By JULIANA JUNE RASUL

AFTER years of being in front of the camera, Nurul Aini Abdul Rahim is now the one wielding it. As if she doesn't already have enough on her plate, the Suria host, actress and busy blogshop businesswoman has added two more occupations to her CV - make-up artist and photographer.

In true self-made businesswoman style, it's all being done out of her four-room Pasir Ris flat. The 26-year-old recently launched Studio Perfect, an extension of her blogshop business, Studio Frost.

Nurul, along with business partner and sister- in-law Diah Mastura, 28, were inspired to start the makeover business when they started getting requests to help with make-up for formal functions from family and friends.

They both enrolled in a course at local beauty school Cosmoprof Academy earlier this year. 'We both have this love for make-up and working with people, so we were thinking, 'Why not?' explained Nurul.

'Anyway, people always think I'm so mean. I'm not, okay,' she said, referring to roles she's played on TV, including her most recent one as an evil daughter-in-law in the Suria drama Gerimis Di Hati (Cries Of The Heart).

Getting closer to people

'This is a good way to get closer to people, for them to know who I really am.'

For the makeovers, Nurul and Diah work out of Nurul's studio, which is actually a room about half the size of a bedroom that used to be an open balcony. She converted it into a studio earlier this year, for hassle-free photoshoots of the clothes she sells on her Studio Frost website.

Nurul confessed she used to do photoshoots of her blogshop fashions at areas around her block of flats.

The model? Herself.

Her dressing room? The car.

The photographer: Her husband.

With Studio Perfect, Nurul Aini is both make-up artiste and photographer.

Some clients, she said, were surprised to know that she was so hands-on with the makeover sessions.

'One person was so shocked I was going to do her make-up, she asked, 'You're going to touch my face?' she recounted.

Make-up duties are shared between Nurul and Diah,who also helps to 'choreograph' the shoot.

Photography, explained Nurul, was something she picked up both from the dozens of photoshoots she's been involved in as a TV personality, and from her husband's interest in the hobby.

She shoots with a Nikon D300, but is looking to buy amore high-end model soon.

She has already invested an estimated $12,000 into her businesses, which include $5,000 on her make-upset.

When The New Paper visited her workspace, the pair were laughing uproariously for the better part of the 90-minute shoot to help students Nur Hafizah and Marlina, both 21, loosen up in front of the camera. The students had signed up for one of the packages.

Clients do get starstruck - Nurul says it sometimes takes a while to get them to relax in front of the camera.

'It's quite funny,' she said. 'They'll be so still and so quiet.'

The business has been running for just over a month, but they are already looking to expand. 'We offer only a few basic packages, but so many people have e-mailed us asking for more things, so we're thinking of how to cater to all of them,' said Nurul.

Although most of her clients have been pairs of girls taking up the Best Friends package, she's also had an elderly couple who wanted to take photos to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

The pair currently offer three packages - Best Friends, Individual and Baby Studio, all of which come with make-up and hairstyling, and a selected number of 4R and 8R prints. The packages cost from $88 to $158.

Fully booked

There have been many requests for family shoots as well, a package Nurul can only offer once she's moved her studio to a bigger room in her flat.

If you're thinking of squeezing in a session this year, sorry folks - Nurul says she's almost fully booked all the way to December.

She is surprised at the response.

'We never expected it to get so big,' she said. 'It's stressful, too, because now I have so many things in my schedule.'

In addition to her filming schedule for Suria, which takes up four to five evenings a week, she works on processing orders for her blogshop about three days a week.

There's the dealing with suppliers, as well as e-mailing all her customers and packing the clothes to be sent out by post.

Recently, she and Diah decided to try their hand at designing their own fashion, particularly for Baby Frost, their children's line.

The process can take up to a month - designs are sent to their suppliers in China, who then send back a mock-up, before the design is finalised and put into production.

Designing their own clothes, though, means having to order up to 2,000 pieces of each design. It was inevitable, then, that Nurul had to look for a warehouse for her clothes.

'I couldn't keep storing them in my bedroom,' she said with a laugh.

It is 'a lot of work', but she says she enjoys all her jobs too much to quit any of them. 'I'm a freak,' she said, laughing and tapping away at her keyboard.

This article was first published in The New Paper.