Enioluwa Adeoluwa has never been one to shy way from speaking his mind and living his true self, which many people has criticized as in conflict with how men are expected to be in Nigeria.
Speaking with the folks at Okay Africa, the beauty influencer who recently landed his first deal with MAC Cosmetics, talked about making his first viral social media video, navigating the toxic masculinity atmosphere in Nigeria, and more.
See the excerpts:
When did you first start building your online presence?
I think I started when I was working a 9 to 5 job at a fintech company called Bamboo. I used to make short videos., This was back in early 2020 and around then COVID-19 hit. Then in December 2020, I made my very first lip gloss video and it took off from there.Why lip gloss though?
I don’t think there was any special reason at the time, it was just available and then I used it in the video and then it went far and so it became my thing.Why do you think people took to your content the way they did?
I feel people resonated with my content because they can relate to it, it is real-life things that I turn into short videos. Most of my videos are inspired by things that people said or did or something I’ve seen at that point. I think people relate to it because they feel seen and they watch it and it has either happened to them or they’ve felt that way at some point.Speaking of the conservative nature of Nigeria, do you find that brands are willing or not to work with you as a male beauty influencer?
That was my fear when getting into this industry. I was really scared that brands wouldn’t want to work with me and that was also the fear of a lot of people around me as well that brands in Nigeria won’t want to work with me because I’m a man working in beauty in Nigeria. But now I think me going into as a male beauty influencer is one thing I kind of appreciate. I don’t want to say I brought a new face to it but now, I’ve worked with pretty much all the brands. Today, it’s actually more like what brands won’t work with me instead of the other way. From MTN to SAMSUNG, to even banks that I assumed would be too conservative to want to work with a male beauty influencer but I’ve worked with several now. I find it interesting and I’m very grateful for that.Do you have a personal favorite collaboration so far?
MAC. MAC was my biggest in terms of remuneration and all that. But it was such a big deal for me too personally because doing Mac Cosmetics in Nigeria was a big deal and to be a guy and to have Mac Cosmetics reach out was such a breathtaking moment for me.
Check out the rest of the interview here.
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