Former teenage pop singer Napassorn "Momay" Buranasiri has known fame all her life. After all, she was born into a showbiz family - her mother, Suda Chuenbaan, was a celebrated singer, while her half-sister, Patcharida Wattana, is also a successful songstress.
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Momay also entered the world of fame by becoming a singer - it would be a waste not to, given her melodious voice.
Starting off as a teenage singer when she was 16, she was known and remembered for her unique dance moves in her first major hit Kradook Kradik (Wriggling).
Since then, her career gradually spiralled off in other directions. As she puts on her Twitter account, she is a singer, DJ, emcee, voice talent, dance instructor, and most recently, beauty guru.
"The Momay Pa Plearn make-up show started because we were doing internet TV about four years ago. It was a small show that we wanted to do. We wanted to say something. We wanted to have a voice. Most of the things we talked about were crazy, so we didn't want to put it on free TV," said Momay about the start of her successful make-up programme, which is aired on the SpokeDark TV website.
The spirited, exuberant and bubbly lady started her internet TV programme teaching English in a fun and unconventional way, using interesting and practical subjects that would be both fun and useful in real life.
It was during the filming of these shows that a new idea was sparked - a make-up show.
"Every time I came to the set, I did my own make-up. So the producer asked me why I did my own, although they had a budget for someone to come and do my make-up. I just said that it's fun and I like it," said Momay.
Her first make-up session on air started about three years ago. Back then, there was already a trend of non-professional girls doing make-up tutorials and posting them on YouTube or personal blogs, especially in the US and the UK.
"I figured, why not do it in Thai? We can help girls who might not understand English that well to be able to learn about beauty and make-up in a fun way," Momay said.
Momay is just the right person to show ordinary girls how to do make-up. Unlike the poster girls in cosmetic ads, her skin is nowhere close to perfection, largely the aftermath of an early showbiz career that required the teenager to start using make-up regularly. Her skin had gone through quite a lot, and she was too tired to remove her make-up properly.
"I was 16 and still in school, I was really tired. I would just go home and crash without wiping my make-up off properly. The skin problem was one of my concerns. After I found out what make-up can do, I wanted to tell girls out there who're insecure about themselves. I want them to feel connected to what I do. If you have problems, it's not the end of the world. You can fix it. How? Let me show you. I think that's the strength of the show, that I bare my face," said Momay, who has over 60,000 followers on Twitter, close to 120,000 on her Facebook fanpage and nearly 95,000 followers on Instagram.
It's not just her face that she bares. Through her show, Momay reveals her soul in all its honesty. She is frank about how she feels, and she will never talk about things she doesn't know about. Even now that she is approached by countless make-up and skincare brands, she refuses to praise products that don't work for her.
"We started out as a non-sponsored kind of show. The show got so successful because I started out having no sponsorship whatsoever. I could say whatever I wanted to say about the cosmetics that I bought. I put my own money into it," she revealed.
"Just to keep that pace going, I have to be really straightforward with a brand. If you want to advertise with me, you just have to send your products in. I will test it and tell you if I like it or don't like it, frankly.
"I describe why. We talk privately first. If I really like it and I think it will be good to put on the show, then we figure out what to do with it. If I don't like the product, I don't put it on the show, I don't talk about it."
Of course, people also want to know what products she has written off, but Momay thinks it would be unfair to do so. She always insists that everyone should try out every product before making a decision, as people have different types of skin and preferences.
"Something that doesn't work for me might work for other people. I don't want to cut the opportunity of the product."
Like several online beauty gurus, Momay's knowledge of make-up tips and tricks are mostly self-learned, although she credits her career as a singer as a great opportunity in being surrounded by make-up artists who were kind enough to share their knowledge.
She also watches a lot of make-up tutorials and reads any magazine she can get hold of, even if she doesn't understand the language.
"Most of the things I know about make-up I have read. I've been reading a lot of magazines, Thai, English or even Japanese. I don't understand Japanese but if I think it looks nice I would buy it and imitate it anyway without reading the words," said Momay, who has created hundreds of looks over the past three years.
Momay sees make-up as something that accentuates who she is, without covering up herself. The no-make-up Momay is, undeniably, as bright and bubbly as the full-make-up Momay. "Make-up shouldn't change you. It's not there to change who you are. It's not there to cover everything up and make something new. It's just something that makes you feel better about yourself.
"You have to feel good about yourself. If you have the perfect make-up on but feel insecure about yourself, it's going to show. Personality is everything."
For Momay, feeling confident is the best make-up for any woman, and no woman should ever aim to look like girls on commercials, or let the commercials make them feel inadequate and insecure.
"I have a degree in advertising so I pretty much know what they can and cannot say to make a commercial, how they go about it to make it sound nice,' she explained.
"The talents that they use are so pretty, probably some superstar. These superstars see dermatologists. They might have had cosmetic surgery. They do a lot of things to look that pretty. It's not just that particular product - you have to see the whole picture."
Two pieces of make-up advice she would like to emphasise are to choose the right shade of foundation and compact, and not to overdo the eyeliner.
She's noticed that about 80% of Thai women use the wrong foundation shade and end up having a darker neck. Her advice - don't trust the lights in the shopping mall.
"A lot of girls said they tried it in the mall and it looked nice. When they went home, it was a totally different thing. I would say that lights in the mall are not your friend.
"They are used to make you look really pretty so you buy things. My suggestion is to carry a compact make-up with a mirror, go to the sunlight and you will see what's going on," she said, adding that putting a whiter shade on your face won't make you look whiter, just grayish.
The second most common mistake, she said, would be using the thickest eyeliner pencil that you possibly could, wanting to make your eyes look bigger.
It actually does the opposite, not to mention looking funny. The thicker the eyeliner, the smaller your eyes appear.
Throughout the interview, Momay highlighted the importance of personality and confidence, as insecurity is something even the heaviest make-up cannot cover.
"Girls always ask me what make-up they should wear to job interviews. I just ask, do you know what you're doing?
"Why are you good for this job? If you know your craft, then the make-up tips help. If you're not sure, then you're not going to get the job. It's the personality and the knowledge that set you apart."
