For this week’s Deep Dive Series, we are interviewing makeup artist and reigning Spooky Fashion Fest Scariest Costume winner: @Freakin_Quinn.

@Freakin_Quinn is makeup artist and cosplayer on Clapper. Earlier this week, she was in our Spooky Fashion Fest and absolutely blew the Clapper team away with her amazing creepy clown costume! She’s a self-taught (and fairly new) makeup artist who’s love of all things spooky is very clear in her content. In our interview, we talked about her makeup inspirations, the differences in creating content in Portugal vs English speaking countries, her advice for new creators, and so much more!

Keep reading this Deep Dive Series to find out more about this creator’s fantastic story. Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 5pm CT on our @Clappertalks account to listen to the bonus questions that will only be available on our live radio show: Clapper Talks.

Deep Dive into this amazing creator’s story!

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What does a day in your life look like?

I finished university recently, so I’m at home. I need to do a presentation to actually have my certificate, so for now I’m waiting, doing cosplay, and enjoying my time with my future husband. So that’s basically a normal day, just being in the house for now. Our last semester of university is basically an internship, which we have to do a presentation about. Then they can give you the last grade and you actually have your certificate.

Your makeup looks are unreal. How did you start your makeup journey?

This was my son’s fault! Because, there was a different app and he started scrolling through it and telling me, “Oh mom, you should see this!” I was like, “Okay lets see what’s happening over there.“ So, when I started scrolling, I saw a cosplayer that I’m a huge fan. I’ve kind of loved cosplay since I was little. Here we don’t have Halloween, but it’s similar to Carnival here and I always enjoy that. I was like ”I could do this. Why not?“ So I bought some stuff and got in front of my mirror and started watching tutorials…basically that.

What inspires your cool makeup looks? Is there a particular style you like more than others?

Well, I adore Harley Quinn! I started with her and I did a lot of different styles from Harley Quinn. She’s my main character for a reason. Then I decided to go with different styles because I wanted to test my limits.

Makeup artists have sort of taken social media and made it their own portfolio. If you are a makeup artist, the best way to showcase your talent is by getting makeup tutorials on socials. How do you think makeup artists can stand out, with so many artists trying to do the same thing? What are some things you do that make your brand unique?

First of all, try to be yourself and try to be different. My Harley Quinn is totally different from the original. You guys can see that in my content (I don’t even look like her). But the idea is taking some parts of the character and then putting a little bit of yourself into that character. That’s what you have to do.

You said you live in Portugal. Tell us some of the cultural differences between Portugal content creation and content for English speakers.

Here, we love dark humor. I struggle a little bit in certain apps to get my content seen in Portugal because 90% of the population doesn’t appreciate cosplay. Even today, only 4% of my followers are from Portugal. It’s difficult here because we don’t have Halloween. We have certain night clubs that will do a party related to Halloween and then we do Carnival, but it’s different. We also have a lot of old people. There was one time I was dressed like a demon and I was outside recording, and I saw on old woman grabbing the phone to call the police. I instantly got in my house, thinking “Oh my god, if she calls the police what am I going to say? I’m doing cosplay?” Then they would be like “Don’t scare people like that,” or something. It’s difficult here even to record. If you watch my content, I have my content more inside the house than outside.

It’s also a little bit difficult to get people into your brand. I see people from other countries and…if you to a store and want to promote that store, they will help you, you will get help. Here it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately. So what I want to do is go to the states next year. I think that would be a good start for me in this world.

What are some misconceptions about Portugal that people often have?

There’s a lot of people that think the country is beautiful, they come on vacations, and enjoy everything here– the food, the people. But to live here is kind of a pain in the ass. Our salary is one of the lowest in Europe, so we struggle a little bit. And now with the prices going up, it’s being a struggle here in this country. I think people should be like “Okay, that’s a nice place to visit.”

So, when did you join Clapper? How did your journey as a creator begin?

So, I was at university when I started Clapper. I had a friend who was like “Oh, there’s an app here,” and even my husband was talking about Clapper. I said, “Well, I could try, why not?” So I joined…I think it was in the beginning of this year.

My initial reaction was….first of all, you know I’m a newbie here. I post videos, but I didn’t have the opportunity of going live. But when I joined Clapper, after a while I was like “Well, I’m giving it a shot.” Because it seemed like a good app, it has good people, and apparently here– well, we all know that other apps, it’s full of drama. But I don’t see drama here. So I feel like, I’m in my home.

You joined our Halloween event and won our Scariest Costume award. What did you think about your first Clapper event? What did you enjoy most about it?

I was so stressed by that time! My time was to be at 7:35pm, which is midnight here. At 10pm my friend called me like “I need you to do my makeup and my best friend’s makeup, because we are in a rush and we don’t have time and you have talent.”  So they came to my house, and I had to do their makeup, and I was almost without time for my own makeup. I did a quick makeup, because I was originally going to do something even scarier. But the problem was the latex. I was trying to go outside to help it dry and I was like “Oh my gosh, I am so screwed.”

This was actually the first time I was live on Clapper. I was always nervous to go live because you don’t know. We don’t know the people that we have here, we don’t know the reaction. So I was anxious, but I was excited with the situation. Of course, I don’t dance. I tried to think of some kind of dance but I was like “I’m a creepy clown! They shouldn’t dance! So I’ll do something scary.”

What advice would you give new users that want to be successful on Clapper?

First of all, be yourself. That’s the most important thing. Others will try to put you down, but you just think that your opinion matters and the only opinion that matters about yourself is yours. It’s what you give to yourself. If you think you’re doing something right, continue and do that. If you’re trying to do something and its not working, try again and don’t quit.

Hope you enjoy getting to know Freakin Quinn. For our latest deep-dive on @TKBethSmith, read here.