She’s pretty tricky!
Self-crowned “Catfish Queen,” known to her over 121,700 TikTok fan-tribe as Gemluva Beauty, is reaching royal heights of viral infamy owing to her jaw-dropping drab-to-fab beauty transformation videos.
“I love catfishing,” Gemluva, real name Patricia Lichtenberger, 47, told The Post. “I can transform myself from a Mexican-Hispanic to a white woman if I want to,” the online makeup artist added with a chuckle.
For the Kansas-based mom of four, “catfishing” — the act of luring a person or group of people into a falsified state of familiarity by creating a fake online look or persona — means she strategically structures her TikToks, some of which have amassed over 2.4 million views, to begin with unflattering images of herself without makeup or tamed tresses.
Then — after giving herself an off-camera, three-hour makeover using cosmetics she buys at Walmart for $50 to $100 monthly — Gemluva ends her posts with eye-popping footage of her glamorized mug framed by a smoking-hot hairdo.
“I love shocking people,” she laughed, noting that her favorite skin-smoothing trick is to slather her face in the One/Size Butter Silk Concealer by Patrick Starrr, which retails online for $25.
“It’s the best when I post my videos and people see me without makeup, then they see me with it and think I’m a completely different person,” she continued of the rejuvenated and youthful look her face paint provides. “They think I’m my daughter.”
Gemluva credits her daughter, Pamela, 22, with empowering her to continue broadcasting her beauty overhauls despite the vicious attacks she regularly receives from digital trolls.
“People say really nasty things about my face and my teeth,” said Gemluva, referencing hateful comments like “you’re so ugly” and “What’s wrong with your face? Did you have a stroke?” penned by bullies.
“Last year, during the pandemic, l got really depressed from the constant backlash and criticism,” she added. “Plus, I’d been diagnosed with fibroids. I was losing a lot of blood and taking all these medications, and I ultimately became anemic, which caused hyperpigmentation blotches to form all over my face.”
But even in the face of a medical and emotional crisis, Pamela refused to let Gemluva ditch her dream of building a beauty positivity platform for herself and other women.
“My daughter always encourages. She says, ‘Mom, you’re such a beautiful person and I’m so proud to have you as a mother,’” Gemluva gushed. “That’s what keeps me going.”
And to her haters, the cosmetics sorceress says, “No one is going to stop me from being my beautiful and loving self. If you don’t like it, don’t watch my videos.”
