theory, and most importantly, unleashed her sense of what was possible. “It was like discovering a new language,” she reflects.
Today, Mimi Choi is known globally for her mesmerizing illusions—the kind that contort logic and dissolve the line between fantasy and flesh. Floating eyeballs, morphing facial features, melting skin, trompe-l’œil galaxies painted across her hands and arms—this is art that exists in three dimensions, captured with zero reliance on Photoshop.
“I want to make people question what they’re seeing,” she explains. “My goal isn’t just to impress but to evoke something—curiosity, wonder, even discomfort.”
These aren’t quick makeup tutorials; they’re endurance art. Each look can take anywhere from four to ten hours, demanding a profound knowledge of anatomy, an obsessive attention to shadow and highlight, and remarkable physical stamina. On some nights, Choi paints until the break of dawn, capturing the final effect in the pale hush of morning light. Her canvas is her own body. Her studio? A small, light-filled space in her Vancouver apartment, crowded with ring lights, brushes, and sketchbooks teeming with fragmented dreams and vivid hallucinations.
Her inspirations are just as layered as her creations. Sleep paralysis, a haunting condition she has battled for years, often infiltrates her illusions, bringing eerie yet poetic visuals to life. She draws on everything from the mind-bending architecture of Escher to classical fine art and the duality of her own heritage. “Macau is a blend of Portuguese and Chinese influences. That duality—east meets west, structure meets chaos—absolutely informs my work,” she says.
In 2019, Choi’s name ricocheted through the fashion and beauty world after her collaboration with actor Ezra Miller at the Met Gala. The look—seven hyper-realistic eyes painted across Miller’s face—was a viral sensation. Surreal. Unsettling. Unforgettable. It was instantly iconic. That moment catapulted her into the ranks of the world’s most influential makeup artists. Since then, her portfolio has expanded to include work with Burberry, UNICEF, Samsung, and MAC, with her artistry featured in Vogue, Allure, and HYPEBAE. Still, Choi remains loyally rooted to Vancouver but also travels frequently, teaching her masterclasses globally and mentoring the next generation of boundary-breaking artists.
“She’s a teacher, an artist, and a visionary,” one student shares. “But most of all, she’s proof that you can build a global legacy from your own backyard.”
What truly distinguishes Choi isn’t just her technical brilliance or viral fame, but her unapologetic authenticity. Despite having millions of followers, she remains grounded and generous, often pulling back the curtain with behind-the-scenes tutorials and tips. Her message? “Embrace weirdness.”
Her motto is simple but revolutionary: “Normal is boring.”
As the beauty world oscillates between bare-faced minimalism and bold, maximalist glam, Choi occupies a space all her own—a realm where makeup becomes metaphysical, where the face is no longer a canvas but a portal. Her art exists at the intersection of identity, psychology, performance, and rebellion.
And for those lucky enough to witness it—whether on Instagram or in an intimate masterclass—the effect is lasting.
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