Gunay Hasanova: Artistic Makeup as Portraiture

Most makeup tutorials promise better skin or bigger eyes. Gunay Hasanova uses her face to become other people entirely. Her videos document something closer to portraiture than beauty advice—hours of brushwork that turn her features into David Bowie's angular cheekbones or Frida Kahlo's penetrating stare. The process requires technical precision borrowed from fine art rather than cosmetics, and it has attracted 215,000 TikTok followers who watch these temporary sculptures take shape and then disappear.

One of Hasanova’s most widely viewed transformations was her recreation of Titanic's Rose (played by Kate Winslet), which reached millions of people worldwide, demonstrating her ability to translate cinematic characters into hyperrealistic makeup artistry.

Her recent appearance on a leading Azerbaijani television channel garnered additional recognition for her work, providing audiences with an in-depth look at her artistic approach and the techniques behind her transformations. The feature has since been shared on the network's YouTube channel, extending her reach to viewers beyond Azerbaijan.

When Artistic Training Meets Facial Anatomy

Her celebrity recreations require an understanding of bone structure and light behavior at a level that most beauty creators never develop. Each transformation involves mapping facial planes, calculating where to build dimension with pigment, and determining which of her own features to minimize so the recreated ones read correctly. The technique draws more from portrait painting than from conventional makeup application.

"This technique allows me to translate my painting and artistic skills directly into makeup, creating highly detailed, visually striking looks that go beyond typical beauty tutorials," she says. The distinction becomes clear when comparing her work to standard beauty content. Where typical tutorials focus on wearable looks or trending styles, her videos serve as documentation of technical skills—the kind that require formal training to execute.

Her art education provided that foundation. Years spent studying painting, color theory, and visual composition directly translated into an understanding of how pigments interact with the skin, how shadows create facial dimension, and how minute details alter perception. She applies makeup the way a painter would approach a portrait, treating foundation as base layers and using concealer for highlights and shadows with painterly precision.

Technical Demands Over Algorithmic Trends

Each transformation video represents hours of work that produce only one piece of content. Once completed, documented, and removed, the process starts over. That ratio—significant effort for single outputs—runs counter to content creation strategies prioritizing volume and posting frequency. Her commitment to the process signals priorities aligned with artistic practice rather than engagement optimization.

"I approach makeup like a form of art, combining technique and creativity to recreate characters and faces in a way that goes beyond typical tutorials," she notes. Some of her videos went viral in Turkey, and websites featured her transformations where she recreated trending Turkish celebrities, further increasing her visibility and recognition internationally.

Her Instagram following of 150,000 represents audiences interested in makeup as a craft rather than cosmetic enhancement. Viewers study how she achieves hyperrealistic results using commercially available products and manual skill. The videos attract attention not for their entertainment value but for their demonstration of technical mastery—the visible application of formal artistic training to a medium typically associated with self-taught practitioners.

Her transformations also include seasonal and creative themes. Notably, her Halloween movie character makeup videos — including those of Maleficent, Harley Quinn, and Bellatrix Lestrange — have garnered significant attention for their creativity, precision, and attention to detail.

The transformations continue their cycle. Her face becomes someone else, gets documented, returns to itself. Each recreation exists briefly as proof of technical skill that requires no filters or digital manipulation. Just steady hands, trained eyes, and years of experience in how visual elements combine to create recognizable forms. The process repeats because the work demands it—not for the sake of content volume, but because each attempt further refines the technique.