Meet The Beauty Creator Fostering A Feeling Of Community With Colorful Makeup

Welcome to Favorite Follow, a series highlighting NYLON's favorite creators and the stories behind some of their most memorable content.

Before rising to social media stardom, makeup artist and creator @adultsdrink was lost in the world of beauty YouTube. Speaking with NYLON, Jacinda Pender explained that their interest in makeup started as a middle school student, and after watching countless clips featuring Jackie Aina and Raven Elyse, they started to experiment.

Initially, Pender relied on a pencil eyeliner, but with practice came experience and new tools. “Once I entered high school is when I started taking it a bit more serious, and doing lots of glam looks,” Pender said. “It wasn’t until around senior year when I started to expand my love for makeup and play with avant-garde and editorial looks. From there, the rest is history.”

Reaching nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram, Pender credits social media with allowing their work to flourish. Additionally, their various platforms are now tools of self-expression for the artist. “Social media has allowed me to connect with this virtual community of friends, and with that, it has allowed me to become comfortable with sharing my experiences as a Black queer artist,” they said.

As for those following Pender, the makeup artist offered this advice for creating your own great looks. “I would say go for it — don't limit yourself, try to explore and play around with bold and crazy colors. Makeup is about what you want and how you want to interpret it. Expand your passion for makeup by experimenting. Have fun and figure out what works for you.”

Below, Pender walks us through some of the looks that have made a serious impact on social media.

On An Improvised Moment

This was a fun look. I remember blasting music and feeling all futuristic and sci-fi while creating it, which was the influence behind this and many of my other looks. I feel like this would be a look Princess Leia would wear in a fandom or something to match her hair buns, or maybe not. Nonetheless, I love. I used hair jewelry as little antennas on the nose bridge — it was a last minute and improvised moment for me.

On A Favorite Look

As an artist, it's always great to get inspired by your own work, which is why this is one of my favorite looks I've done. I did a similar look like this a few years back, hence why I used my old work as a reference. I've been experimenting with lines and shapes recently and really love how this look turned out.

On A Halloween Look

This was a Halloween look I did last year inspired by Kelis's Kaleidoscope album, and boy was this a challenge. I remember spending an hour just trying to clean and perfect the blue and red Kelis rocket ship on the side of my face. I never thought of myself as a "drawer," and kind of underestimated my potential here. We can be our own worst critic sometimes. But I'm glad I didn't give up with this look, because it turned out better than I thought. I always love a good challenge when it comes to playing with different art styles I'm not familiar with.

On A Moment Of Pride

This is probably one of my proudest looks, because around this time is when I came out to my parents. When I look at this pride look, I think of that special moment and how proud I am of myself. Not only that, but this look wasn't even planned, if I remember correctly. I remember opening up my new Mehron Paradise Palette and being so excited because I had never played with body paint and wet liners before. It was always eyeshadows or me using lipsticks as eyeshadows, so this look was a pretty huge deal and success for me.