Karina Kasparyants began her career as an influencer in her teens, making YouTube videos of beauty tips, shopping hauls and glimpses into her everyday life as a student in Moscow in the mid-2010s. Soon, she started to post on Instagram too, gradually building up a following of more than 2 million people.
At the time, major foreign brands were spending heavily in the Russian market, and Kasparyants was able to build lucrative relationships with companies, including