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LAURA VIELE
Questions of A Makeup Artist BY REBECCA JAFFARIAN I PHOTOS BY ROCK BEACH PHOTOGRAPHY
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I’m inspired by people around me. I find so many of my clients have similar stories and they are looking to feel confident in their own skin. That is something that for me, personally, I like to be able to be a part of for them. I feed off of their energy and my creativity grows because of it. The more people I help, the more I want to help.
How long have you been a makeup artist and how did you get your start in the industry?
I started to study makeup as an art a little over 6 years ago. Before my mid 20s, makeup was something that was saved for special occasions. It wasn’t until I had some personal struggles
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physically that I turned to makeup to help me feel more comfortable in my skin. I’ve always been a highly creative person but I had thought that I would need to have some kind of 9-5 job that would pay my bills and that practicing creativity would be something I could only do as a hobby. It wasn’t until I discovered makeup that I realized I could actually get paid for my creativity. Makeup brought it all together for me: being able to be creative on a daily basis, while helping others and creating some balance (something I’m constantly striving for) has happened for me because of this industry. I started working as a freelance artist. I worked full time as an assistant and I would do makeup on the weekends. I did it for free just to get my work out there. I signed onto websites that promoted modeling and photography and would link up with whomever I could just
to get my makeup on people. Months later I was able to take a job with one of the largest cosmetic lines in the industry and I trained as their regional artist. They would send me all over upstate NY as a special event artist and I was to train the women that worked at the counters. It wasn’t until about 3 years ago that I decided to pursue makeup as a full time career.
What do you love most about makeup?
I love how it can help boost someone’s confidence. I’ve met clients that have become happier because they’ve seen themselves in a new light. That feeling is infectious, and its carried into other areas of their lives as well.
If you weren’t a makeup artist, what else would you do? That’s a hard one for me. I’m doing what I love.