Lhouraii Li, a makeup and nail artist from Bradford, in the UK, has been getting a lot of attention on social media sites like Instagram due to her unique look; for the past two years, Lhouraii has been painting her face blue almost every day.

To be fair, the 28-year-old makeup artist has always sported an unconventional appearance. Back in 2013, she made news headlines around the world, with major tabloids like Daily Mail and The Mirror calling her a “real-life Barbie” due to her doll-like looks. She says that it was all just a misunderstanding, that her Japanese-inspired “Gyaru” style was mistaken for a doll imitation. Two years ago, however, Lhouraii Li decided that a bright blue skin complexion fitted her personality much better, so she started dying her face and hands blue almost every day.

Photo: Lhouraii Li/Facebook

You might be wondering why the English woman doesn’t just tattoo her skin blue and get it over with, but Lhouraii actually claims that she believes she is allergic to tattoos. I guess that means she doesn’t know for sure, but until she is ready to make the change to blue skin permanently, she relies on the cheapest good makeup she can find, which only costs her about $13 per month.

Apart from sporting an alien-like look, Lhouraii Li also fashioned her home – a colorful boat floating on a channel – to fit her fascination with extraterrestrials and fantasy characters. Apparently, she’s obsessed with characters like Diva from 1997 sci-fi movie The Fifth Element, and Zora from The Legend of Zelda video games, which have obviously influenced her appearance.

Lhourraii told Barcroft Media that she suffers from agoraphobia – a fear of public places –  so she painted her boat in intergalactic colors to make it easier to cope with her condition.

“I’ve got pictures of space in the windows because I’m in here 99.9 percent of the time, so if I’m feeling down I can pretend like I exist in a place that’s happy and just look like I’m in a spaceship or something,” Lhouraii said. “And I think that’s the same with being blue as well – it’s just a way for me to feel like myself.”

“I think my idea of beauty is people being themselves. If I see someone with blue skin I’ll think they look 10 times better just because I truly love blue skin,” she added. “But people being their true selves, living for themselves, and just dressing how they want to dress – I find that so beautiful.”