November 26, 2022 - Reading time: 10 minutes

Putting on cosmetics has always been one of my favorite hobbies. When I was a small child, I used to love to watch my mother put on her lipstick and foundation because I thought it was so interesting. I was curious as to what she did to achieve such flawless-looking skin. I would ask her if I could try some of her makeup, and she would let me apply a small dab of powder or blush on my cheeks. When I became a gymnast I started applying my own makeup and from then on, I was hooked. When I stopped training I still kept up my skills with makeup, and for a short time considered becoming a MUA.

Now that I am an adult, I have come to the conclusion that a job as a makeup artist is the ideal path for me to take. It combines two of my greatest interests: making other individuals look attractive and assisting others in gaining self-assurance. When I do someone's makeup, one of the things that I find most satisfying is witnessing the metamorphosis that takes place, not only on the surface but also on the inside. When my clients leave my chair, they feel like the very best version of themselves, and that is something that cannot be put a price on.

Why then do you want to become a makeup artist? For me, the answer is clear: doing so brings me joy. And if I could choose anything else to do with my life, it would be to focus on making the happiness of others a priority. To a regard that is what specializing in the field does, by making somebody look their best you are helping them feel their best, bring happiness in that manner is also very rewarding.

But it is much more than just skill.

Like with every art based profession you need to have both talent and networking skills. For many the notion that talent alone is not enough to make it in the competitive field of makeup artistry can be deterring; yet, it is important to understand that you need a lot more than that to be successful. Self-promotion is absolutely necessary if you want to establish a name for yourself in the fashion and beauty industry, just as it is in any other field of work.

There are a number of important things that you can do to advertise your abilities as a makeup artist and get your name out there in the world. To begin, you should think about establishing an online portfolio in the form of a website or a blog. Be sure to include images of your clients' before-and-after transformations, as well as any testimonials they may have to share with you. You can also reach a bigger audience by using social media sites like Instagram and Facebook which means I would need to dust off my old accounts.

You shouldn't just limit yourself to marketing your work on the internet; you should also think about showing off your talents in person. Attend local fashion shows or beauty events and offer your services as a makeup artist to the models or guests at these events. This is an excellent opportunity to meet prospective customers and to display your expertise.

That said, one must not discount the significance of word-of-mouth advertising. Ensure that your customers are pleased with the work that you have provided for them, and urge them to recommend you to their friends. As a makeup artist, your path to success will be paved for you if you focus on delivering high-caliber services and cultivating a solid reputation.

First Impressions Are Beauty's Business

There is no doubting the importance of a first impression, and in the beauty industry, your business card is typically the first sight of your work that potential clients see. Because of this, it is important to make a good first impression. Your business card is an essential piece of promotional material that can assist you in attracting new customers and promoting yourself as a professional makeup artist.

I have seen some very talented artists use some really terrible cards. They didn't set the tone for their skills right or they choose something that wasn't very flattering. For this aspect I was mindful that I chose the ones that both represented me and looked professional. The set that I settled on offered a mix of all of these aspects while looking a little bit cute and playful, not too much to distract from any one point but enough to feel right.

Using business cards effectively can be difficult, but here are some helpful hints:

1. Maintain an air of seriousness.

It is important that the professionalism of your brand is reflected on your business card. Select a high-quality paper material and finish, and steer clear of employing designs that are childish or gimmicky.

2. Make use of compelling imagery.

Use striking pictures on your business card so that it jumps out at potential customers when they see a stack of cards. If you are a makeup artist, you might want to use a close-up shot of one of the looks you've created with cosmetics. You may also make your card stand out by using a striking color scheme or unusual typography.

3. Be sure to include any pertinent information.

Make sure that your contact information is readily available and that it contains all of the pertinent particulars, such as your name, title, telephone number, email address, website URL, and social media handles.

4. Placement should be given careful consideration.

Take some time to plan out where you will place your business cards before you start handing them out. For instance, you may leave them at areas where the people who are most likely to become your customers would see them, such as hair salons, spas, or shops. Alternately, you may distribute them at beauty-industry-related gatherings such as events and meetups.

5. Keep in touch!

After you have handed someone your business card, it is important that you remember to follow up with them. Remember how important I said networking is once you have your foot in the door? There should never be an opportunity left untapped or a contact that is allowed to go cold. Send a short text message or email to the individual to thank them for their time and add a link to your website or portfolio so that they can learn more about your work. You may even choose to thank them for their time in person.

Regardless of how important it seems now there is no guarantee that in the future you may not be able to help one another in some way.

Important Skills to Learn

There are plenty of different aspect of beauty that a MUA can focus on, yet, there are some areas that you cannot ignore no matter whatever else you choose to include in your portfolio of skills. The list was given to me by an instructor when I first showed interest and I worked on each area, not until I was happy, but when the critique on how to improve them stopped.

Mix Colors for Optimum Results

As a makeup artist, one of the most important skills you can have is the ability to mix and match colors. Whether you’re working with eyeshadows, lipsticks, or foundation, being able to create custom colors that complement your client’s features is essential. With so many different products on the market, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which shades to use. But with a little practice, mixing and matching colors will become second nature.

Apply Makeup That Flatters the Individual

Another important skill for makeup artists is knowing how to apply makeup in a way that is flattering for the individual. Everyone’s face is different, so it’s important to tailor your makeup application to each person. Some people may prefer a natural look while others want something more dramatic. It’s your job to figure out what works best for each person and make them look their absolute best.

The Skill to Make Skin Look Even and Smooth

One of the most common concerns people have when it comes to their appearance is their skin. Whether they’re dealing with acne, wrinkles, or dark spots, everyone wants to have smooth, even skin. As a makeup artist, part of your job is to help people achieve that goal. There are a variety of techniques you can use to make skin look smoother and more even, so don’t be afraid to experiment until you find what works best.

Make Eyes Look Open and Vibrant

Another common concern people have is making their eyes look bright and awake. This can be especially difficult if someone has tired-looking eyes or dark circles. But luckily, there are a few tricks you can use as a makeup artist to help brighten up someone’s appearance. From using white eyeliner to applying shimmery eyeshadow, there are plenty of ways to make eyes look brighter and more awake.

Creating Different Looks for Different Occasions

As a makeup artist, it’s also important to be able to create different looks for different occasions. Whether someone is looking for a casual daytime look or a glamorous evening look, you should be able to provide them with what they need. People often book makeup artists for special occasions like weddings or parties, so it’s important that you know how to create a variety of looks that will wow your clients.

September 5, 2021 - Reading time: 3 minutes

Today is the anniversary of my grandmother's passing. One thing about my life is certain, which is death, whatever I do, all of this will one day be over.

You always read in the papers and online that there are countries where people die in unimaginable numbers and I am thankful that I was able to be born and grow up in a country like ours. Where my grandmother got to be close to 90 years old and for the majority of those years lived a happy healthy life. This hasn't been the case for everyone that I have been close to in my short life. In this regard, the Pope once said in one of his talks that the untimely death of a person who is dear to us is an invitation, not to stop living, but to tend to life as soon as possible and work towards the fullness of life. The cliché of dedicating oneself to living as if it were the last day of our life. What this does not mean is to become a pessimists or drowned in depression, but quite the opposite. Instead it is a call to remain enthusiastic, finish our work well, seek to support those who need you, have ethics at work, because in that way, there will be nothing to fear if the time comes.

Continuing what the Pope said, I recall that he posed the observation that the world considers those who live long lives fortunate, but God, more than age, looks at the righteousness of the person's heart. Even before this life is over, those who welcome God can already live during their earthly existence, a foretaste of eternal life because it is the happiness to which we aspire in depth the heart of every person.

I was talking to a friend a while ago about the subject and she was telling me, yes, you may be right, but we're still young, when I'm 60 I'll be dedicated to changing my lifestyle. I told her, the day the tower of Pisa falls, which side do you think is going to fall toward? Obviously the side that's been leaning toward all of the time. Well, the same thing can be said about us, the day we pass, we will fall toward the side that we have chosen to live.

My dad, an extraordinary man used to say: "you don't die, the scenery just changes." In short, what he wanted to visualize is that life is not lost, it is only changed, and it is a change for good, because God always calls us at our the best time.

Don't be afraid of death. It will come in time, in the place and in the way that suits you best. In our lives everything has been so carefully arranged and planned except death, and death is the one certainty we have in this life.

August 18, 2021 - Reading time: 4 minutes

There are no impossible things, only inefficient people. That is, the sentiment that, given reason there are no possible tasks, rather people who make the possible harder than it needs to be. I heard the expression yesterday in a meeting and the phrase stayed with me, it got me thinking all night because it has a great application for life as a whole. There are many cases in which we have to fight every day to improve who we are, this begins from the moment when we get up, we start a fight against the inner slacker, those extra minutes that we tried to sleep through the snooze and then, forced to hurry, we try to do everything fast and often unavoidably wrong. The fight continues once we get to work, and we see that there are a lot of tasks to do, which we find impossible to finish, and when we start using the defeatist thinking that we will "do our best" without committing to doing anything completely.

Have you noticed how many ways we can make life more complicated for both ourselves and for those who live with us?

Perhaps our wife to whom has become accustomed to our bad character, our little ability to surprise her with some flowers, or a box of chocolates when we return from work, out lack of desire to help with the things around the home, or perhaps in our work, with our co-workers, to whom we send the hardest work, we treat them badly. Or perhaps it is the treatment to our parents, of whom we choose to forget everything they have done for us, and we hurt them with our unthinking treatment, we answer them harshly, we hurt them with our bad attitude.

Are we aware of our bad attitude? Is it impossible to change?

I don't think so.

In this life everything is possible, another issue is that it does not depend exclusively on us, but if we do not internalize it and we really believe it, we will not achieve anything, we will continue with the same way of being, of acting, of treating others, of working, thinking that it is impossible instead of committing to improving ourselves every day, and not to be the reflection of the inefficiency of the people who are in our environment, simply because everything easy is fashionable, everything that does not involve effort or commitment to success.

I know that it is easy to say: "yes, I'm going to try to change some things," but nothing is that simple, it takes more than good intentions.

You may be wondering how to start -- to begin changing from this moment forward? It's not easy, but we already have the first part outlined, the commitment, the real desire to want to do improve. The next thing is to think specifically of three or four points where we know we can change, not tomorrow but now: for example: get up from this week forward at a fixed time and not give into the temptation of the snooze button. Another way is to buy a small gift for someone you love and haven't shown it to in a long time, and give it to them fondly, they can be your parents, your grandparents, siblings, a friend. Maybe it is somebody who needs to talk. The gift can be simply listening to them, dedicating time to them (the easiest way to be generous is to buy something, but the fact of dedicating time to the person, listening to their problems , implies a greater effort and therefore greater satisfaction). Finally we can make the effort this week not to lie or exaggerate (which is in truth the same as a lie), if we analyze ourselves well, we will see that throughout the day one tends to say not one, but several lies.

How can you be certain you are on the right track? To know if we have done well or not is easy, at the end of the day we can focus only on these three topics: punctuality in the morning, generosity and the struggle to tell the truth. At the end of next week you will see how it was not impossible, that it is not a fight to live better life. Rather it flows naturally when you set simple goals and work toward them.

December 29, 2020 - Reading time: 4 minutes

Welcome 2021! How quickly you've come this year.

A new year lays ahead, and as my father's oft grumbled phrase of the week (leading up to the 31st), "New Year, new fight", which I once thought meant that it is a good time to reflect on all that we have not yet been able to get done, everything we have to improve, and that requires an internal struggle to be able to change and correct.

This is a goal, a mission that we plan each year. Those New Years resolutions which most everyone makes, either officially or unofficially give us something to work toward.

A mission defines what you do and the reason that you do it in the long run. In our case the long term can be none other than life (a life's work), so our mission is work the smartest way one can. My goals, that is, what I need to do to accomplish my list are based on four points basic points:

1. Improving my relationship with my faith
2. Being an excellent fiancée
3. Being an excellent employee
4. Be an excellent friend, daughter and sister

At first it looks like the list is arbitrary, disconnected and small, but it is quite encompassing if you look at where my values lie.

Taking into account these four simple objectives I have defined one-off activities to improve in each of them, as well as giving them a date to meet them and above all a monthly review or control to ensure that I have really complied with the established criteria, since good intentions die when they are not nurtured and observed.

For example, in the case of being an excellent employee, I set out to cultivate values such as perseverance, prudence, ethics in business, punctuality, finishing everything well, etc. And for this a concrete action plan that is based on knowing these virtues is required.

In the case of my relationship with my boyfriend, who will help me identify what I am doing wrong, as is the communication with him, are you happy to be with me? I can make a list of topics where I must improve, for example, share more of the work at home, not arrive home stressed, or bring work problems in to the house, etc.

These are the most important aspects of my life at this time. And as my grandmother would say: "How brief is the length of our passage through the earth!" These words have made me reflect as a reproach in the face of a lack of dedication, of desire, that I have many times in the past, they have given me pause to improve on things that I know that I am doing wrong, but at the same time they are a constant invitation to change, and that better than the beginning of a new year to do so.

Here the important thing is to realize that you can improve, where to improve, and most importantly how to improve. Not only must we have the desire to initiate this change, because if so after a week we forgot everything, we must act. The secret is to do it just like at work, put the same emphasis and even greater, because this is much more important (this is our personal life). Let's think about our lives. Why don't we sometimes find those minutes, to end the work that concerns us? Why do we neglect family obligations, why do we lack serenity and calm, to fulfill day-to-day duties, and entertain ourselves without any hurry to go after personal whims?

I read in an article that if we renew our goals that it allows us to concentrate and give us a goal. Physical lacking, was one of the factors that led people to ignore their resolutions. How can we fix that? Add one more thing to our ever growing list. Exercise daily, for our bodies must be fit for our mind to work well. Then make sure you put your heart into reaching those goals. Sometimes happiness is not always in doing what you want, but in wanting what you do. And finally read or watch movies that inspire you.

Thank you for spending some of your time here to read my plans for the coming year, I promise to be more rigorous and improve a lot in the next year.

November 27, 2020 - Reading time: 6 minutes

What if the afterlife exists?

Yesterday I was supposed to attend a concert, of course that wasn't possible. But had we went we would have been at a concert which was to host 15,000 people. When we first learned that it was going to be canceled we were a little unhappy. You see the tickets had been a birthday gift from my fiancée. We had been looking forward to attending for some time and it would have been a memorable outing which was special to both of us. You see, the song playing when he proposed to me was from the artist we were going to see. It is our sort of our song. But that is not the point of the entry today.

After we realized that the concert wasn't going to happen I was a little put off which quickly dissipated. After all with the current crisis it was the most sensible thing to do. It was at some point afterwards that I began to think about the concert from a different perspective. Had it actually happened it would have resulted in the death of an uncertain number of people, it led me to think about my next article on this site. I had not written anything about the topic but it has been in my thoughts since I was a child.

Death.

It is such a tragic topic but it is the only sure thing in this life. The first thing to become clear to me in my childhood was the need to always be prepared. Much of what we consider detrimental can be avoided when we ensure a certain amount of preparedness and commonsense.

Many people add another guideline to navigate the world we inhabit. Religion. The afterlife is either a reward or a punishment given that it can either be eternal happiness or punishment. This encourages us to think sensibly about our actions and prepares a framework for life. The afterlife, for many, is a given.

Now, with that foundation in mind let us pretend that the life we expect after death does not exist. That is to say that, the fundamental truth of the Christian faith, the existence of the afterlife, is nonexistent. Nonsense I agree. But for the sake of argument let's pretend, but just for a minute. What would happen? What would this do to our attitudes?

When this is the guideline for the reasonable person, the one that promises us eternal rewards or punishment — based on our actions, how does it affect the way we would act?

How would we react to the temptations and challenges that make up the human existence?

Would our interests change?

Let's look at this from another perspective.

There are countless insurance companies out there to offer us unlimited ways to ensure we are safe when we engage in an endless assortment of unsafe things, especially when it comes to things worth securing. Health, home, life, and everything in-between they are there to ensure your life on earth is worry free. Up until this point we have been able to rely on our faith to insure us after all of those things are not needed. The person who lives in an apartment house does not have to worry about securing it, but the one who owns their home in which they have invested their resources, does. For them it is worth it to secure it against a possible fire, because for them, a fire could represent an irreparable catastrophe. Now, when you insure against fire, are you convinced that the fire will happen? I think most people are pretty certain that their home will not burn down. If they weren't their entire existence would be consumed about worrying about the prospect of a fire. We are pretty sure it won't happen because it's not likely to happen (thankfully). It's just, possible, nothing more. And because we have a lot to lose, we insure it against loss.

Can the same sentiment be placed on a less tangible asset.

Let us move this from the purely human order of business, to the things that pertain to our soul. Most people believe in the existence of a life after death. Yet, this has provided philosophers and thinkers with a tremendous problem. How can you prove/disprove our eternal destinies, and more importantly bring out the consequence our lives have on that? As Christians we believe this as an absolute, with concrete assurance from the church, that we have something waiting for us on the other side, even if it was unlikely, but merely possible that an existence waited for us beyond the most elementary prudence should lead us to take all kinds of precautions to ensure the salvation of our souls. Just as we ensure that in the event of any assortment of catastrophe take place, we are insured against ruin. Because, if we were work, and there was indeed a hell and we were condemned for all eternity, we would have lost absolutely everything forever.

Is their an afterlife?

The argument, if it turns out that there is a hell, for those who do not think of the afterlife, those who enjoy life to the fullest and concentrate on fun, wallowing in all kinds of earthly pleasures, or those who are simply "good people, who do no harm to anyone," who also do little to improve themselves and life for those around them. Those of us who are convinced that there is an eternity, those of us who live a Christian life cannot be lead to eternal failure. Even assuming that there is no beyond after this poor life, what we will it have cost us living honestly?

As you can see, at the time of death you put everything at stake, playing everything on a card, considering what is at risk it is a stakes game. Sometimes change once we are old, we know that the end comes to us all sooner or later, and what is the harm? We have had all of our fun. But we run the risk of being too late.

What if we go sooner?

What happens if we lose?