Have you ever wondered what a beauty influencer with several brand collaborations under her belt has to say about influencer marketing?
Well, lucky for you we caught up with Simmy Goraya, an extremely talented beauty influencer. With more than 160K subscribers on Youtube and 64k followers on Instagram she definitely knows what works for brands and for their collaborations.
Without further ado let’s get into it!
1, What’s your name & relevant social media accounts?
My name is Simmy Goraya and I am a YouTuber and a beauty content creator on Instagram.
2. What was your inspiration to be a beauty influencer?
I always loved makeup! Even as a kid I followed Jeffree Star and Michelle Phan’s career quite closely. However, while watching them I never thought I would start my own channel because I didn’t quite understand the business part of it back then. I started when I quit my corporate job and I knew makeup was the only thing I could fall back on. I was also super confident about my skills as a make-up artist. So I started off as a makeup artist and then slowly started uploading on YouTube too.
3. Have you achieved your goal of where you wanted to be when you first started out?
It has been almost three years now since I first started. Today, I am the face of L’Oreal India’s Youtube channel. I take pride in that because the initial two years were tough. No one even knew I existed back then, it was just a cycle of creating content that no one would see again and again. However, I wouldn’t say I have achieved my goals yet we still have a long long way to go.
4. What would you consider your most successful brand collaborations? Why do you think they worked out so well?
I have had the chance to collaborate with some of the really big brands in the industry and I have always received positive feedback on my work. As I said L’Oreal is one such brand, other being the Estée Lauder group, I even enjoyed my work with Maybelline and definitely Lakme.
5. What are your favourite apps you that you use for Editing or shooting?
For video editing, Final Cut Pro is my go-to. For pictures, Snapseed makes it very easy for me to edit the way I want. Even Facetune is one such application that I use.
6. What’s your favourite pieces of content you’ve created? Why? [include links to the content
There are soo many pieces of my content that I thoroughly enjoyed creating and are very close to my heart. I started creating fashion and makeup lifestyle videos with a theme. So those have to be my favourite because it took a lot of sourcing, direction and editing, however, I think the end results were just fabulous.
7. Which trends and formats on social media are you excited by?
Obviously, makeup trends excite me but also fashion trends like styling one piece of clothing in multiple ways is always fun to watch.
8. Which influencers do you look up to? Who do you think is doing groundbreaking work?
I love Dolly Singh and Kusha Kapila for breaking the norms and being themselves, it’s honestly a refreshing change in this place.
9. What’s your biggest challenge as a beauty influencer?
Creating content that my audience find exciting every single day.
10. Which brands do you think have done well with influencers?
Brands like Mama Earth, Mac cosmetics, YBP cosmetics, Sugar cosmetics are some indie brands that have grown over the years with influencer marketing and have created their base truly well.
11. Tell us the truth – how much time do you spend on social media? 🙂
I last checked my screen time and it said 11 hours, out of which 7 was on social media. I haven’t had the guts to check again. Ignorance truly is bliss. 🙂
12. What advice would you give to brands who are just starting out with influencers?
I feel having multiple campaigns over the year makes more impact than just one. So spread out the campaigns! Also I only work on barter with indie brands if the products are exciting, if it’s the same repetitive stuff I don’t see the point in promoting, if you’re starting out, kindly do the research and try to stand out with the product/service and most importantly focus on your packaging and branding too.
13. What’s your dream?
To someday start my own brand. [Editorial note: We can’t wait for this!]
14 Give us a thought to end with… can be random, inspirational, whatever you want!
Social media can be overwhelming, cause everything is glorified to extreme levels (love, health, beauty, fashion) and that can cause anxiety and stress. So don’t compare it with yourself and your life. It is just for demo purposes. 😉
With that, it’s a wrap!
Thank you, Simmy, for answering our questions and helping us see influencer marketing from an insider perspective. We truly feel like we understand the beauty space a little bit better because of you!
If you enjoyed this you definitely will enjoy our interview with fashion Influencer Shalini Chopra and Sonal Devraj from Team Naach!
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