Creative Phill on battling depression over gay claims
By Rajab ZawadiCelebrity make-up artist Philip Mureithi, popularly known as Creative Phill, says he is not gay.
Since coming into the limelight, Creative Phill has been associated with the LGBTQIA+ community thanks to his work.
Aside from working on clients, Creative Phill has always been bold and confident in wearing makeup, which has led many social media users to assume he is gay.
Creative Phill, who has since established himself as one of the top MUAs in the country and gained a huge social media following in the process, is known for his artistry and creative makeup content, most of which feature him as the subject.
“It’s not true. I am not gay. But I have no problem wearing makeup in public. I feel very comfortable, brave, and confident with it. Whatever you want to make of it is up to you. I will not stop you from judging me. If you think I’m something I’m not, whether you’re right or wrong, that’s not for me to say. But whatever you think (of me) is right, you could be wrong. However, I must say I now enjoy the confusion and I always flow with it. ” Creative Phill affirms.
Mr. Mureithi says he fell in love with makeup while attending a video shoot of rapper King Kaka, where he saw the artist getting makeup before going on set.
“I didn’t know that men did makeup, that intrigued me but what also caught my attention was the Sh7,000 the MUA was paid for the service. That seemed like a lot at the time and I thought I could do that too and earn that much,” he says.
But the Mombasa-born and -raised MUA would start doing makeup on himself after he opened his makeup studio.
He got the idea from watching a lot of makeup artists on YouTube, some of whom were men.
“After getting some training from Makeup by Rose, I decided to open a makeup studio. (Actress) Dorea Chege sold me the idea and we partnered to open my first make-up studio which was located at Kimathi House,” Creative Phill narrates.
Creative Phill says the idea was to market his services as he had just opened the studio when he started. He never expected to end up on a trend.
“I never heard of trends until I did my first video with makeup on. I woke up the next day and my social media pages were buzzing with everyone hurling insults at me and calling me gay. I didn’t see that coming. I didn’t understand why people were being mean. For some reason, I was trending in Tanzania. That got to me, I fell into depression and quit the makeup business four months ago as I tried to come to terms. It’s during that period that I did a tattoo on my hand of a lady screaming in pain because of the online bullying I went through over something I love and something I am not.” he adds.
After four months of battling depression, Creative Phill says he decided to go back to doing what he loves, and he hasn’t stopped since.
“Even while I was depressed, I was still much in love with make-up, I decided I would do it anyway without much care of what the public thought of me. I became more confident and brave after my parents saw me on TV with makeup on and they decided to support me regardless of what they heard from other family members and people.”