In August 2020, senior Bassima Chouman started @betterskinbybassima, an Instagram account centered around educating others about various skin care products by communicating complicated ingredient information in easy-to-understand graphics.
Chouman became interested in skin care in March 2020, right at the start of quarantine, when she discovered @skincarebyhyram, a popular skin care influencer, Chouman said in a Zoom interview. His explanations of formula ingredients and routines were easy to understand and made learning about skin care much more enjoyable, she added.
“It can get boring learning about all of these different things such as formulations and the differences between products, but he was able to do it in a very interesting way,” Chouman said. “His videos made me want to learn more. Since I always talk about skin care with everybody, I thought that I should make an account for this.”
Beyond @skincarebyhyram, Chouman started to learn more about skin care by following dermatologists on TikTok and watching other influencers like James Welsh on Youtube. In addition to watching content, she researched facial products and looked at reviews for products she wasn’t familiar with or wanted to learn more about, Chouman said.
“I also have a LinkedIn, and I became a part of this society for chemists where a bunch of people can post informative links, so I spend time reading and watching whatever they post,” Chouman added. “If I see products that are interesting, I learn more about them by learning about the ingredients on the company website, how they function, their formulation, and their benefits.”
Chouman reviews products she recently finished using on Instagram, or she uses her TikTok account to do first impressions on new products she’s heard about or found through social media, she stated. At times, she will hold polls on her Instagram story to hear from her followers on what products they would like to see reviewed next.
“I started posting things I was interested in, what got me into skin care, and I would post about information on my account in a way that I know other people would be attracted to it,” Chouman said. “With the more product reviews and explanation posts I did, some bigger brands started to see my account and my account started to grow.”
When other brands started to notice Chouman’s account, they reached out to her, asking her to review some of the products because they like the way she appealed to the audience, Chouman said. Another thing that helped Chouman grow her account was when one of her TikToks went viral, which allowed many people to learn more about her account. Chouman’s account currently has 454 followers with big brands such as Paula’s Choice commenting on her most recent post, according to her Instagram account.
“One of my favorite things about running this account is when brands reach out to me to interview their products because it is super exciting,” Chouman added. “I also love when people DM me asking me about products I recommend or giving them recommendations for their skin concerns. I love that because they’re asking me for help and it’s very satisfying.”
Skin care helped Chouman gain confidence, and she loves seeing other people gain confidence through their skin, she added. Knowing her account can help other people and that others are actually enjoying her content as well as asking for her advice, are some of the best things about running the account according to her. Although Chouman loves managing the account, there have been some obstacles she said.
“The challenges with running the account are definitely with graphics because they take me a long time, and I have often had to restart multiple times because I don’t like how it ends up looking,” Chouman said. “Trying to figure out what people would like and engage with rather than just having it be something that people scroll by on Instagram is a goal I have every single time I post.”
In addition to trying to figure out what people like to see, Chouman finds it difficult to maintain a schedule and post regularly. In the future, she hopes to post more consistently and branch out with her content, she added.
“I want to be able to do more product reviews of Korean beauty and undiscovered products because right now I have a lot of Western skin care products for my reviews,” Chouman added. “I also want to do work with dermatologists like interviewing them because I’m not a dermatologist, but having those interviews out there as content could be really informational for others.”
In the next six months, Chouman hopes her account will reach 700 followers and plans to continue working on the account into college. Running this Instagram account allows her to take some time away from schoolwork and put her energy into something she really likes doing, she added.
“To keep exploring my passion for skin care, in college, I really want to join a Society of Cosmetic Chemists chapter,” Chouman said. “I applied as [a] chemistry or chemical engineering [major] so hopefully, in the future, I’m going to be able to take a path into cosmetic chemistry or dermatology.”
After working on this passion project for the past six months, Chouman recommends other students who are interested in starting their own passion projects not to focus on numbers and to do it because they genuinely want to. It’s important to stick to doing what you love, putting out content you are really proud of, and staying away from doing something just because you think it’s going to go trending, Chouman said.
