Jeffreys Bay make-up artist, Sayla Dean, who has had to learn to live with a mild case of acne for many years, uses her various social media accounts to raise awareness about the normalcy of acne and to encourage women to feel confident in their own skin.
Dean, who began developing a mild case of acne at the age of 15, said despite using various methods of medication to treat her skin condition, she continued to battle with acne for many years.
“Acne is something that runs in my family. When I started developing bad acne, I was put on a six-month course of medication and three years later, my acne just started coming back.
“My acne comes in waves; sometimes my skin is clear and other times I have full-blown cystic acne that never reaches the surface,” she said.
In a bid to find a solution for her skin condition, Dean began watching make-up videos on YouTube and became very interested in the process of applying make-up to transform a person’s face and how something so simple could give women so much confidence.
With the make-up techniques she learnt on YouTube, she began practising on herself and, by the age of 16, she established her self-titled make-up business at home.
With only a few followers, in 2017, she began posting make-up tutorials, reviews and lifestyle content on her Instagram account and YouTube channel and her social media followers expanded exponentially.
To date, Dean has more than 45 000 Instagram followers and almost 18 000 subscribers on YouTube, with her most popular video receiving more than 700 000 views.
“I was hesitant to start posting content on YouTube because I was afraid of judgement from my peers, but I bit the bullet and the content I shared was a hit with my audience.
“People were so interested in the make-up looks I created, and my page started growing like crazy,” said Dean.
To ensure that she remained connected to her audience, Dean shared the most informative and basic makeup tutorials for anyone to recreate and she encouraged people to enjoy the process of putting their make-up on in the morning.
In addition, she ensures that she keeps her content real and raw across all platforms by documenting her life and journey with her skin, which has always been a struggle.
“I have had a lot of help with my skin with various forms of skin treatment which have helped.
“However, I still get bad acne breakouts quite often and I have just learnt to live with my acne,” she said.
“People don’t see enough real content on social media of what skin and bodies actually look like, so I really strive to keep it real on my platforms. For this reason, I want to create awareness around my skin and how normal it is for every girl to experience acne, which does not make them any less pretty.”
Dean said she planned to become a very well-known content creator and make-up artist within South Africa, possibly even worldwide.
For now, she plans to focus on expanding her social media followers on the African continent and she looks forward to seeing where her hard work and dedication will take her.
