We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joie Gadsden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

Set the scene — it was 2016 and I was a Freshman at Bowie State. I would always showcase my work on myself by choosing a new makeup look everyday that was inspired by my surroundings or how I was feeling, but I soon realized I wanted to take my talents a step further. I began practicing my skills on my best friends and cheer sisters, at the time, and would have them walk around campus to showcase my work in a more “in your face” kind of way. Eventually, people really started to notice and catch on, and my RA ended up inquiring for me to do her face for a special occasion (I honestly can’t remember if it was an on campus event or a birthday, but it was special and important!) With my RA being such a sweetheart and taking a chance on me, this ended up being one of the most freeing and fulfilling experiences of mine, right in her dorm room. After that day, my career started to take off — from being booked for on campus campaigns and events, to taking prom clients in the common area. I’ll forever cherish those moments.

Joie, 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?

My name is Joie Gadsden aka The Golden Nug, and I’m a self-taught Pro Makeup Artist and Creative Director from NW, DC!

Showcasing my passions for beauty and self expression started very early on — from being obsessed with drawing portraits, to saving magazine clippings and beauty campaigns in a jelly folder, to even creating little clay towns and bringing scenarios to life — somehow, someway, I was bound to making my creative daydreams come to fruition.

As time progressed and my access to the beauty world broadened, I quickly fell in love with the face being my canvas. From waking up at 5am to wear full faces to school, to practicing my craft on anyone that would blink an eye — I just knew I wanted to continue to connect with the world around me through makeup and putting smiles on people’s faces.

The connection that creating a safe space to breathe and positively transform people’s moods through my art is something I’ll forever cherish. And now, being able to take things a step further by creating and showcasing creative concepts while simultaneously building bonds with like minded artists around me has been my inner child’s wildest dreams coming to fruition.

By simply putting my genuine self out there and acting on cool ways to test my abilities and grow more in my craft, I’ve been able to experience and achieve some of my wildest dreams and that’s something I want to be able to share with creatives around me and that come after me.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

As a creative who works in the service of people, often times we find ourselves in a dry season where things start to slow down, passion may dwindle away and doubts set in, and you may even question your purpose or your why. For me, I battle with intense creative blocks, and I felt, at the time, the lack of creative freedom with strictly working on everyday clients was taking away from my passion for my craft. Now, please do not get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my client, but any creative knows you need some sort of duality. I wanted to create a fun way to test my abilities, showcase looks I hadn’t been able to do before, get creative with the resources around me, and put myself out there! Here blossomed my Tiktok/Instagram series, “Makeup I’d Do On…”, where I showcased makeup looks I’d do on public figures/celebrities I saw myself connecting and working with on look-a-like models. It was like every light that was dimming in my brain turned back on and blasted full force. My creative drive was back and it was so much fun to do. Part 1 of the series ended up being 10 parts — from Issa Rae, to Jazmine Sullivan, to the amazing Jojo! My main goal was to challenge myself to think on my toes, build something fun that I could be consistent with, and if one of the artists happened to see my work inspired by them, then that would be the bonus of a lifetime. I truly entered into this with a “what’s the best that can happen” mindset, and I’m so glad I did. Not only did some of them see and like my work, my part 10 Icon , Jojo, took a chance on me and allowed me to experience my inner child’s wildest dream — to do her makeup for an upcoming show in town. Even retelling this right now is bringing me such excitement and butterflies all over again. And given the opportunity to bring on one of my close creative friends with me, made it ever more worth while. We connected so well and organically at the first show, that Jojo invited us to be her glam team from the next two shows on the east coast — Philly and NY. I’ll forever cherish that experience and bonds that came from it, and am now and forever always a firm believer in allowing your creative visions and dreams to run rampant. Put yourselves out there — what’s the best that can happen?

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In early 2020, things seemed to be finally moving fast paced and full force in my career and I was becoming extremely confident in my growth as an artist. Then Covid hits. Everything shuts down. My bread and butter and main source of income put to a complete stand still. Of course, as everyone else, I went into a complete panic, but eventually allowed myself to think — “ok, things are completely out of your hands, now what?”. I prayed and prayed. I tried online 1-on-1 courses, but with my anxiety, that didn’t last long. What else do I have a passion for that I could pour more into? And then the 2020 Sephora Squad applications went live, smack dab on my twitter and Instagram timelines. For a minute, imposter syndrome held me back, and with technical errors with submitting my application, I almost gave up. My friend Chidi was on the previous years squad, and I was able to get some insight on the amazing experience and blessings that could come from it. I already truly enjoy content creation and influencing, so why not? Again, what’s the best that can happen? I eventually figured out the technical error glitch, and submitted my application. This was something I soon realized I really wanted and fought hard for. With becoming more consistent and showing up more on social media, to spreading the word about honest testimonials that would help in the process. I was blessed to have been picked as a finalist and officially became a 2020 #SS member and it was a God sent blessing. From being able to connect with so many likeminded creators and building relationships of a lifetime, to my inner child’s wildest dreams coming to life being able to work on campaigns for brands — such as the actual Sephora Brand, NARS, and YSL — just to name a few, to meeting the owners and CEOs behind the brands we love so dearly and receiving amazing guidance and advice. This pivot allowed me to tap into and further make a name for myself in this beauty and digital world and I’m forever thankful for it!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegoldennugclients.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thegoldnnug
• Other: Pro Instagram page – @thegoldennugpro

Image Credits
Mikael Selassi , Doug Krantzi, Nayo O, Izzi Sama