Life & Work with Nabila Pranto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nabila Pranto.

Hi Nabila, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My relationship with beauty has always been the best way to express my identity. My first piece of makeup was my mom’s red Estée Lauder lipstick when I was four years old. I would literally throw the lipstick all over my face (also completely missing my lips) but think, “I LOOK SO CUTE”! When I got to middle school in 2010, the YouTube Beauty era erupted. This was when I recorded my first ever YouTube video on a rainbow eyeshadow look. Since then, I’ve been diving into my creative and artistic side creating makeup looks for fun and eventually, in high school began to take makeup clients!

I remember taking clients in my parent’s home in my little room! I didn’t have too many products and I charged $20 and most of my clients were my friends, but I didn’t realize that this was just the start. In college, I had more opportunities to connect with this side of me. I joined GLAM at the University of Georgia as a Communications Director, working with makeup brands and other campus organizations in an effort to gather sponsorships as well as create monthly newsletters of the best makeup products, looks, and GLAM events! Here, I was able to connect with others who shared the same love as me for all things beauty. As time went on, it was hard balancing my passion along with what I assumed I wanted as a career.

Finally, during the pandemic as we all had some downtime staying at home, I had the actual time to focus on my social media and building my first studio ever in my parent’s garage. We got most of the supplies from Home Depot and with my familiy support I created a makeup studio where I could bring clients in, thus began Bila’s Beauty Beats! I started off with just Makeup Artistry as a service and slowly built up to 1-1 Makeup Masterclasses, Bridal events and SFX makeup! This year, I’ve put a lot of work into building my social media platforms since that is where the majority of my marketing is recognized. I am proud to be a Brand Ambassador of makeup brands I’ve idolized since beginning my makeup journey like Charlotte Tilbury and LYS Beauty as well as gain recognition from Anastasia Beverley Hills and ELF Cosmetics and huge beauty influencers.

The main reason why I’ve never given this up is because 1) this literally brings me peace, when everything is going downhill, I can pick up a brush and get as creative as I want to and 2) because I want to be a positive influence and role model for the South Asian community. We can break cultural barriers and norms and dismantle previous stereotypes of beauty surrounding the South Asian community. In the near future, I have plans of starting my own makeup line and traveling the world in hopes of being able to enhance and influence the beauty standard for South Asians and many others around the world!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it hasn’t. I’ve always been told this is a “hobby” and to focus on this as a “side job” and to make sure I finish school to become successful, which I ended up realizing later on is simply not true that you should put your time into something you love because you will actually work for it! Most times school, part-time jobs, full-time jobs, and just life would get in the way resulting in me being inconsistent but I’ve learned to manage time and to prioritize this aspect of my life because this is what I truly love to do.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a self-taught professional makeup artist. I can teach others (I have 1-1 makeup masterclasses). I also specialize in bridal and special effects makeup.

Right now, I am super proud to be working with Charlotte Tilbury, LYS Beauty and Estetica Cosmetics as a brand ambassador.

My confidence, positive attitude, and willingness to never give up are what sets me apart from others. My main saying is, that you can do anything you put your mind to, you just have to do the work for it. Set small goals so you can reach your big one!

Any big plans?

• I’m planning to start my makeup line! I recently launched my first collection which are the Desi Sweets Lashes on my website bilasbeautybeats.com/bilasbeautyboutique. They are vegan, cruelty-free, and sensitive-eyes friendly! There will be so many more launches until the end of the year, so I’m very excited to see what will happen with the next couple of months.
• In the future… maybe I’ll partner with Sephora… maybe I’ll be bigger than Sephora! In the meantime I’m focused on elevating the next big beauty brand by me: Perspective Beauty.

Contact Info:

• Website: bilasbeautybeats.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foreignbila/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/foreignbila
• Youtube: `https://www.youtube.com/c/BilasBeautyBeats/
• Other: TikTok.com/@foreignbila

Image Credits
Nabila Pranto — Makeup Artist / Founder of Bila’s Beauty Beats