Before she became known as the internet’s unofficial “CEO of Blush,” Toni Bravo was simply following her curiosity. When she began posting videos in 2022, she was not chasing virality, brand deals, or a long-term business plan. She was experimenting with makeup, documenting what caught her attention, and figuring things out in real time. That approach has since turned into a creator business grounded in trust, restraint, and a clear sense of self, with Toni building influence across beauty, fashion, and product collaboration.

“I never started with the intention of this becoming a job,” Toni says. “It always started from a genuine place of curiosity and interest.”

That philosophy has shaped nearly every stage of her rise in the creator economy, from her early try-on videos to co-creating products with major beauty brands. The result is a career that looks less like influencer churn and more like brand-building, one rooted in long-term alignment rather than transactional partnerships.

From Internet Curiosity to Beauty Content

Toni’s relationship with the internet long predates TikTok. She describes herself as “a Vine, early YouTube kind of girl,” someone who grew up using video as a form of documentation rather than performance. For a period, she stepped away from posting altogether, returning only near the end of college.

A week after graduating in 2022, Toni joined Selena Gomez’s inclusive makeup brand Rare Beauty, working behind the scenes on social media and creative projects. That role became an unexpected catalyst.

“I had more makeup around than I knew what to do with,” she recalls. “And a lot of the products genuinely piqued my curiosity. I was like, if I’m curious about it, other people might be curious too.”

Her early TikTok videos were not polished tutorials. Instead, they captured her learning in real time. “I didn’t really know what people wanted to see,” Toni says. “I just knew that I wanted to create it.”

That lack of pretense resonated. Viewers saw someone who was not positioning herself as an expert, but as a participant. “We’re both not experts,” she says of her dynamic with her audience. “We’re figuring it out together.”

Learning the Internet From the Inside

Before Rare Beauty, Toni worked at BuzzFeed, an experience she credits with teaching her how identity functions online. “When you work for a brand, you are the brand,” she says. “That’s where I learned about branding personally, as an individual.”

Combined with her time inside a major beauty company and friendships with others working behind the scenes, Toni gained a holistic view of how creator ecosystems actually operate. Numbers, she says, were only part of it. The real surprise was the community.

“I was shocked at how big a community is truly fostered with short-form,” she says. “Up until then, I only recognized that with long-form.”

That insight would become foundational. Rather than treating TikTok as a funnel, Toni approached it as a living archive of growth, both hers and her audience’s.

A Creative Process Built Around Energy

Today, Toni’s content process resists rigid structure. While she balances deliverables and deadlines, her personal content remains guided by interest rather than obligation.

“I don’t really get to pick and choose when my best ideas come to me,” she says. “So I kind of just follow what I feel I’m excited about that day.”

What has changed is volume. Early on, Toni filmed daily. Now, she allows space between being on camera, editing, and handling the operational side of her business.

“I’ve found a balance between filming and the back end,” she says. “That’s been really helpful.”

Off-camera time is not incidental. Toni is deliberate about protecting hours away from screens, especially in the mornings or evenings. “Either I’m not beginning my day with a screen, or I’m not ending it with a screen,” she says. “That slowness is really important.”

Trust Was Never the Goal, but It Became the Outcome

Unlike many creators, Toni says she never felt she was “auditioning” for trust. “I think when you show up authentically, it’s already there,” she says. “It’s more about keeping it.”

Her content rarely centers on perfection. Instead, it highlights experimentation, uncertainty, and change. She believes that approach translates particularly well to short-form, where, according to her, discovery often precedes loyalty.

“With short-form, it’s less about trust and more about attention,” she says. “You’re constantly auditioning for the algorithm.”

Still, the consistency of her voice has garnered an audience that follows her beyond trends, one that brands increasingly recognize as valuable.

Why Brands Keep Coming Back

Toni has worked with numerous beauty and fashion brands, but rejects the notion that there is a single formula for securing partnerships. “Every brand is so different,” she emphasizes. “One brand’s priorities are not another brand’s priorities.”

What unites the successful collaborations, she says, is compatibility. Brands look for creators whose voice aligns with their own, whether that means prestige, accessibility, or something in between.

From her perspective, ease of collaboration comes down to genuine interest. “When you’re excited about the partnership, you pay attention,” she says. “You want to do it right the first time.”

That selectivity has been intentional. “You don’t say yes to everything,” Toni notes. “Your brand will still carry that story even after the partnership is done.”

Co-Creation as a Career Milestone

The most visible example of Toni’s creator-led approach is her co-creation work with clean beauty brand Tower 28, where she helped expand the company’s blush shade range. The collaboration was not a one-off endorsement, but a year-long creative process involving sampling, feedback, shade development, naming, and campaign execution.

“To be sent samples, send them back with notes, get sent samples back, and help the brand create something that actually makes sense,” she says. “That was so fun.”

The collaboration felt inevitable to her audience, many of whom had long associated Toni with blush experimentation. “People were like, ‘You need to come out with a blush,’” she says. “It was very kismet.”

For Toni, the experience underscored the power of tangible products. “There’s something really beautiful about creating something physical,” she says. “Something people can carry with them.”

Management, Scale, and Creative Focus

Toni onboarded management in late 2022, shortly before transitioning to full-time content creation. The impact was immediate.

“Having somebody handle the back end helped me be more creative,” she says. “When you delegate, you have more time to create.”

That shift enabled greater partnership volume and, more importantly, preserved her energy. Toni is candid about burnout in the creator economy and the importance of rest. “This is really the only two weeks all year where everybody’s off,” she says of the holiday season. “Great ideas come when you have slowness.”

Learning to Keep Some Things for Herself

One of the more recent lessons Toni has embraced is privacy. While renovating her home, she chose not to document the process in real time.

“It’s nice to have something that feels like it’s my own first – before it’s the internet,” she says. “Secrets are okay. Surprises are okay.”

That boundary extends to collaborations as well. Working on products for over a year before announcing them reinforced the value of delayed sharing. “People don’t forget things when you share them,” she says. “It’s nice to have things that are just yours for a while.”

Looking Forward to the Future

As 2026 approaches, Toni is intentionally slowing down. “Right now, what’s exciting to me is rest,” she says. Still, she hints at projects already in motion, ones her audience has begun to notice.

“If you’re tapped in enough, people pick up on things,” she says. “I see the comments.”

Her focus remains clear: create from curiosity, protect energy, and build partnerships that feel earned. “When you’re centered in creating for yourself and your audience,” Toni concludes, “that’s when the partnerships start feeling organic.”