Every beauty obsession has an origin story. For most of us, it starts small: playing with our mom’s makeup, watching our older sisters and titas get ready for special events, and borrowing our friends’ beauty kits during sleepovers. Back then, it didn’t feel like the beginning of anything. It was pure curiosity and the enchantment of watching a face transform with just a few swipes of lipstick.

For the content creators on this list, that spark eventually turned into a life in front of a camera, a large social media following, and a career they wholeheartedly pursued. Some found it through family, others by chance, and others in moments when they realized they wanted something other than a corporate 9-to-5.

Below, Allure Philippines lists how each creator realized their love for beauty, in their own words. 

Bianca Ferro

Bianca Ferro saw magic on her mother’s vanity table and her lola’s kikay kits when she was seven. Makeup just seemed better than toys to her at that age. 

Her curiosity was piqued while getting ready for a ballet recital photo shoot. At one point, she said, she had 10 shades of her mother’s lipstick collection on her lips. 

“And I looked crazy!” she said, “[Because] it was literally a kid putting makeup on herself.” 

Her mom didn’t shut down Ferro’s budding interest. On special occasions, she let Ferro do her makeup and raid her vanity without a care in the world. Otherwise, Ferro would go through her tita’s makeup bag.

Years later, after a brief stint in corporate, Ferro is now a content creator and model known for experimenting with makeup and not sticking to what conventional beauty standards expect of her. It seems like the girl with 10 lipstick shades on her lips never really stopped playing with the rules—choosing to challenge them instead.

Iya Omaña

At some point in our tween lives, we all wanted to become YouTubers—Iya Omaña included. Her love for beauty truly blossomed in high school, following a fellow Filipino’s meteoric rise in the beauty scene. “I was inspired by Bretman Rock during that era of YouTube beauty creators,” she said. 

Growing up during YouTube’s beauty era, she felt something was missing in the videos she watched: swatches and tutorials made for . So, she took matters into her own hands. Her first YouTube video as a beauty content creator? “It was a no-makeup makeup look, with shades that match morena skin,” Omaña shared with Allure Philippines. 

Since 2018, she’s been creating makeup tutorials for morenas, offering product recommendations from budget-friendly to high-end, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

Joce Yang

Before the “grrrrooom” videos on TikTok, Joce Yang was an industrial engineering student who loved posting fashion videos. Her foray into beauty was a little surprising—if you knew what her thesis in college was, her major, or the fact that she didn’t wear a lot of makeup before. 

But deep down, Yang always knew she was a beauty girlie. “I think my earliest memory of getting intrigued about makeup, is when I was unpacking my mom’s makeup pouch. I was like, oh, what’s this? And then that’s when I got interested in doing my makeup as well.”

She didn’t like applying heavy makeup before, but there was one product she would always reach for. “I just want a no makeup makeup look, so my mom bought me the Dior Tinted Lip Balm. That’s what I applied every day.”

Kylie Celebre

Kylie Celebre has been in love with makeup since she was little. It began with an electrifying shade of baby blue that her mom used to wear. “I used to watch her do her makeup, and the thing that stood out for me is her blue MAC eyeshadow,” she said. 

Blue was a bold choice for the time. “It was so out of this world. Kasi syempre as a little boy, OMG, [a] blue MAC eyeshadow! Normally, ng mga time na ‘yon, mas uso sa mga OGs, like Jennifer Lopez, ang mga smoky eye.” 

It took a lot of encouragement from her family one Christmas for her to finally post her first beauty-related content. She’s now one of the creators known for wildly creative looks in the industry: think bedazzled orchids and dragonfruit to adobong pusit and cockroach couture. 

Art Torrontegui

Art has always been the heart of Alejandro “Art” Torrontegui’s creativity. He grew up in the ‘90s dreaming of becoming a painter, but his first brush with beauty didn’t come as early as the others.

“It started in 2014, 2016, when drag was already mainstream. The first time I watched a drag reality show, I was amazed. I was like, ‘Wow!’ The makeup style was so exaggerated,” he shared with Allure Philippines. 

It was also when beauty YouTubers’ influence was skyrocketing. “Glam makeup was big on YouTube. That was my earliest memory of beauty,” Torrontegui said. That curiosity eventually led him to make beauty his medium. Now, he’s known for his surreal, experimental, and fearless beauty looks that place focus on creativity rather than whatever is mainstream. 

Eula Arielle

Growing up with dreams of becoming a pageant girl, Eula Arielle was always exposed to makeup and beauty. In fact, she said her love for it has been there since she “gained consciousness,” and her mom saw that in her, too. 

“She loved dressing me up, doing my hair every morning, and always making sure that I looked put-together for school,” she shared. “I remember, like, whenever she’s not around, I would sneak into her makeup, her shoes, her bags, and her clothes, pretending to be some glamorous fashion diva, which eventually I became one. That’s my first introduction to beauty and self-expression in general.”

Those experiences shaped who Arielle grew up to be—a fashionable and expressive content creator who never shies away from looking wacky for the camera. 

Catalina Sy

Catalina Sy has long been drawn to the idea of beauty and makeup, but her relationship with it has always been measured. She grew up in a household where you had to finish what you had before buying something new. “I’ve always thought that finishing things, at least in my household, [has] always been very normal,” Sy said. 

She bought her first beauty item when she was 13 and learned that these products were meant to be loved, explored, and eventually emptied. When she started posting her content, though, her early videos were centered on makeup hauls. In fact, her first post was an 11.11 shopping haul. 

Sy has since then shifted back to the habits she grew up with, which we now have a word for: underconsumption.

Bethany Talbot

Bethany Talbot wears many hats in a week. One day, she’s an athlete. On another, she’s a model and content creator. Most days, she’s a student. But where does beauty fit in all of these roles? 

Beauty isn’t a regular fixture on her feed, but Talbot shared with Allure Philippines that her first foray into it was when she was doing ballet at the tender age of seven. Every performance meant she had to do her own makeup, which she enjoyed. 

“I found it so fun just being pulled out of class with my best friends and having to do our makeup together for our dance performances in school,” she shared. “I was around seven years old when I started doing my own makeup—like all the black eyes, the blue eyeshadow, the glittery eyes, and the bold lipstick. I did all of that at the age of seven.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Bianca Ferro first saw magic on her mother’s vanity table and her lola’s kikay kits at age seven. While getting ready for a ballet recital photo shoot, she put 10 shades of her mother’s lipstick on her lips, and her mom supported her interest.

Iya Omaña felt that beauty videos on YouTube lacked swatches and tutorials made for morena skin. Inspired by Bretman Rock, she posted a no-makeup makeup look with morena-matching shades and, since 2018, has shared tutorials and product recommendations from budget-friendly to high-end.

Allure Philippines features eight creators: Bianca Ferro, Iya Omaña, Joce Yang, Kylie Celebre, Art Torrontegui, Eula Arielle, Catalina Sy, and Bethany Talbot. Each shares how raiding family vanities, ballet recitals, YouTube, drag shows, and more first sparked their love for beauty.

Project Pan, as Catalina Sy practices it, means finishing what you own before buying something new. She grew up in a household where this was normal, bought her first beauty item at 13, and returned to those habits after early videos centered on makeup hauls.

Kylie Celebre’s love for makeup began in childhood, watching her mom do her makeup. A bold baby-blue MAC eyeshadow stood out to her. With encouragement from her family one Christmas, she posted her first beauty content and now creates wildly creative looks.

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