Comedy with a Touch of Beauty: TikTok Star Neil Shibata

Canadian TikTok star Neil Shibata has been on the rise in the recent year thanks to the social media platform. Featuring intricate makeup looks, impressive style transitions, collaborations with other influencers, and funky ways to style his hair, Shibata’s content is beyond entertaining.

Like many others, Shibata stumbled onto TikTok out of boredom. What started out with him and his friends making funny videos quickly turned into a full-time job after one of his videos went viral. Currently, he has more than 2 million followers.

Not only is Shibata known for making viewers laugh, but he gives us creative and jaw-dropping transitions. Whether it’s from bare face to full glam or pajamas to streetwear, Shibata is not afraid to express his style regardless of societal norms. He breaks those boundaries and goes the extra step, and he enjoys playing around with different styles and ways to express his gender.

OFM had the opportunity to chat more with Shibata about his TikTok content and expressing himself.

Hi, Neil! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me. How are you doing during these days of COVID?
I have been pretty good—at least I am doing the best I can. Because I still have a stable job with social media, the pandemic has not had any kind of major impact on my lifestyle or income, and I don’t have any family members who are super high risks, so I am not super cautious or worried about my family’s wellbeing.  It has impacted me a bit. Like, I have my moments where I am down, but overall, I am doing pretty well.

You are a social media star who earned popularity though TikTok. Can you tell us what kind of content you like to create?
I think it fluctuates a lot. When I first started, it was mostly comedy content. Hardly any beauty or makeup, it was solely comedy. Once I started progressing, I started to get a lot of friends in the beauty industry. So, I started to drift more towards that way and started doing makeup and fashion. I still do comedy, I think that is my niche and what I like to do the most, but occasionally, I will focus on beauty. It is a mix of both.

How would you say your videos are unique and different from other content creators who do the same kind of videos?
I think when it comes to the beauty side, I do a bit more of a generic type of video. I do sometimes blend in more with other beauty creators who are doing the same thing, except for the fact that I am obviously a man doing makeup and stuff. I think that is quite often seen and normalized on TikTok, but in general, it is not seen as much. It is less common than a girl doing makeup.

I focus on a lot of the quality of my videos. I sometimes take six to eight hours doing a video to make sure all of the qualities and transitions are perfect. So, I think that is what separates me a lot of the time, and I also take trends that I see on TikTok and then make my own spin on it. Whether it is making fun of the trend or doing it a little bit better with editing, I try to not do stuff that other people are doing. I don’t like seeing that, and I don’t think a lot of other people like seeing that.

You gained a mass following in a very short amount of time. Were you surprised by that?
Yes. When it first happened, I made a hair curling video. I curled my hair with straws, and that gave me around 400,000 followers overnight. I went from 70,000 followers to 450 or 470,000. That was pretty crazy. I remember going to bed and waking up the next morning, looking at my TikTok and seeing that I gained another 200,000 followers. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is going on?’ Now, I think I have normalized it quite a bit. It just seems like my daily, average life, but when we take a step back and think about it, it is pretty weird.

What do you hope followers take away from your content?
I want them to be able to step out of their comfort zone. That is what I learned mostly from being on TikTok with makeup, fashion, and just the way I dress myself and gaining confidence. Even making a video before TikTok, I was so nervous. If I posted a video, I was always thinking, ‘What are my friends going to think? What is my family going to think?’ All that kind of stuff, but now that I am posting on TikTok, I am fully doing what I want to post and what I want to represent myself as. I hope when people see my videos, they feel the same way. I feel like I created a path for them to be able to represent themselves the way they want to be represented.

How important would you say short form content has become over the past year?
It is definitely quick gratification. I think a lot of people love it. I don’t really have an opinion on whether it’s good or bad, but I think longer forms of videos are slowly leaving. I think even with TV shows and movies, it is hard to pay attention for three hours, even two hours. Shorter TV shows are doing better opposed to really long ones. I think younger people cannot focus for that long, so I think TikTok is great to have those 15-second videos, and I think Vine paved the way for that. I definitely think that it is going to keep moving in that direction. It is not going to die out.

Were you interested at all in fashion, beauty, and makeup before TikTok?
Makeup, no, but fashion was always something for me. I don’t think I really had a great fashion sense before. I look at photos and I am like, what am I wearing? Now, I definitely like to wear things people still would not normally wear. I never want to look like everyone else.

What are some of your favorite fashion pieces?
I like to wear things that are clean cut. I have really been into Browns lately, I know everyone is because it is trending, but I like monochrome and stuff like that. It is super cool right now, and I like to wear a lot of jewelry and accessories. I used to wear only silver, but now I am into gold. So, whatever fits my gold jewelry, I like to make a collection of all that. I don’t really care a lot of the time what the clothing is opposed to the accessory.

You have had the opportunity to collaborate with some high-profile brands. Is there one you would love to work with?
There are a lot of higher end brands that I absolutely love and would love to collaborate with. This is so hard to answer [laughs]. Essentials is a brand that I really like. They are very basic and clean cut, so I would love to work with them. I don’t know, there are so many. Givenchy, Prada, those are brands I would love to work with. When it comes to jewelry, Tiffany is one of my favorite jewelry brands, so that would be an all-time favorite collaboration.

With your looks, you like to break gender etiquette and redefine masculinity. Why is it so important for younger audiences to see this?
I think it just normalizes it. Obviously, clothing does not have a gender, and I think it’s weird that people think it does. Yes, some are suited more for men and some are suited more for women, but that is just a social construct. I think back in high school and elementary school, there was the pink day where people would wear pink, and that was to support something like guys wearing feminine clothes, but that is the least of wearing feminine clothes. There is a whole lot more work that needs to be done in the makeup and clothing industry.

The more I do it, the more other creators do it, and the more representation there is in the media, I think it is just normalizing it. That will help push it forward. Even during these times of COVID, I think men wearing crop tops and makeup has increased so much just because so much media has come from TikTok and social media. People are just sitting at home scrolling, so they are seeing men wearing eyeliner because it is trending. In the past few months, it has definitely progressed a lot, and I think we can keep progressing it by just normalizing it through social media.

What are some of the challenges of being a social media star and influencer?
I think most of the challenges are internal. Like, my life is good. I get paid to do easy work, things I like to do. I am not complaining at all, and there are people who have it so much harder than I do. Keeping myself motivated is a challenge. I am basically my own boss, so I have to make my own schedule and constantly be creative.

Sometimes, I will go two weeks without being able to think of a single video, and then I am stressing out those whole two weeks. I think it is a lot of internal stuff inside my head telling me, ‘You’re not good enough.’ I will look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh, you should look this way.’ Like, my whole job is basically looking good and seeing other people look good and try to beat them, be better than them, get more followers than them. I know that is not how it has to be, but in my head, those are the kind of thoughts that keep spinning and spinning.

What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform?
I don’t exactly know quite yet. I do like creating content, but I also like working with other people opposed to just having me in my room with my lights and tripod making a video and editing. I love doing photoshoots, working with photographers, and doing collaborative projects. I sometimes feel it kind of gets boring, and I am a very extroverted person. I love working with other people, and if I am by myself for too long, I feel a little crazy and just lose all focus. In the future, I definitely want to work with more people in some capacity. Whether it is acting, modeling, or just creating content, but definitely with other people.

In addition to TikTok, stay up-to-date with Shibata on Instagram and YouTube.

Photos Courtesy of Neil Shibata and Henry Talents