Today we’d like to introduce you to Melis Cifcili-Paredes.
Hi Melis, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I came to the United States from Turkey when I was 5, not speaking a word of English. My whole family an ocean apart. From a very early age, I felt like I didn’t fully belong anywhere. I was the Turkish girl, here in the states and “the American girl” when I would visit home. Even something as simple as my name, Melis (not Melissa) always needed explaining. It was a small thing, but it was constant. That feeling of being slightly outside of “where do I belong?” was a constant in my life.
Growing up with immigrant parents means you’re figuring out a lot on your own: ESOL, SATs, FAFSA… while also trying to break free from strict rules that felt limiting. So my first job, was chasing belonging, everywhere.
I went to school eight hours away, joined a sorority, networked, took every unglamorous job, climbed the corporate ladder. I tried on careers like outfits, always hoping, maybe THIS is it, maybe THIS is where I’m meant to be.
I started to find that beauty was always the common thread. I began doing makeup for my sorority sisters out of my dorm room. Pivoting into climbing the corporate ladder in beauty marketing, winning Effies, making brands go viral. There was always a spark there, I just didn’t know it yet.
What I finally figured out is that the belonging I’d been searching for everywhere else was never going to come from the outside. The moment I took all that drive and invested it into myself is where the magic happened. This career didn’t fall into my lap. It took years of trying things on, but I got here, and it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every path I’ve taken has felt like friction and some sort of risk. I look back now with equal parts humor and disbelief at how audacious I was. I would dare myself to do something just to prove I could. There’s a word in Turkish, inadına, doing something out of pure stubbornness, just to spite the doubt. That is who I am, to my core.
Early in my career, I tried on what it would be like to be a creator sharing my work life online, bringing people into what I did every day. Maybe that would stick? It ended in a zoom call with my CEO, & order to take down everything I’d created. It stung, but it was a wake-up call: my job could be taken from me. It could be muted, silenced, erased overnight. I realized I needed to find the parts of me that couldn’t be.
So I started building, quietly & quickly. A year and a half of building my brand alongside a full-time job until it became unsustainable. I finally had the courage to quit my six-figure salary and took a contract role for financial cushion to have time back to keep building. When that contract ended two months early, and suddenly I was standing at a crossroads with a very simple question in front of me: do I let someone else be in control of my story again, or do I finally bet on myself?
I chose myself. And that’s when things really started.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a beauty influencer based in Miami, specializing in complexion (olive skin, undertones, color correction for dark circles). People think of influencers as salesmen/woman. I am never just selling a product. I’m selling a feeling. The feeling of looking in the mirror and finally seeing your best self. Because when women feel beautiful, they show up stronger for themselves, for the people around them. It’s something that gets me emotional to think about. Makeup and beauty got me through some of my most confusing, and challenging times. I love that I get to give back to people by making them feel beautiful inside and out.
I have a fun couple of series that reoccur on my channel:
1. olive undertone foundation review finding the best brands that cater to light olive skin tones.
2. makeup masterclass series where I teach people how to level up their routine.
What sets me apart is that it feels crowdsourced. I ask my audience what shade to try, what they need help with. I create a lot of content based on the comments my internet besties leave under my videos.
If you asked me what I was most proud of 6 or 7 years ago, it would probably be the viral videos, the digital awards, or the quarterly metrics deck I spent two weeks prepping for. They only existed within the walls of the companies that celebrated them. The moment I walked out, they stayed there.
What stays with me is two things: the ongoing, hardest project of my life: allowing myself to just be me. And the people I have impacted along the way. I am always surprised by how many women share a version of my story, or how a five-minute complexion video changed how they see themselves. Getting to hear those testimonies in person, meeting these women that’s the part that makes me proud
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I actually don’t think of myself as a risk taker. Risk takers are logical and calculate the odds of winning or losing. What I was doing was daring. Growing up feeling like the odds were not always in my favor made me tenacious.
If someone said I can’t? I will, and I’ll do it better. And looking back, there are too many moments that were terrifying. Cannot believe I left a six figure salary, betting on myself with no guarantee it would work. I just dared to try. Maybe it was the feeling that I never felt like I had that much to lose to begin with. or “İnadına”: out of pure stubbornness, just to prove to myself that it was possible.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meliscifcili
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meliscifcili
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@melisdoesmakeup/shorts
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@melisdoesmakeup?lang=en
