Raina DeFontes has made a big name for herself in the fashion industry - and has no plans to stop.

The 17-year-old deputy head girl at the Berkeley Institute has launched two successful businesses – make-up service Touched By Sunshine and lash extension service Lashed By Sunshine – from her home.

She has also worked as a model and creative director who has directed shoots for several small businesses and freelance photographers.

But when work dried up because of the coronavirus pandemic and she could not take on any more clients, Raina switched to the investment business and has continued invest in the foreign exchange market.

She said: “I think the best way to describe me is that I am the ’on-the-go’ person – I don’t like to sit still and I don’t like to be boxed in. I like to feel like I’m doing something.”

Raina added: “I would say that I was the child to always have their hand in every pot, to the point where the question was ’what do you not do?’

“This is a harsh way to put it, but in my head if I’m absolutely not doing a single thing other than sleeping I’m wasting so much precious time.”

Raina said that she started Touched By Sunshine about three years ago after she started to do make-up for her friends and family.

She admitted that she did not plan to start a business, but realised it was a potential earner after friends offered her money for it.

Raina said: “I actually started with my friends – a lot of them got me to do their make-up for stuff and from there I branched out and thought ’I actually like doing this and it is profitable, so let’s make a business’ and it just took off from there.”

Raina added that she branched out into lash extensions and eyebrow touch-ups through Lashed By Sunshine in December last year.

She said that she became fascinated by how much of a difference longer eyelashes made to women’s appearances.

Raina said: “Lashes make a huge difference – you can definitely see an entire look transform by just putting lashes on your clients.”

She added: “It feels amazing to watch people fall in love with themselves.

“I still feel like it’s an amazing feeling to finish a client’s face and watch their reaction and how they fall in love with the results of your work.”

“It’s an untouchable feeling to do the service or put make-up on someone and they’re in the mirror going ’oh my gosh’.”

Raina admitted that business came to a halt when the Covid-19 pandemic hit last March and she could not accepted any clients, particularly for the sake of her mother, who has an autoimmune disorder.

She said that she instead began investing in binary trading online, as well as investing in the foreign exchange market and cryptocurrency.

Raina added that, although she reopened for business last September with strict Covid-19 precautions, she decided to continue in the financial markets as a sideline.

She said: “Being able to take a few minutes and make my money work for me was kind of the concept that intrigued me.”