My Inspiring Makeup Story

My makeup story is a long one that unexpectedly, like many other life stories, brought me to where I am today. Makeup was never my first choice of career or first passion. It somehow happened to me in my early twenties. It was fall in Rome when my makeup story began. But let's start from the very beginning and my first attempt or approach to makeup.

Teenage years

It is really impressive to see how in ten years everything has changed. Before 2010, social media channels and Youtube were starting to bloom but they would have reached their first peak just a few years later. Before that, if you were a teenager, like myself, internet was not necessarily your first source of information. If I wanted to know something about a makeup or beauty topic, books, magazines!!, friends, tv and also beauty consultants in shopping malls were my main source of information. As I suffered from hormonal acne since I was about 14 years old, I have always looked into makeup to hide my blemishes and imperfections. My first attempts were pretty clumsy and my inexperience and lack of knowledge showed unfortunately. My foundation of choice was always at least two or three shades lighter than my skin tone. Taking into consideration that in a small province town, without virtually no e-commerce websites to purchase from, my options were also very limited. Back then the color range that you could find in my home town shops was very limited. Even for my light neutral-olive skin tone, I struggled to find a foundation that would not turn orange on me. That is why I always opted for a very light foundation that looked just so wrong on me! I packed a ton of bronzer on top to counteract the whitish cast effect. I did not know what concealer and eyebrow products were…and the only two other makeup items that I used were a black pencil and a black mascara. I used to line my waterline and upper lash line very heavily and I used to follow with ton of black mascara. This makeup look has been my go-to and only makeup look for years. Sometimes I used to spice it up with a brown or blue eye pencil, but that was basically it. The final touch was usually a clear or pink lipgloss. I went on like this for years and the other product that I discovered along the way was blush, and I usually opted for a cool pink shade. 

How it all happened

It is funny how I clearly remember the moment makeup really entered my life. It is curious how we remember defining moments of our lives even if they are small unimportant moments, or so it appears… At that time I lived in Rome were I started to study for my Master's Degree in Conference interpreting. I was so excited to have started this new path and I felt so privileged and proud to have managed to pass the entrance exam. I was among the 50 people who made it. Studying languages and discovering Rome were the only things in my mind. Makeup was not in my plans. 

One evening I was sitting on the couch in front of our kitchen tv in the shared flat I was living in and I was watching a random tv show. For an unknown reason, someone might call it destiny, a famous tv presenter who had this wonderful brown pink smokey eye caught my attention. Immediately and unexpectedly I was captivated by this wonderful makeup look and I clearly remember thinking: “I want to learn how to replicate it, it must not be impossible to learn how to do it”. Suddenly I was determined to discover the secrets of makeup. I took my pc and started to google “how to do a brown eye makeup”, or something similar, and I landed on Youtube and my makeup story started…

A growing passion

I was immediately swept away by Youtube and its makeup tutorials, and I also started to read several blogs. If I was not studying for my Master, you could find me watching hours and hours of Youtube tutorials, taking notes. However I immediately faced a first hurdle which was money! I realised how expensive this passion might become, and I was spending all my savings in makeup products. I clearly remember the first “professional” makeup product I ever bought which was a pot concealer and my first eye-makeup palette.  Around that time I have not only discovered makeup but also skin care and in particular organic skincare which has been another passion of mine for more than a decade now.

I then decided to open my first Youtube channel and my first blog because I was just too excited about this new makeup world. I used to use my pc camera or a very old camera that my father bought me but the results were awful, believe me! I have also always been a perfectionist and I decided to simply close both. As my thesis was approaching, I also thought that it was better if I focused on my studies and I simply kept practising makeup on the side. After my Master's studies ended and after a year spent in Portugal, I moved to Germany where I met my partner. At the time I was focused on getting a job and making my ends meet basically, so makeup was still my secret passion that I kept cultivating in my free time.

My Youtube channel

Shortly after I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend, and I talked to him more openly about my passion for makeup and he encouraged me to keep pursuing it. My partner is actually a video maker and he was happy to support me in opening a new Youtube channel. For more than a year I posted my videos pretty regularly. Recording, editing and posting gave me so much joy. It was so much fun to finally put out there everything that I had been learning for years and to share it with no strings attached. I had learnt so much about contouring, highlighting and even posing and finding my best angles to take pictures. It was the golden age of makeup on Youtube where people got together moved by a common passion. I used to film in our spare room with a Canon camera that cost me 300 euros and it was a lot of money for me! The fact of having a limited budget and a YouTube channel was perhaps was one the reasons I am here now too. I was constantly challenging myself to create new looks with just the few colors or makeup options that I had. I believe that this was the first seed of my original Makeup Plan idea. But destiny had again other plans for me and I spent the next few years in Australia. I stopped doing tutorials as I focused once more on my career and a new adventure. However makeup never left, it was always there. I never stopped learning, practising, reading or educating myself.

The Makeup Guide ebook

Then something happened in the makeup community and the magic disappeared. For a couple of years, the air, so to speak, was very dense. I was very unhappy of this climate and I guessed that one day I simply thought: “I am going to change this”. I had the desire to bring back happiness into the world of makeup. I wanted to go back to its first roots, where people got together to have fun, experiment and simply enjoy makeup. This was the spark that led me into the creation of my Makeup Guide ebook with its revolutionary Makeup Plan. I wanted to create a tool that anyone could use - no matter your eye shape or skin tone or even your personal preferences and I challenged myself into this new amazing path. After many months of work to finalise the ebook design, structure and concept, I was so proud of the final result! My Makeup Guide first came out as en ebook and my intention was actually to keep it like this forever. The response that we had however was so overwhelming and positive that we decided to take another leap of faith and to move to the next chapter.

My book and online course

We launched the book just a few months before the pandemic started and I won’t hide that I struggled with this transition. Going from digital to physical products, it is a whole new world and it requires a lot of knowledge. Once again I have found myself with a new challenge to tackle and I have learnt so much! I could not be happier of what we have built today and the immense support and positive reviews that we have received. The Makeup Guide went from a simple ebook to a real hardcover book and to see people who can actually hold it in their hands makes my day everyday! And of course I could not just stop there :). Later on I came up with my Makeup Bullet Journal ebook to join my bullet journaling passion with makeup. Several months ago, the Makeup Guide became a video course too! 

I am very happy of the journey that I am following. If I look back at that puzzled teenager who did not even know what a concealer was, and seeing where I am today and what I am built, I can almost cry of happiness. Not every journey is an immediate victory or an overnight success story. Sometimes things require time and a lot of work, but if you put your heart and you do it with the right intentions, you will be repaid! Keep working and do what you like!