I spent the first 20 years of my life avoiding makeup like the plague.

 

I grew up in a very small town in regional NSW and was one of the only Asian looking people around. My first experiences of makeup were from a few dance performances I participated in. Some of the keen dance mums would be applying makeup and for me it was always a disaster. Not only is dance makeup quite obnoxious at the best of times, but with my Asian features it was a recipe for a bad time. I regularly looked like a clown due to the over the top nature of dance makeup. I have one strong memory of when all the dancers had silver eyeshadow on. It looked somewhat subtle on most of them, but on me it contrasted so much with my skin colour I looked like I had disco balls on my eyelids. I decided to never wear makeup again! I thought people looked better without it anyway!

 

Later in life, I got engaged and I realized I’d probably want to wear makeup on my wedding day. The issue was I didn’t trust anyone to get anywhere near my face due to my childhood scarring! I headed onto YouTube and researched and researched and researched until I thought I was ready to head to the shops and give it ago for myself. 

 

The next issue was shopping for makeup, because as a person of colour it is challenging to say the least. As recommended by many a Beauty YouTuber, I thought I’d start with a BB cream. The darkest shade at Priceline was ‘medium.’ I tried it several times. Always terrible, way too light. I tried several other brands and their darkest shades were always way too light for me. I tried concealers and foundations instead and still the same issue. Some brands would have one foundation just dark enough but the tone would be all wrong (more of a fake tan orange). There was one affordable brand that had a shade that would work for me. It was Revlon, and I was colour matched at Myer (yes I had to brave the scary cosmetic staff at Myer, that tend to look at you like you can’t afford to walk the aisles in there).

 

The struggles of having a skin tone neglected by cosmetics companies continued through every makeup category I tried to shop for. As someone with what I’d consider a “medium” skin tone I was shocked at the lack of shade availability. What about for those darker than me?! They had no hope. 

 

Despite my many dollars wasted on makeup products that didn’t suit me, I fell in love with makeup. I loved the creativity, the challenge of new skills and being able to transform a face. I provided the makeup services for a couple of friends’ weddings and thought I’d give makeup artistry a crack. I signed up for the best makeup artist academy around, got qualified and started my business. I studied Professional Makeup Artistry at  ICON School of Makeup in 2017.

 

My goal is to make clients feel and look like themselves, but also camera ready! I like to enhance people’s natural features and make them look event appropriate. 

 

The point of this whole story is to let you know that I’m probably a lot like you. I spent most of my life avoiding makeup as much as I could! I use to work as an Electrical Engineer for crying aloud, about as far from a makeup artist as you could get! I was intimidated by makeup artists and wasn’t keen on looking and feeling like a clown. I’ve got your back, we can decide on a look for you together. Something that is you with a little something extra. I would be honoured to be invited to be apart of a special day of yours.