Kelly Thompson is the ultimate multi-tasker. The former Wellington makeup artist and photographer is based in Melbourne and is best known for her beautiful fashion illustrations and personal style.

Kelly Thompson is the ultimate multi-tasker. The former Wellington makeup artist and fashion photographer is best known for her beautiful fashion illustrations and personal style which she blogs on her website, Kelly Thompson Creative.

Winning a coveted ad campaign for beauty brand Escada five years ago saw her career sky rocket with international exposure following. But this humble Kiwi girl still maintains strong ties with New Zealand and the fashion industry - she's a regular at New Zealand Fashion Week.

She has a large online following, but despite having 21.9k followers on her instagram account she says that catering to a social media hungry audience can be frustrating.

"Now people who aren't necessarily particularly talented might have $100,000 instagram followers be them real or be them fake, but they can often win out on a job purely because of their following and not necessarily based on the skill of their work."

Kelly talks to Sonia Sly about getting the perfect shot, building a business from the ground up, plans for the future and the highs and lows of growing a brand in an increasingly fickle digital world.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details