Every day is Halloween for makeup artist Carly Paige

(CBS News) MONTREAL -- Carly Paige is a woman of many faces.

Each week, the 26-year-old from Montreal transforms her own face into the likeness of movie stars and celebrities and fictional characters.

"Anything is possible with makeup," said Paige.

Her interest began when she was very young. "My parents brought home face paints for Halloween one day," said she. "Every day became Halloween."

That passion stayed with Paige until well after college, where she earned a film degree.

"My parents said to me, 'After you graduate and you get a real degree, if you still have this passion for beauty and hair and makeup, we'll discuss it further.' And I did. I never let it go. It was still in me," she said. "It's beauty, special effects, anything -- it is art. A face is a canvas."

Paige hasn't had any kind of formal schooling in makeup artistry.

"It's been years and years growing up in a family or artists," she said. "My mother is a painter and an actress. My father is a musician and graphic designer and I've touched on all of these things."

Paige uses an array of brushes, colors and techniques to create her works. She dons wigs and even pops in colored contact lenses to get a certain look.

"I refuse to use Photoshop," she explained of the colored contacts. "I feel it's the best way to make it as realistic as possible and changing the eye color really makes a huge difference."

Paige began posting her work on Facebook, hoping to get some attention. She never imagined that just a year later, she'd have 10,000 loyal followers.

"Originally, I was posting the pictures to get criticism, because I wanted to make a career out of this. I wanted to do special effects for movies and I really wanted to know what the public thought. I didn't think it was going to go viral," she said.

Paige says she thinks people react to the images she creates because "it's different."

"It's not your typical beauty makeup," she said. "To see one face with just so many looks, it's just different and fun."

Paige recently quit her day job, doing traditional customer makeovers at a cosmetics store, to pursue her dream job full-time.

Since Halloween is Thursday, this week brings her a big opportunity to show off her talents.

"I'm going to do a zombie," she said, laughing. "I'm going to go outside and I'm going to scare kids. That's what I want to do. Maybe steal their candy, I don't know."

Elaine Quijano

Elaine Quijano is a CBS News anchor and correspondent based in New York City.