Makeup is usually used for slightly adjusting the everyday look but some actually realize its true potential. Mimi Choi from Vancouver, Canada is one of them. She is a 31-year-old makeup artist who creates intense hyperreal optical illusions, and her amazing work has earned Mimi 274,000 followers on Instagram.

Before discovering makeup art, Mimi trained as a teacher and worked in a pre-school for three years. "I felt like my creativity was suppressed. I enjoyed teaching but I wasn't completely happy," she said. "I needed a new challenge." After leaving the classroom, she started experimenting with her makeup brushes at home.

"I've always been arty and had done bridal makeup before, which people really liked. I'd not done anything as crazy as the work I do now, though." Enrolling at a local beauty college really helped Mimi to take her skills to new heights. But things really took off when Halloween was just around the corner. "I wanted to do something different for October 31, so I had a look on Instagram and found a photo of a woman, who looked like her face had cracked."

"I'd never tried any kind of crazy make-up on myself, but I just got out my black and white eyeliner and gave it a go." And the rest is history.

Choi creates her mind-blowing work through masterfully understanding perspective, creating three dimensionality on a flat surface. She manipulates makeup like an artist uses his paint and places shadows onto her body to make her skin either pop out or recede back into the body.

More info: Instagram (h/t: mmm)