A Michigan-based make-up artist has amassed quite a following on social media, and it was done in the blink of a wrist — yes, wrist.
Gabrielle Alexis Reed, a 22-year-old artist from Michigan, posts photos and videos of her incredible eye make-up creations on YouTube and Instagram, where she has over 218,000 followers.
But Gabrielle doesn’t demonstrate how to do amazing eye make-up on her own face, or even someone else’s. Rather, she paints the looks — complete with lashes, brows, and lids — entirely on her forearm.
Stunning: A 22-year-old makeup artist from Michigan creates the most realistic eye make-up tutorials on her forearms
Talent: Gabrielle Alexis Reed has been posting realistic make-up looks on her arms since October 2016
Realistic: The artist mostly paints up-close, detailed eyes onto her arm
Artist: Gabrielle proved that her talents can be applied elsewhere, as she creates the looks on her actual face as well
The creations are so detailed and realistic that many fans are fooled into thinking they’re looking at real eyes, since Gabrielle makes sure to paint on details like eyebrows as well.
All of the eye looks that Gabrielle creates on her forearm are made with actual eye make-up products, not paint.
To create the realistic life-like eyes, Alexis told Insider that she spends about two to four hours on each look.
For the eyebrows, she uses Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade and Morphe brushes to precisely apply the make-up. In order to get the perfectly feathery hair strokes of the brows, Gabrielle uses a secret technique to help her easily apply the makeup.
She then adds a drop of coconut oil to the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade using a very thin brush to achieve ‘hair-like strokes.’
After making the brows, she traces out the eye, then follows the exact same steps that she would take to get an actual smokey eye or cut crease look on her own face.
She also likes black eyeliner from theBalm Cosmetics for a perfectly winged cat-eye.
Products: All of the eye looks that Gabrielle creates on her forearm are made with actual eye make-up products
Tools: For the brows, she uses Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade, and Morphe brushes to precisely apply the make-up
Trick: She adds a drop of coconut oil to the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade using a very thin brush to achieve ‘hair-like strokes’
Precision: Each of Gabrielle’s eye make-up looks takes two to four hours to complete
Real life: Using her forearm as a canvas has actually helped the artist perfect her own make-up that she applies to her face, she admitted
As for why Gabrielle got into creating eye make-up looks on her arm, she told Insider that it started when she was just 13 years old, when she would doodle on a piece of paper.
She admitted that she saw an image of an eye make-up look on someone’s hand on Pinterest, which sparked her inspiration to do what she does now.
Using her forearm as a canvas has actually helped the artist perfect her own make-up. She said: ‘It has improved my technique tremendously and my blending!
‘It’s easier to see what works and what doesn’t when I’m looking down at my work instead of looking in a mirror. So when it comes down to doing my own eye makeup it’s a breeze!’ she admitted.
Gabrielle’s ‘foreART,’ a term coined by Cosmopolitan for Gabrielle’s forearm art, is so intricate and life-like that it has charmed hundreds of thousands of fans.