Fatima Al Zahra’a wrote to me, asking how she could become a professional makeup artist. She asked me whether I would teach her makeup, hair and skin care. I really care about you guys and would love to help out, but since I don’t give lessons anymore and honestly am terrible at doing hair and don’t do professional skin care, I advised her to seek an institute.

Let’s talk about Fatima’s real issue: Fatima is bored with the routine life (a 9-5 job) and feels she needs to do something that she loves. She said she really loved to do makeup at some point in time, but gave that up and now she is, from what I understood, trying to get un-stuck.

She mentioned that she enjoyed reading about my journey into how I became a makeup artist. I literally have torn down hundreds of walls and overcome insanely great obstacles - inner and outer – with that Taurean stubbornness of mine which has definitely come in handy!

So, as I replied to Fatima, I realized I was writing some inspirational words that I would love to post online. This post isn’t so much about how to become a makeup artist, as it is on why you should chase your dream. Don’t follow it … don’t kind of walk by it … chase it with everything you’ve got.

I’m always approached by women who tell me that their parents want them to be doctors or lawyers, and that dream of theirs of becoming a makeup artist is so distant, they never know whether it’s ever going to come true; and, if they do pursue it, how their choice will be received by their families and peers.

I was supposed to be a PhD, a psychologist. I got accepted into an amazing school for journalism where only 45 students are picked for the program ever year. I should have been ecstatic, but I only felt drained. I studied HR later on, but failed the exam, even though I’ve never failed anything (except math in grade 11). But by then, I knew it had happened for a reason. I wasn’t meant to be any of those things. I was meant to be a makeup artist.

I want my message to be that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. You can change your life in an instant. Just make the decision that you are going to change your life. It is really that simple. You can create the rules, not follow them. Most of us never push ourselves to change because we have not been forced to do so, and I find that quite sad. We wait for an external event to push us to change our life, rather than simply changing course because we feel like it.

You can begin by dropping everything that hurts you, focus on what you want, and propel yourself into that place where you want to be most. It’s easier said than done, as with any challenge or ambition, but that decision is the one thing that will give you that freedom you covet.

For me, makeup artistry is a natural extension of my personality. I’m a painter at heart. Brushes and mixing colours and textures just make sense to me, and I lose myself and find myself at the same time when painting (faces or canvases). Makeup artistry also gives me a sense of freedom that no other profession can. Honestly, it’s the only profession I’ve stuck with!

If you are looking to become a makeup artist, my advice is to practice, practice, practice! If you go to school, you will get practice, it will give you credentials, but then you’re on your own with no one to guide you but your own instincts and natural flair. You need what I call “real world” practice. You will have to be in the industry for years before you establish a persona. Many professionals don’t; they are discovered and explode into a success overnight. Some artists, unfortunately, are just hype (but that’s another topic altogether).

None of us start out at the same place. None of us have the same story. We all come from different lives. If you want freedom and happiness, though, you have to follow what you love and chuck out all the rubbish that’s been fed to you about how you cannot do what you want. There is just no way around it. I don’t see a reason why you would waste your life’s years forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do.

Remember, there is always a “teething period” whenever you start a project – a time when everything feels wrong, when you don’t want to continue, when you have to argue and explain what you want but find that no one understands you. Support will be low, and it will be painful, but by then you’re only one millimetre away from success. If you just push yourself and take that one extra step that seems so far away, make that phone call that you are dreading, your life will change dramatically. Most people don’t do it because they are afraid of failure, because they can’t see past their fears. But that’s the whole point! You’re not supposed to see what’s coming! You create it.

Create your reality.

Life is an adventure and unless you have a positive attitude, you will be like everyone else, afraid to chase a dream, because you’re putting too much emphasis on other people’s opinions of you. Because your beliefs are limiting.

I’m guilty of falling into that limiting trap time and time again. I get lazy. I get huffy and puffy. I get bored. I get insecure, and there are days when I don’t want to talk to anyone. But then I get a phone call, and I go to do makeup, and I’m in that euphoric place again, and I forget how I could have ever felt down. That time when I felt I didn’t want to do it suddenly vanishes and things make sense: I’m here for a reason. Something tells me I’m here for a reason, and there is no excuse for me to not live my life to the fullest, not to do what I love, not to be the best, and not to give my talent to the world. We have a moral obligation to share our talents with the world. Or else why would we be here?

Life is really not that long. Be a leader, be an inspiration, live from the part of your soul that never dies, because that’s the part that is directly connected to God; that’s the part that knows all truth. It comes to us in a tiny voice called intuition — that voice in our hearts that some of us fall into the trap of questioning. You have two choices: silence it, and you will feel a small part of you slowly die. Apologies for the graphics, but that’s really how it feels … like you are stabbing yourself in the heart.

So what if you don’t succeed the first time you try out your new venture? The second time? The third and fourth and tenth time? Does that mean you’re a failure? Absolutely not. It means you are persisting, that you are brave, courageous, and that you believe in yourself. Don’t give up at the first sign of defeat.

This is not a bunch of psychobabble, positive-thinking hoorah-hoorah stuff … this is real. I really want you to share your talents with the world, to do what you want, to experiment and face your fears. Quiet the part of you that tells you that you can’t do something by doing it.

Most of us don’t realize how powerful we really are. We don’t even know what our potential is! 

I hope you enjoyed this post.

I’m going to continue about what makeup to buy in the coming post because I’m tired now…stay tuned!

xo
Lina