I always knew, even when I didn’t know what my medium was, when I was too young to know anything really! I can remember always liking to read, to finger paint, to sew or knit (even though it drove me completely nuts) to make stuff with my hands was something that calmed me, centered me and was extremely either rewarding or frustrating. I was always very comfortable being alone, trying to create.

I also abso-fuckin’-lutely (sorry) love music. I need music in my life like I need food, I think people who don’t get music are just sad.

Please don’t think I’m one of those people who get very conceptual art, and are into more weird-ish stuff that’s not always pleasing to the eye. I can understand different views on things but I really like the beauty in beautiful things. Since beauty is subjective, let’s say there’s freedom to consider anything beautiful really, but I digress…

My first memories of and about makeup are from when I was 8 years old (maybe?) and every afternoon, after homework I would open one of my mom’s fashion magazines and try to copy a look on my sister.

Which cosmetics did I use? My mom’s. Of Course! I knew every little item she had in her stash, I knew what everything looked like, what everything smelled like. Every brush, every shadow and lipstick. I used everything and I took care of everything. I was never one of those children who destroys her mother’s makeup just because, to me makeup was as sacred as books (and magazines, but we’ll come back to that)!

The more I learned about makeup and beauty, the more I wanted to learn. I would just beg my mom to buy me american magazines like Vogue, Mademoiselle and Glamour. I would just be in awe of the fashion, the hair and makeup, I would get lost in that beautiful world! That is my education in this Makeup Life. All those hours poring over those glossy pages reading all the articles, taking everything in was the best education I could ever have. It taught me a different view of the world, a world very far away from mine here in this little island in the Caribbean, where people are more traditional and everybody likes the same things, dress the same way and where you are expected to conform to it.

In high school I continued to do makeup on everybody that was available, basically. My friends, my sister’s friends, anybody! Weekends would be filled with makeovers, clothes swapping and hair styling, and after everybody was ready we would all go out. I loved the feeling of making someone feel more beautiful and confident about themselves, because sometimes I didn’t feel it myself. Makeup had that power over me, still does. I could always rely on doing my makeup to make myself feel better, even though I didn’t think I was the prettiest or had the greatest body or the nicer clothes, I had makeup! I could do Makeup, not as a mask, but as a catalyst for beauty. On days when I don’t feel that particularly hot, I try to do something special with my makeup and if I can spend a few hours on it, the better I feel. It’s like a ritual, and it doesn’t have anything to do with hiding the ugly parts, which granted has a lot to do with it, but to bring out the beauty that’s concealed within.

I still don’t know if I’m any good at it, I just keep trying to get better, but I must be doing something right, because people keep asking me to do their makeup!