Beauty star Mikayla Nogueira cautions wannabe creators: “Don’t strive to do this career”

Thanks to her ardent following on platforms like TikTok, Massachusetts native Mikayla Nogueira has established herself as an in-demand beauty star. After experiencing the ups and downs of influencer life, Nogueira has a message for aspiring creators: Don’t do as I do.

In an interview with Glossy, Nogueira questioned whether the fame she’s achieved is worth the sacrifices she’s had to make. “I would genuinely say, potentially don’t strive to do this career,” Nogueira said. “Because, while I feel so blessed and so privileged and so grateful to be able to do this every day, there are things that I really miss about my offline life that I wish I had still — like privacy and a personal life and peace, in that sense and being able to go out in public and just grocery shop like everybody else.”

Nogueira expressed gratitude for her social media success, but she’s also felt the weight that comes with a sizable following. Questions of authenticity have long lingered on her mind, and she sparked an internet kerfuffle earlier this year when she chose not to be open with her fans. As part of a partnership with L’Oreal, she attempted to pass off fake eyelashes as mascara. Her viewers expected her to own up to the fib, but she brushed it off entirely, subverting the expected creator apology.

Highly-public drama episodes like that one are taking their toll on Nogueira. “This career is a choice,” she told Glossy. “I chose to lose my privacy; I chose to be in the spotlight; I chose to share things knowing that people could overanalyze or rip it apart. I made those choices…I guess this is the double-edged sword of it.”

Nogeuira talked with Glossy to celebrate the release of her lip kit, which she developed alongside e.l.f. Cosmetics. The line includes two products, both of which reference her heavy Boston accent: There’s a lip liner called “Til Death Do Us Paht” and a lipstick called “Puckah Up”.

@mikaylanogueira MY @e.l.f. Cosmetics MARRIAGE MATERIAL LIP DUO IS AVAILABLE NOW on elfcosmetics.com!!! Did you get it? #elfPartner #elfcosmetics #MarriageMaterial ♬ original sound – Mikayla Nogueira

The matrimonial bent of the lip kit is intentional, as Nogueira is getting married on July 1. “I have been really struggling over the year and a half that I’ve been engaged to find the perfect wedding lipstick for me,” she said. “Because makeup is my life. Everything I am is makeup.”