It’s not Photoshop or AI art – all her looks are done with make-up

Her Instagram account @mimles has 1.9 million followers and is filled with looks that could have come straight out of horror films, such as faces covered in eyes, snakes slithering out of mouths – and a particularly scary one of taloned fingers thrusting out from her eyes.

The 38-year-old does not use Photoshop or other computer programs to create her trippy looks – it is all down to make-up and colour pencils. She applies contouring, blending and the shading techniques she started to learn as a child, when drawing was something she did to de-stress after school.

For some looks, Choi places a sheet of paper on specific parts of the face and works on that. Jewellery or flowers are added to some, while others feature a painted background for a more blended, realistic look. Good lighting and angles also play crucial roles.

The results evoke feelings of awe, joy – and a little bit of fear. They also beg the question: what the heck is going on inside her mind?

“Inspiration comes from many places,” says Choi. “Anything that evokes emotions, that makes me feel things.”

That includes architecture, photography, digital art and surrealist artists Salvador Dali and MC Escher.

Choi’s childhood in Macau, where she spent a lot of time at her grandfather’s home, also influences her work.

“My grandpa’s home was full of Chinese culture and history and decorated with porcelain objects … I think a lot of my art was inspired by that.”

For example, she once turned herself into a piece of blue-and-white porcelain using a combination of make-up, pencil drawings on paper, and hand-sculpted and painted ceramic. Other imagery from her Chinese heritage includes Lunar New Year firecrackers and mahjong tiles.

“When I was growing up in Macau, I always watched adults play mahjong,” she says. “I had no interest in learning but was fascinated by the beautiful designs on the tiles.” ⁣⁣⁣

When Choi’s grandfather died six years ago, she turned to art to cope.

“It was the first time I’d experienced the death of a close family member,” she says. “It was hard for me, so as a way to cope I did a lot of art.”

Ideas also come when she is battling sleep paralysis, a state in which a person is conscious but unable to move or speak.

“You can’t move and the more you struggle, the more you can’t wake up and it sends you into a panic attack,” she says. Then she hallucinates.

“I’ve dreamed about spiders crawling over the wall, people without faces and had visions of 10 people coming at me with 100 hands trying to grab my neck.”

Sick of being scared, Choi started to paint her frightening visions in the hope of conquering them. It worked.

“Once I painted what I saw, I stopped dreaming about that specific vision.”

Over time, she has learned to deal with her hallucinations.

“I’ll either tell the demon or whatever I see to go away, [or] close my eyes and count to 20 and just let it pass,” says Choi, who began to experience sleep paralysis from the age of four.

Choi’s big break came at the 2019 Met Gala in New York, when she applied her signature multi-eye look to US actor Ezra Miller (The Flash, The Perks of Being a Wallflower).

“Ezra gave me the artistic freedom to do what I wanted,” she says. “He was really feeling my make-up and wanted it to be fun. It took four or five hours to paint his face and he didn’t fall asleep or use his phone. He was just looking in the mirror and amazed – he was really happy.”

It is not unusual for Choi to spend hours creating a look. Some simple illusions, she says, can be completed in one or two hours, while more intricate designs, such as her fishbone face – her most popular video on Instagram – took almost 10 hours.

Her hyperreal optical illusions have led to collaborations with make-up brands such as Make Up For Ever and Kryolan, and commercial tie-ups outside the industry including with Samsung, Warner Brothers and the Food Network channel.

It is a long way from her days as a preschool teacher, her career before making the switch aged 28.

“I think my story inspires people to step out of their comfort zone, to explore a new path,” says the self-taught artist, who honed her skills at Vancouver’s Blanche Macdonald make-up school, where she now teaches.

Five months ago, Choi also became a mum – and her son is already a fan of her looks.

“Sometimes, when I’m feeding him at night, I’ll be painting my face and he’ll look at me with this big smile.”

As for what the future holds, Choi just wants to keep evolving.

“I’d love to keep teaching and maybe do more elaborate body art or launch my own make-up line or even open a make-up school … who knows!

“I just want to keep evolving – and to keep doing things that make me happy.”