Passion is a word that can be defined in a multitude of ways. It is a word that is personal to everyone and it is unique to the core. Growing up, people always asked me what my passion was and to be quite frank I never really had one. I tried basketball, softball (okay, for one day), gymnastics, playing the piano, and probably more activities that I can’t even remember because I quit them so quickly. Sure, I did musical theatre for 6 years, but I knew I was never going to stick with it. However, what was it that finally caught my attention throughout those six years? It wasn’t the singing or the dancing, it was the makeup. Now, no one should have trusted a 9 year old with Ben Nye makeup, and maybe I wasn’t allowed to do my stage makeup for a while after my first catastrophe of applying brown all over my lids. However, that didn’t stop me from trying to do my makeup BEFORE getting to the theatre so they would be too lazy to re-do it.

It wasn’t the stage makeup that was fun to do, and it most definitely wasn’t the way that it looked because I don’t think that extra defined eyelids and eyebrows is really anything a 9 year old would find too appealing. I can’t say I don’t love the look now, but that’s beside the point. It was the process of doing the makeup that caught my attention. The detail and the order of the products struck my interests before I even knew what I was doing.

Years went by and I started paying more attention to beauty gurus and makeup artists. I spent more money on makeup than I am proud to admit. People continued to ask me what my passion was whenever the subject would arise and I never knew what to say because in my mind saying that makeup was my passion sounded silly because being a makeup artist was never something I had considered. (Disclaimer: I absolutely do not believe that makeup is a “silly” passion to have, I just knew that it was not mine. Or so I thought). Every time I wanted to say makeup I would stop myself, and eventually I sat down and thought about why that was. And that was when it came to me.

I never wanted to do other people’s makeup for a living, but I was so fascinated and engrossed in the products and the way that they were presented. How the companies got artists such as Jaclyn Hill, Michelle Phan, Desi Perkins and others to sponsor their products on youtube was astounding to me. How convinced I was to buy products based on what these women were saying struck me and sparked my interests and that was when I realized that working for the business side of the beauty industry was exactly where I belong. To be more specific, to work for the marketing and public relations side of the cosmetics industry is an absolute dream of mine. Companies such as Estée Lauder, Too Faced, Benefit, and Urban Decay, along with more up and coming companies but still extremely successful like NYX, Morphe, and Colourpop are all companies that I would consider myself lucky to work for.

Makeup is something that is becoming more universal. You don't have to be a specific gender to wear it, despite what some may think. There are no limits to what you can do with makeup which enhances the creativity in many talented individuals. Makeup truly is an art and it is a form of expression that more people are beginning to utilize and I cannot wait to work with others who view the cosmetics industry in the same way that I do.