This ultra-talented 19-year-old is killing it in the make-up art scene
Make-up artists typically use people's faces - or their own - as a blank canvas on which to create the most beautiful artwork. But few display the level of skill and creativity as one ultra-talented 19-year-old who goes by Cupid's Vault on Instagram.
Posting all his latest creations on his Instagram page - which he only started about a year ago - Cupid has earned himself thousands and thousands of adoring fans. Currently, the New Yorker has an impressive 83.7k followers.
His personal take on make-up art revolves around glueing all sorts of weird and wonderful objects to his face - everything from Swarovski brooches to latex human ears, in fact.
Cupid discovered his passion for expressing his creativity through make-up about three years ago, he tells i-D.
"When I was sixteen I started experimenting with make-up, using my sister’s old lipsticks that she kept under the sink," he explains "I would hide in the bathroom for hours and try all the colours, always making sure that the door was locked securely. Before I went outside, I would thoroughly wipe off my face. I didn't want anybody to know what I had been doing in there."
Eventually, he began buying his own make-up and experimenting with 3D make-up art, which is when he decided to start posting his creations online.
"I’ve been posting since 2016, but my account used to be private -- until a year ago. I wanted my account to be an intimate place: hence the name Cupid's Vault. But the more I developed my art, the more courageous I felt about showing my creations to the outside world."
He continues: "At first I mainly took self-portraits. I used bright lightning and pumped up the saturation of my photos. Somehow this symbolised what I was experiencing at the time. I was in some sort of embryonic stage, stuck in my own world, desperately trying to reach out. The only way I could do that was by screaming -- screaming through my visual work. But I wasn't ready for anyone to hear me yet. Now I am."
In spite of his 'out there' online persona, the talented teen describes himself as an introvert who doesn't enjoy talking about himself.
"I simply take pleasure in the act of creation, doing my make-up and preparing looks," he says.