Lifestyle

How Beauty Industry Icon Ani Goulayan Paved The Industry And Created Her New Makeup Line, Vanity Makeup Cosmetics

Published

5 years ago

February 11, 2021

Meet Ani Goulayan– AKA @vanitymakeup– the down-to-earth instagram influencer and self-made #bosslady that has helped paved the way of the immeasurably influential modern-day beauty industry. Her internet success has geared her to not only open a makeup academy of her own in Los Angeles, but it’s also given her the foundation to become the recent founder and creator of a cruelty-free and fully-inclusive cosmetics line named Vanity Makeup Cosmetics.

Goulayan’s very first makeup gigs as a late teen consisted of photoshoots she’d work on for free in exchange for prints to add to her portfolio. Shortly after, she landed her first salon job in which her makeup career began to take its course. At first intimidated by the intensity of the industry, she began to feel that perhaps makeup wasn’t going to be a part of her long-term career. But when she joined her second salon job and took advantage of an unseen opportunity, her life changed forever.

Instagram had just started gaining popularity, which gave the 20-year-old the brilliant idea to use the platform as a digital portfolio. Her posts consisted of makeup looks she’d create at home and 15-second videos of the looks she’d give her clients at the salon. It didn’t take long for her talents to take the social channel by storm and go viral. Posts of her dramatic eyeshadow creations constantly gained enough popularity to be featured on the “popular page”, now known as the application’s Explore page. Back in the day, the posts chosen by the algorithm remained on the app’s highlighted tab for 24 hours, susceptible to hundreds of thousands of viewers a day.

“Every time I landed on the popular page, I’d gain two to three thousand followers,” the makeup icon shared. “That inspired me to create consistently so I could post everyday. I’d say 9 out of 10 times, my work would land on the popular page, so I was constantly going viral… There was a point where I was growing forty to fifty thousand followers on my page a month. It was absolutely insane.”

Over the last 9 years, the hard-working beauty influencer has grown over 1.3 million followers on Instagram. Back in 2012, the beauty industry was nowhere near the digital monster it is today. And despite not having any guidance or precedent to follow, it was the perfect moment for the young artist to make a breakthrough on the social platform.

Although her journey to success has been anything but easy, Goulayan says she’s thankful for the hardships in her life that have gotten her to where she is today. “A lot of people would look at me when I was younger and think I would only be doing makeup because I wasn’t capable or smart enough to do anything else. They’d look down on me and ask if I was doing badly in school, or they’d simply just make me feel bad for choosing makeup as a full-time career as opposed to like, a business degree,” she says. “But once everyone started seeing how much money I was making, they couldn’t believe it. And once the beauty industry became a trend, those people started using my content as a resource.”

Followers began to learn how to recreate Goulayan’s looks by following step-by-step video tutorials she’d post on her page. But even with that, hundreds of local followers would continuously request the influencer to teach in-person makeup lessons. Initially, she hosted 20-40 student classes at the salon she worked at. But as her followers grew, so did her client base, and it wasn’t long before she found herself selling out a 120-student masterclass in downtown Los Angeles. Seeing a clear business opportunity at hand, the artist then proceeded to opening up her own studio and makeup academy in 2016 called Vanity Makeup School.

Aside from being one of the first beauty gurus to go viral, Goulayan was also one of the very first artists to showcase and explain the process of ‘contouring’ online. It only made sense that, once she launched her long awaited makeup brand, the first product she’d release would consist of a custom-formulated contour palette. After almost two years of production, Vanity Makeup Cosmetics launched in February 2020 with the Sculpt & Glow Contour Palette.

“When I had just started out, I used to say to myself, ‘imagine what it would be like if I could make my own makeup’. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I’d have the opportunity to do half of the things I’ve done in my life, let alone make that dream a reality,” the creator said. “I could say I’ve been really lucky, but that’s not really true. I know my hard work is what has made all this happen for me, and I’m grateful I have a tough personality and I never let anybody’s negativity get in my way.”

Vanity Makeup Cosmetics is set out to launch two more exclusive products by the end of 2021, which you can follow along at @vanitymakeupcosmetics on Instagram. The #bosslady also admits she has a secret project up her sleeve, which she plans on releasing by Summer 2021. When asked if she ever plans on taking a break, she said, “discomfort and struggle are what keep me alive… I’m never satisfied staying still, it’s not in me.” If she’s already conquered the beauty industry before the age of 30, we can’t wait to see what she does in the next 10 years.

Lifestyle

Why Toba Ogunremi Believes High-Performing Teams Start with Belonging, Not Pressure

Published

3 days ago

July 23, 2026

Michelle Langton

Most teams don’t fall apart all at once. It happens slowly, missed conversations, quiet disengagement, people doing what’s required but nothing more.

Toba Ogunremi has spent years working inside care environments where that kind of shift is easy to miss until it starts affecting everything. Leading operations at Samorem Care in the UK, he has seen how systems can appear stable on the surface while teams underneath struggle to stay connected to their work.

One experience early in his career changed how he looks at leadership entirely.

He had taken over a team that wasn’t in crisis, but it wasn’t working well either. The people receiving care were safe, but they weren’t thriving. The same was true for the staff. There was no urgency, no energy, just routine.

The usual solution would have been to tighten control by setting new targets, increasing supervision, and creating performance plans. He didn’t do any of that.

“I started with conversations,” he says. “Real ones. Not rushed, not formal.”

One by one, he spoke to each team member. What came out wasn’t frustration with the job itself, but something quieter and harder to spot.

“They weren’t disengaged because they didn’t care,” he explains. “They were disengaged because they felt unseen.”

No one had asked what they thought. No one had taken the time to understand how they were coping. Over time, that absence had turned into distance. That moment stayed with him. It shaped how he leads today.

His approach is simple, but not always easy to apply: people perform better when they feel they belong.

He believes high performance usually comes when people feel like they genuinely belong and know that what they do actually matters.

In healthcare, where pressure is constant and expectations are high, this idea can sound secondary. The focus is often on outcomes, compliance, and efficiency. Toba doesn’t dismiss those things, but he questions what happens when they become the only focus.

Even when all the processes are in place, if the people delivering the care feel disconnected, it eventually reflects in the quality of the work.

At Samorem Care, this thinking shows up in small but consistent ways. Recruitment is not just about experience. It’s about how someone responds to people, how they handle pressure, and how they communicate. Once they are in, the focus shifts to keeping teams stable and supported, rather than constantly rotating staff or reacting only when something goes wrong. He also pays attention to how leaders show up day to day.

According to him, leadership is not just about giving direction; it’s about being present enough to understand what your team actually needs.

That presence matters more in care than in most industries. The work is demanding, often emotional, and not always recognised for what it takes. When teams feel stretched or overlooked, it affects how they interact with the people they support.

For Toba, resilience is less about constant pressure and more about creating a work environment where people can do their jobs well without burning out. In his view, strong teams are not just coping; they are supported enough to stay clear-headed and consistent in their work.

His background outside healthcare still shapes how he leads. Having worked in sales and communications, he understands how important it is to read people and build trust. In healthcare, though, the impact is far more direct, as decisions affect someone’s everyday life, not just an outcome on paper.

That shift makes leadership more personal. Teams need more than instructions; they need stability, clarity, and a sense that they are understood. What defines Toba Ogunremi’s approach is its simplicity. He focuses on being consistent, listening carefully, and addressing issues early rather than reacting late.

In the end, his belief is straightforward: teams perform better not because they are pushed harder, but because they feel valued and part of something that works.