A makeup artist uses her face and body as a canvas to create optical illusions that will make you do a double take

"I remember playing with my mother's lipstick when I was a child," 35-year-old Choi told Insider. "As I grew older, I became quite good at doing my own makeup to the point where family and friends would ask me to do their wedding makeup."

"When I became a Montessori preschool instructor, I would find myself painting intricate details on my nails in the evenings as a creative release," she said. "I had been teaching preschool for a few years by that time and while I love working with children, I needed to reevaluate whether it was something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life."

"With the encouragement of my family, I enrolled at Blanche Macdonald Centre here in Vancouver and began my journey as a professional makeup artist," she said.

"I wasn't completely a blank slate when I started makeup school, but I definitely honed my skills and learned new techniques while I was a student," Choi added. "More importantly, I met amazing friends and mentors at this school and even worked at the pro store and as an instructor after I graduated."

"For my first Halloween as a makeup student, I decided that I wanted to do something different," she said. "I attempted my first illusion, which was a cracked face look that I had seen online."

"I used only two liners to achieve the look and when I shared the image on Instagram, I received a lot of positive feedback," Choi added.

Her illusions often make her body seem like it's actually food, like her skin is melting, or even like her face is merely a canvas for art.

Choi shares her illusions to Instagram, where she has over a million followers.

She also works with celebrities like Jeff Goldblum and Ezra Miller.

"Many of my looks are angle-dependent, so it can be a challenge to achieve an impactful look, especially when painting on a surface that isn't completely flat," she said. "Once I figure things out, the results are usually super trippy and dizzying."

"My looks can take anywhere between two and ten hours to complete depending on the scale and intricacy, but on average they take around five hours," she said.

"I always use the Mimi Choi Illusion Palette that I created with Mehron for all of my looks," she said. "It has all of the essentials that are required to create lift and depth."

You can buy the palette here.

The art brushes allow her to create the details that make her looks so realistic.

"When I experience sleep paralysis, I often see recurring and frightening visions," she told Insider. "These have inspired some of my morbid looks, including the sliced face, melting features, and a hole in the face looks."

"The strange thing is that after painting one of my episodes, I stop experiencing that particular vision and move on to another one," Choi said. "In a way, makeup is my therapy."

"I get inspiration from just about everything that I experience," she said. "I love to travel and visit museums and am in awe of the detail of renaissance painters. I also like to view digital art for ideas and find it a challenge to re-create those looks using just makeup, as I don't use Photoshop to edit my looks."

"I think that it's human nature to be influenced by other makeup artists and to be caught up in beauty trends," she said. "While there's nothing wrong with that, I find that for myself, it's much more rewarding to put the blinders on, stay in my own lane, and create what makes me happy."

"I have many talented friends in the industry who are incredible at what they do, but I find that the ones that have made a name for themselves are those who have a distinct style and have created their own trends," she told Insider.

"It's so rewarding to discover new things through trial and error," Choi said of her work. "The more I paint, the more creative I feel."

"I also love the fact that the possibilities are endless and my imagination is my only limitation," she told Insider.

"My biggest challenge is my patience," she told Insider. "I always see flaws in my own work and would paint forever to achieve perfection if I could."

"Unfortunately, 10 hours is about my limit right now," Choi said.

"It's sufficient to stick with a few basics and then build from there," she said, encouraging people to start where they can.

"I would suggest anyone looking to experiment to discover the type of makeup style that appeals to them by exploring the internet and social media," Choi said.

"From there, I encourage all of my students to develop their own style and to not be caught up in what is popular and trendy at the moment," she added.

"Before the pandemic, I combined my passions for makeup, teaching, and travel to lead master classes, demonstrations, and workshops around the world," she told Insider. "Currently, I'm teaching online, which has made my classes accessible to more people around the world."

"I find that my classes are attended by not only makeup artists, but by mothers, children, and general art enthusiasts," Choi said.

"While nothing will replace the experience of learning in person, these online classes offer something different and have turned into more of a 'paint along' session where I demonstrate a look while my students paint at the same time from the comfort of their own homes," Choi said of her classes.

"I will continue teaching online as the world recovers from the pandemic, but I am eager to get back on the road to meet my followers in person," Choi added.

"It's important not to compare yourself to other artists," she said. "As long as you've improved from your last look, you are growing as an artist."

"Everyone has a unique path that is ideal for them, and if they are honest and work hard at it, they will discover that path," she added.

"I'm proof of that, as I decided to switch careers at a relatively late age," she said.

You can see more of Choi's work on her website and follow her on Instagram.

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