Iowa State student makes a name in the makeup industry
July 1, 2019
With more than 3,000 followers, Anna Napolitano, a sophomore in pre-graphic design at Iowa State, shares her talents in the makeup realm on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. She has been practicing makeup professionally for six years but has always had a passion for art.
Not only did Napolitano’s social media catch the interest of smaller influencers and students, but she has caught the attention of major American cosmetic company Anastasia Beverly Hills. The social media and marketing manager for the makeup company re-tweeted a look that Napolitano created, and she was later put on the “PR list,” a list of influencers that businesses send their products to.
Napolitano first created her Youtube channel three years ago in June 2016, and her Instagram page was published shortly after. Napolitano uses Instagram as platform to showcase the looks that she has created and only started consistently posting in Jan. 2019.
In her earlier days, Napolitano focused on a softer makeup looks that could be worn any day.
Napolitano’s Halloween creation was the first time she tried an abnormal makeup look, and it was what brought her into the focusing in that area.
Napolitano said she has always enjoyed creating the “weird” looks, using her techniques from drawing and painting to help make her creations to look more realistic.
“It [the Halloween look] wasn’t even hard, and I didn’t think I could do it —it’s just the little things, like adding shadows, to make it look more realistic, so that was one of the things that got me going on the creative stuff,” Napolitano said.
Now, her Instagram features abnormal looks that can be hard to recreate.
The “Inverted” look was inspired by NikkiTutorials, a beauty Youtuber, and Napolitano recreated it using primarily facepaint and eyeshadow. She said she tried to mimic the “inverted” program on Apple products so when the program is in use, the inverted side of her face looks normal.
“A lot of people ask me if the whole thing is edited … [with] weird things like this I edit my eyes, and then a lot of people will think the whole thing is edited,” Napolitano said.
The unusual and more creative looks can take up to five hours to create, and, aside from her makeup enterprises, Napolitano is also involved in Salt Company and holds an internship and job, as well as being a full-time student. To get ahead, she said she uses her breaks and free nights to stockpile content.
“Monday nights were my only free nights, during the school year, so I would go to my house after class — I finished at [noon] — and I would do three makeup looks and use that throughout the week,” Napolitano said.
Although Napolitano is not as active on Youtube, she consistently posts new looks on her Instagram account.
