Turning Passion Into Business

Juggling work and school is no easy task for anyone. But when work becomes passion, it just doesn’t feel like work anymore.

As a girl who had no interest in makeup at all when she was young, it’s hard to imagine, Wiwi Adriana, 22 , owning her own online makeup store called Makeup Territory. Inspired by her mum who is a makeup artist, the Diploma in Customer Service and Relationship Management student, started growing fond of makeup right around the age of 18, when she experimented with makeup and watched many tutorials on YouTube.

She grew to love makeup, however, many brands that she wanted were not able to be found in Singapore. Thus, Makeup Territory was born.

“I decided to open something up, because I realized other girls also wanted the same brands as me, but were unable to find them anywhere in Singapore,” she said. “So I thought why not, let me bring these brands in from the US and sell it.”

Yet, Makeup Territory wasn’t smooth sailing right from the start. As she was still new to the makeup scene, she needed to grow and expand her fan base. With that, she found an ingenious way to get more exposure – by sponsoring others.

Seeking out popular Instagram makeup enthusiasts, Wiwi reached out to them through email and it instantly reaped in the rewards. Tapping on the fan base of those she sponsored and with the power of social media, Makeup Territory grew to a large following of 6000+ followers on Instagram.

Wiwi found it tough to juggle the business, school and also her part-time job. However, she had the full support of her parents, all of these while she was still juggling her studies.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Her parents helped her with mailing and delivering, and even her little sister would help her out at pop-up stores during expo sales or fairs. But Wiwi is happy with how it turned out. As busy as she is, she loves having her own business and envisions expanding towards the whole of South East Asia.

“At the start, it was tiring.  But after a while, it’s not bad actually, it becomes something that you love doing!” she says.

Some brands Makeup Territory offer (These brands are all only sold in the US):

Colourpop

Kylie by Kylie Jenner

Jeffree Stars

Morphe

Anastasia Beverly Hills

LA Girl

Morphe​

Makeup Territory has sponsored the likes of:

Jazmine Fareed

Zahira Johari

Aisyah Aziz