Cakeface RJ: Eyeshadow Illusion Connoisseur on Instagram’s 21 Under 21 List & Advice For Young Black Creatives

Instagram recently partnered with GUAP Magazine to produce the 21 under 21 list  which showcases 21 creators under the age of 21. In the industry of sports, music, art, fashion, and makeup, this list brings young creators to the forefront and highlights them as the forward thinkers they are. With over 400,000 followers on Instagram, the self-described eyeshadow illusion connoisseur, who selected the creators in the makeup industry discusses her intricate illusionist looks, her work with Instagram, the use of Reels to showcase her content, and what it means for her to be Black British.

CakefaceRJ continues to show up and show out with her elaborate makeup looks.

Courtesy of Cakeface RJ

Hello RJ, it’s nice to meet you! Can you start by telling us just a bit about yourself and what you do?

I’m 22! I started just about three years ago and it kind of just came out of nowhere. I was at college doing Fine Art for a couple of years, then left college and needed a job. So, I was looking into doing freelance makeup, like bridal makeup. I started a business plan on that by posting on my Instagram what I do on myself to gain an audience to help with the freelancing. It took off from there! I started dabbling in creative makeup, creative eye makeup and people started to like it..so here we are, doing it all over my face now! 

I love that! I’ve seen all the amazing looks you’ve created on your Instagram. One of my favourite ones was Stanley Hudson from The Office (I love that show) and the jigsaw wipe off look, that was really cool. Where do you get your creativity from - what’s your inspiration for coming up with these looks? 

It depends on the look! A lot of my illusion based ones come from nature and Pinterest from a lot of digital artist, they have amazing work and I make sure to always credit them as well if I do create a look that they’ve done. When it comes to looks like Stanley, it’s just based off shows that I love. Like you know what? Might as well turn myself into Stanley!  (laughs)

Might as well! (laughs). With Instagram, Reels is such a big thing. How have you managed to use it to build your platform? 

It’s really useful! Reels are super quick – you can create 15-30 sec videos and even though they are quick , you can make quite a big impact. You’re reaching a wide audience so people can see that and then decide if they want to see a bit more. I’ve found that I’ve had a really good response on reels. You can get content out much quicker than perhaps other Instagram videos. 

What has been your favourite one to create? 

You know what? It must be Stanley! That was good. I do enjoy the little makeup hack ones where its just an eyeliner or eyebrow one. They’re super quick and they are the ones people always ask me for – so it’s super easy to share and produce! 

Love that! As we know it’s been a really hard year with Covid, it being a pandemic and it’s hit a lot of people quite hard. Would you say being inside has affected how you create your content? 

Yeah, its weird because I do work from home anyway so I’m always in the house and creating. What was different is now all my friends are now working from home, and some of them were furloughed and I’m thinking ‘ooh maybe I should be furloughed’ (laughs) - kind of gave it a weird vibe [for everyone to be working from home]. But I got past that and I think just being able to spend more time sorting my work out and planning everything more efficiently - the time at home did help to get everything done in that sense. 

We’ve definitely seen it! You’ve managed to put so much out so we’ve BEEN entertained. On top of that, you’ve recently worked with Instagram to create the 21 under 21 list which for those who don’t know comprises of creators in 5 different industries. We have sports, music, art, fashion, and makeup. You selected 5 of those creators. What made people stand out to you?

Seeing their creative flair. In the makeup industry, there’s a lot of people now doing creative makeup, and using this and not necessarily face paint which is also how I got into it (illusionist makeup). Seeing how people were expressing themselves and their different takes with creative makeup was so nice. That’s why I picked those five. 

What was it like to be involved with the list? 

It was insane! When I found out about it, I was like “me for real?! You sure?”.  It’s been really good – I didn’t know who they were before any of this started. It’s always nice to meet people in the industry who are trying to come up, get their content out there and also they’re young so it was nice that they have the opportunity to get their work out there. 

It must’ve been really different to be selecting creators that are just a bit younger than you, right? 

I know! I was like… children, let me guide you! (laughs)

With that, is there any advice you have for young creatives wanting to get into the industry? 

I think just being entirely yourself and not necessarily following all the trends. Everybody is following trends! You need to do things that stand out and makes you different. I feel if I had stayed in the same path as everybody else, I wouldn’t be where I am today in terms of my career. So, I think it’s so important to try something new – everyone wants to see something different.

That’s so true, you definitely have the range there! One day we see eyes everywhere, next we see the jigsaw… we don’t know what you’re going to do next! But being a Black artist… have you found that it’s quite difficult to navigate the makeup industry? 

Definitely. There’s not many black artists in the industry as we’d like to see. [With] trying to find where you fit… it’s a really nice feeling to find that community. Everyone is really welcoming and trying their best. Obviously, you do face a lot of racism on social media, but I find that the community has been welcoming but it can be difficult sometimes. 

What do you think the beauty industry could be doing to address that? We saw so much being promised by these industries but is there anything specific you think could be done? 

I think there is still so much that can be done. There are a lot of firms that are inclusive but there are too many that aren’t, and you can really see that. Unfortunately, there are brands that I love that I wouldn’t work with as you can see from their makeup lines that they don’t have products for black people to use. Mindsets need to be changed in order for there to be a change. 

That is so important! If mindsets aren’t changed then not much can be done. We can keep campaigning, but nothing is actually done. That is really true! With our platform being the BLK Brit, what does being a Black Brit mean to you? 

You know, I have to say it’s weird because I never thought my career would be what it is as a black woman. So it is really nice, I have so many black girls messaging me saying ‘you’re so inspiring, you’re a Black girl and you’re British and you’ve managed to make this career for yourself.’ So it is nice to be able to inspire and push forward to do the same thing. There are always new people joining the industry, so it will be really nice to know that from what I have been doing more black girls are able to come up and do the same thing. 

It’s always good to see faces like ours in these spaces and it is really good to see that you’re there at the forefront helping to guide that. Lastly, is there anything you want to hint at or share that you have coming up? 

I am a Barry M ambassador, so I have some exciting things coming up with that but I’m not going to say too much on that! 

We can’t wait to see what RJ does next!