How Glamzilla built a beauty empire by staying true to her formula

Stephanie Valentine, also known online as Glamzilla, is passionate about beauty. She loves finding a formula that works and discovering exactly why it does so. She loves hunting down new products, giving her audience her first impression, and diving into the details. 

The makeup artist and influencer has over one million subscribers on YouTube and Instagram, but it’s on TikTok where her content truly shines. With 2.7 million followers on the app, it’s no wonder that she was nominated for the Okay Slay award for fashion and beauty at the 2025 TikTok Awards alongside Katie Fang (@katiefanggg), Meredith Duxbury (@meredithduxbury), Darcei Giles (@missdarcei), and Wisdom Kaye (@wisdm8). 

We caught up with the creator ahead of the award ceremony to talk about where she finds inspiration, her first time going viral, and what she loves most about the beauty community online. 

How do you find inspiration and ideas for your videos and for your work?

I find inspiration in different ways. Is it watching a video? Is it being inspired by a print? Is it just wanting to find the latest and greatest in beauty? Looking at different product innovations, being inspired by what the future holds for beauty, and what the potential opportunities are? How can formulas be better? What am I looking for in formulas? What does my audience want to see? What would old me want to see? What would new me want to see?

It’s ever-evolving. I’m inspired by many different things because, if you look at things from a beauty lens, and view everything as beautiful, that’s all you can find, right? Beauty.

When you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated, what drives you?

This is actually a struggle for me. I’m somebody who is really passionate about beauty. I’d like to test a new formula. I need to want to be excited about things. And that’s why a lot of my videos go viral. Because when I find a beauty formula that’s amazing and something I’ve never seen before, I post about it online. And sometimes that video just took 10 seconds to make, right? But I’m sitting here, and I’m trying hundreds of formulas. Testing all different types of liners, all different types of lipsticks [and] foundations. And when something makes me feel, “Wow,” it’s uncontrollable. However, if something doesn’t evoke any feelings in me, my life becomes boring. And the only thing that picks me up is truly eating really good food, reading a book, [and] hanging out with my family.

Do you remember your first viral post? What was it? How did it change your approach to content creation?

My first viral post was in 2016. I saw MAC on the runway, and freckles were in. So I took my [Anastasia Beverly Hills] brow pencil, and I freckled on Instagram, and that surged.

At that point, I had only about 3,000 followers. That surged me to 25,000 followers overnight. That was a big moment for me. That was my first real viral moment. And then after that, everyone was using freckles. 

My first TikTok viral video was a lip swatch video because I fell in love with this NYX Shine Loud Liquid Lipstick. It was bringing back an old trend where the lipstick was transfer-proof, had long wear, and then you added a clear glaze on top, making it transfer-proof. And I showed that on camera, and TikTok went crazy. The product sold out. It was sold out worldwide. And that was my actual first TikTok video. But I was doing one-minute reviews for years on other platforms. TikTok was the perfect platform for me.

How did that one video going viral change the way you approached content creation?

I pioneered the one-minute review, and I’m doing it on other platforms. My content hasn’t changed. If you check my oldest videos on other platforms, you will see that everything’s exactly the same. I haven’t changed the formula; just the lighting has improved, my hair has grown longer, and that’s it. I’ve never changed the format of my videos, because that’s what I love and that’s what I’m passionate about.

It’s always been the same.

What does TikTok do for you that these other platforms don’t?

It allows me the freedom to be myself and form my own community, and it allows people to find me and my content without me trying to push it. At the end of the day, my content is just me trying to connect with other beauty lovers from across the world. If you love lipstick as much as I do, that this being transfer-proof is “wow” to you, you get it. You’re my people. And that can be anyone from all over the world. And that’s the beautiful thing about beauty. I have become best friends online with people I don’t even know because we like lipstick. And that’s what TikTok does.

Your comments on TikTok are filled with fans who feel deeply connected to you. How does it feel to be on this side of parasocial relationships?

This is how I felt when I watched beauty influencers [before I became an influencer myself]. And I connected with them because we liked the same thing. And when I was living my regular life, my day-to-day, the only thing that would make me happy was literally lipstick and foundation. And if someone else online loved it as much as I did, that was amazing. And what’s so funny about it is that my best friends and the people who work with me all started as my followers. 

I answer every single DM. Every single comment that you see online is me. We really prioritize that. And it’s important because that’s how I started my career. Community is everything to me. And regardless of how big I become or how viral a video goes, the beauty community is everything because it’s what saved my life and helped me grow.