51Âþ»­

It's all about that base for graduate Shivani Raja, who has landed her dream job making make-up.

The 22-year-old, one of the stars of 51Âþ»­ Leicester's (51Âþ»­) Dare to Do-themed TV advert, is working on well-known brands for a leading UK health and beauty retailer.

Shivani is based at Boots' head office in Nottingham - and she couldn't be happier in her role as an innovation technologist in the cosmetics department.

She said: "I make make-up! It's in line with what I wanted to do - my dream job. I feel really lucky.

"I work with brands such as No 7, Soap and Glory and Botanics.

"The 51Âþ»­ course gave me a firm foundation to start my career."

So far Shivani has mainly been developing foundations, looking at new textures, and working on skincare products.

"It's a fun job and the best part is getting to be creative," she said.

"Boots is a dynamic and inspiring company to work for and the people I work with are great and very experienced, which is invaluable."

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As well as utilising the skills and techniques required for the design, formulation and manufacture of quality cosmetic products she learned on her course, Shivani also tries to implement another important lesson from 51Âþ»­.

She said: "The 51Âþ»­ TV advert was really out of my comfort zone, but I did it. I carry the whole 'Dare to Do' tagline with me, and I do try to do something that scares me every day."

Shivani appeared in the science scene - one of seven different stories featuring 51Âþ»­ students - having been chosen because of her placement experience as part of a team developing a variety of medicines.

Filming the advert has given her a talking point, which came in handy when she had to do an introduction for her job.

Shivani also 'dared to be fearless' after graduating last summer, spending a month in South Africa volunteering at a game reserve working with the 'big five' - lions, elephants, buffalo, cheetah and rhino.

In her spare time she went shark cage diving- where she was only inches away from a great white shark, protected by a steel cage - tackled the world's highest bridge bungee jump and abseiled down Table Mountain. "It was really cool," she said.

Although settled for now, Shivani added: "I do hope to go travelling again and do other crazy things!"