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Her ‘Beauty Heroes’: Andrea Brillantes shares who inspired her to build her makeup brand

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Liezel dela Cruz

At just 21, Andrea Brillantes already has a decade of acting experience, but she&#x27;s not just another bright star in her generation. She’s taking it up a notch outside the spotlight as an entrepreneur as well, proving she&#x27;s totally the Gen Z queen and a major inspiration for young adults everywhere. Andrea demonstrates that #goals can be manifested as long as you put your heart and mind into it.In her recent chat with Bianca Gonzalez on &quot;The B Side,&quot; Andrea shared amazing insights about how a young adult can &#x27;slay&#x27; in life. The convo begins with Bianca showing off Andrea&#x27;s book, titled &quot;Goals,&quot; which she wrote when she was just 13. Flipping through the first page, readers can spot a vision board featuring makeup pics from Andrea’s younger self. And it&#x27;s wild to think about how she&#x27;s manifested her dreams, now that she&#x27;s thriving as the CEO of her own makeup line!Looking back, Andrea shared that makeup has always been a huge part of her life. When she and her sister Kayla were little, makeup was one of their go-to bonding activities. Her love for it started as early as when she was three, inspired by watching Ashley Tisdale&#x27;s &#x27;kikay&#x27; character in &quot;High School Musical.&quot; Although she never imagined having her own makeup brand back then, things changed when her favorite celebrity, Kylie Jenner, put up a beauty business, and that&#x27;s when she started dreaming of following in her footsteps. Andrea became more determined when local celebrities like Anne Curtis and Vice Ganda followed suit.As she turned 18, she knew it was time to take the plunge. Andrea realized the world wouldn&#x27;t wait for her to be ready—she&#x27;s got to make a move. Without any experience in running a business but armed with her knowledge of makeup trends and her passion for makeup as art and self-expression, she started looking for investors and partners to put up &quot;Lucky Beauty.&quot;Andrea is grateful to the people she approached, who were more than generous in helping and guiding her through the business side of things, especially since creativity was already in her.A Gen Z and a CEO—two titles that don’t seem to mix, right? How can someone so young manage such a big company, being the youngest in her team but holding the highest position? Andrea admits it was tough at first. She had to make the final call on every decision, but at the same time, she wanted to stay naturally respectful to those older than her.&quot;Business can be fun too,&quot; she said, proud of how Gen Z entrepreneurs and ‘bosses’ like her are shaking up work culture. It doesn’t always have to be strict. Sometimes, she even acts like the team’s &#x27;baby&#x27; and is playful with her business partners—and, surprisingly, it works.But don’t get her wrong. She made it clear that running a business is no joke. There was even a time she cried over a product mistake, but she learned from it, realizing that every misstep is a tool for growth and improvement.Andrea&#x27;s goal is to help young girls feel confident, with her products as their secret weapon, as she knows how it feels to struggle with insecurities. She used to feel &#x27;ugly&#x27; with her thick eyebrows and even got bullied because of it, but, fast forward to today, her eyebrow product is actually their best-seller. She even jokes that if she could tell her younger self anything, it would be that her insecurity would soon become her greatest asset.As the interview went on, Andrea talked about her products from &quot;Lucky Beauty&quot; and even taught Bianca some of the coolest Gen Z trends, like the ‘sunset’ makeup style where the blush and lipstick shades blend to mimic the colors of the sunset. She also shared makeup hacks, like making the cheek colors last longer by layering liquid and cream blushes. Andrea even demonstrated these trends on Bianca, who, fun fact, was the first person she ever did makeup on.When asked which beauty product she can’t leave the house without, Andrea said it would definitely be lip tint because it doubles as lip moisturizer. To make things more fun, Bianca asked her which three icons she’d invite to a &quot;Lucky Beauty&quot; event. Without hesitation, she picked Kylie Jenner, Marilyn Monroe, and Blackpink’s makeup artist, Maeng.Apart from her makeup line, Andrea also launched her own perfume business even though she was born with congenital anosmia, or living without the sense of smell. She realized this condition when she couldn’t smell anything, no matter how much perfume she and her sister sprayed, and even when her dad jokingly farted right in front of her. It became even more obvious when she was shooting in a port area for Kapamilya series “<a href="https://ent.abs-cbn.com/articles-photos/76101917-throwback-annaliza-2013-13790" target="_blank">Annaliza</a>,” and she couldn’t smell the strong fishy odor around them.Some might think this condition is easy to deal with, but Andrea shared that it can actually be dangerous. There was one time she left cookies in the microwave and, because she hadn’t smelled a thing, she didn’t realize they were burning until she saw smoke.For Andrea, another downside of this condition is that she can&#x27;t build memories through scent. You know how certain smells remind us of people or special moments? She misses out on that. So, if a fairy granted her a chance to smell one thing, it would be the scent of her late grandpa.Well, even though she can&#x27;t perceive scents, Andrea can smell lies. She refers to her strong intuition as her superpower, which is even more important in navigating life.The life of Andrea is a big juggling act—balancing being a lead actress, a businesswoman, and still making time to be a good daughter and sister, and a good friend to her BFFs Bea Borres and Danica Ontengco. It’s not just about hard work and time management, but also having the right strategy and support from the people around her. Even though sometimes her only break from all the chaos is taking a deep breath and listening to a single song, she manages it all—probably because she also asks God for strength.One thing you can see in Andrea is that a secret to success is having a routine. No matter how hectic her day gets, she always makes time for herself before bed and after waking up, even if it’s just for a few minutes.&quot;I think kaya ko kinakaya kasi mas matimbang ang motivation at goals ko in life kaysa sa pagod ko, kaysa sa lahat ng nangyayari. Kahit grabe &#x27;yung waves sa akin sa buhay, pamba-bash, pagod, at work, grounded ako kasi pinanghahawakan ko yung mga pangarap ko in life,&quot; reflected Andrea, adding that being the breadwinner keeps her more motivated as well.&quot;Hindi ko dream na maging number one; ang gusto ko lang, ma-live out ko &#x27;yung potential ko.&quot; We often hear young people say, &quot;YOLO!&quot; meaning to take risks for the sake of fun. But, for Andrea, her kind of &#x27;yolo&#x27; is making sure she&#x27;s going to chase all her goals as long as there&#x27;s an opportunity. After all, yes, she knows she will only live once.