We were lucky to catch up with Wendi Yvonne recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Wendi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I embarked on my creative journey 20 years after the universe tried to hand it to me. I grew up in a small town in Washington State. The year I was graduating High School, I was at the local country fair and these ladies came up to me and asked me if I was interested in Beauty School. They liked my look, and my makeup, and thought I would be great in the industry. They even offered me a scholarship.
But I had a sister 1.5 years older than me who had decided she wanted to go to Beauty School. I was a scholar-athlete in High School, Drum Major for the marching band, and participated in the local school paper, and drama club. My sister struggled to find her footing so when she announced that she wanted to go to Beauty School, I didn’t want to step on her dream. So I didn’t end up taking advantage of the opportunity.
Fast forward a few years later. I transferred to Boise State University and joined a local cover band. As the lead singer, I always had to look cute and had met an amazing makeup artist, Delilah, who became a dear friend. She started doing my makeup for shows and blessing me with her talent. Eventually, she started having me help her on photoshoots, at fitness shows, and she helped me become a guest artist for Lancôme.
For a few years, I just did makeup as a hobby. Weddings, photoshoots, proms, guest spots for Lancome and Dior. In 2016, I was healing and trying to find myself again after losing myself in a very toxic relationship. I started doing the things I loved more and more.
One specific day I had started my day at 4am and ended it around 6pm that night doing makeup. When I got home I remember lying face down on my couch exhausted, but realizing I had had such a fulfilling day. I thought about the lady who had sat down in my chair at a Lancôme event. Despondent that she had gotten older and couldn’t figure out how to utilize all the makeup she had bought as she couldn’t apply it the same way she used to. Her face wasn’t the same. She wanted to return it. I asked her if I could show her how to use it. The woman who sat in my chair and the woman who left my chair were so very different. She felt so much better about her about herself. It was at that moment I realized. I can really touch people on such a personal level, just by educating them on skincare and makeup.
Laying on my couch, face down I was like ‘Why am I not doing this for a living?’ It was then I decided to go to Beauty School. I graduated in April of 2017 and worked at a Med Spa for a few months before I decided to back to school and get my Esthetics teaching license. There was so much business and marketing education that I didn’t feel was being taught in Beauty School and I had found myself teaching my classmates about it and helping them through school.
Deciding on this career path led me back to my birth city and down an amazing path I never would have ever dreamt of.
Wendi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As an Esthetician and Educator, I provide skin care services, skin care therapies, consultations, waxing, treatments, and more. As an educator, I have taught hundreds of women interested in Esthetics to obtain the education needed for their Boards Examinations and licensing. I am a subject matter expert for NIC and help develop the parameters for assessment and testing as well as continue to coach and mentor former students.
As a makeup artist, I work on sets with amazing talents. From editorial and e-commerce photoshoots to music videos, to independent films and headshots. I’m pretty well-rounded in my ability to meet the needs of my clients and understand the assignment. Some clients never wear makeup or have had bad experiences with other artists and I have to gain their trust quickly and make sure we’re talking the same language. It’s become a skill my life experiences have helped me cultivate.
I’ve had to help develop characters visually for films, and also being a Special Effects Makeup Artist, I have to understand wound development, and more. It’s something I try to do my homework on as I really want it to be as realistic, and convincing as possible. It’s an art.
It is hard to pick just one thing in my career that makes me proud. But the moments that mean the most, are the moments when my students reach out to me to tell me they passed their board exam. Or when they reach out to me with questions and advice. It makes me thankful that I made an impact in their lives and affirms my journey that I’m reaching people and helping them grow dreams and careers.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Pivoting is a skill you really have to be comfortable doing many times as a creative. Things don’t always work out the way you plan. Money doesn’t always come in when you think it will. People don’t always follow through like you hope. It can be a struggle, it can be frustrating and there might be many times you ask yourself if you’re making the right choices. I lost my teaching job back in March 2024. Although I felt it was time for me to move on from that particular job what I didn’t expect was what was about to happen.
I am a very spiritual person, I pray, meditate, and spend a lot of time making sure I’m moving in the direction I feel led and for the first time in a very long time, I started feeling lost. I had another job lined up, I felt like all was gonna work out. Then unexpectedly the dominos started falling. The new job ghosted me. Money I thought would be coming in from work I’d done, wasn’t coming in when I needed it. Gigs started slowing down and things seemed to keep going wrong. I didn’t feel like I was just pivoting, I felt like I was spinning circles. But it finally dawned on me, that this is the time to refocus, restructure, and reinvent. The last time the dominos fell like this, the end of the story was one I never would have dreamt in the moment.
As I write this, I’m still racing the dominos, but this particular part of my journey has taught me so much and reminded me that we’re all going to be challenged in moments we choose our purpose. When I left my job as a Marketing Director to go to beauty school in 2016, I was single with 3 young kids at home. I was told I was crazy, I was told I was wasting my time, and I was offered jobs that would have paid well. But I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing. It hasn’t been the easiest of adventures, but it has been the most rewarding. And my kids get to see me live in purpose and I can teach them how to stay strong in the moments when it might seem easier to give up.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Of all the questions I’d love to answer, this one seems to be the loudest. Resilience is a skill that no matter your life, career, or business, you have to master if you want to get anywhere you want to get. When I first moved back to Los Angeles, I had to leave my oldest daughter behind because she was finishing High School. It was the hardest decision I had ever had to make. She is my heart. But I knew that I wasn’t going to thrive if I stayed where I was, I was afraid of what might happen if I didn’t leave. I packed up my two young children and moved to Burbank. We stayed briefly with a friend of mine that I had known for 10+ years. I was starting over with 2 small kids and what I could fit in my car.
It wasn’t the easiest of transitions. I missed my daughter terribly and nothing seemed to be working in my favor. But I didn’t give up and I wasn’t about to move back. I think back to the person I was when I moved here. That woman was so broken but I was determined to give my children a better, healthier, more stable life than what we left. The growth from those moments took a huge amount of resilience.
And what I have learned in all the ups and downs I’ve made it through is that there is always a lesson in the stressin. I learned about myself, I learned new skills, and I found my passion in creativity. I have helped others make life-changing career choices, and mentored young who felt as lost as I did in the days I was starting over. I found the passion in my purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wendiyvonne.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendiyvonne
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendiyvonne
Image Credits
b&w @joannamiriam
Headshot: @shanequa363 & @lavallee.l.a
Me: @actorschoicephotography
Zombie: @wendiyvonnesfx