We recently connected with Elena Miglino-sabean and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Elena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Taking the risk from a steady paycheck to freelance life is a big one. I grew up in the household where both my parents worked. Sometimes they had two jobs each, and I learned from a very young age that if there is something that you want, you have to work hard to get it. I had many jobs that led me to where I am today. I think when I took the leap in my early 20s I kind of saw the world of rose colored glasses and I feel like that help helped me in a sense. Not knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from when you live on your own and trying to survive, work +play balance etc. is a terrifying thought to me now especially as a mom. During that time, I didn’t see it like that. I saw this as my independence and the ticket to everything I wanted. I truly thank God every single day that I took that step because now I’m in a position where I work almost every day and it never feels like “a job” because I enjoy my craft so much. I think going out of your comfort zone and again going into the unknown, put this drive and hustle inside of me. You’re giving yourself no choice but to make it. Those lessons I learned then are still very valuable to me now. I never get comfortable,
I’m constantly taking on challenges and pushing myself because that is really how I have grown

Elena, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started doing make up professionally when I was 18 years old I knew that college was not going to be for me, but I didn’t know any entrepreneurs. At that time in the world going to college was a very big deal, especially in my household. My parents (my dad especially) was a first generation American. It was a huge deal that my dad went to college so I think a small part of me always wanted to be successful and make them proud, but I needed to find the right path. I decided that I wanted to work at Mac cosmetics and that was it. Everyone had told me to maybe try for a smaller counter or a less popular brand because at the time this was the early 2000s Mac was the ultimate place to work. “No”was not a word in my vocabulary, it still isn’t just ask my husband haha. I vividly I remember walking into MAC being so intimidated and at that time the way that you showed your work was with a portfolio so my portfolio was pretty much just pictures of girls makeup I had done for prom or myself or my best friend Allison now looking back it is so embarrassing. I wish that I still had that portfolio but really it was just a photo album haha. I instantly fell in love with doing Make Up and I got transferred to the Mac flagship store in Soho, NYC and as I was working, I would see all of these other professional make up artists coming in who were buying things for their photo shoots. They would tell me they would travel the world and who they were doing and I just was absolutely infatuated by this. I was like this is what I want my job to be. I want to be really talking about make up I wanna be doing make up and I want to be traveling. I of course was a great sales person because it was easy for me. I loved Make Up so much so selling kind of translated seamlessly. My best friends to this day are still my OG MAC crew, and the team I always looked to hire whenever I need help! When I first decided that I wanted to go freelance, I did keep my nighttime job at a club and I would work really late hours, but I would say yes to every single job that was put in front of me, even if it meant an early morning in Brooklyn. I jumped at every opportunity to do Makeup and most of the time it was for free or a very low rate. I still remember sometimes taking a taxi home and what I just made was literally used to pay the fare. I of course started doing photo shoots for magazines, test shoots for models and I tried for a really long time to kind of figure out what my niche was and eventually I realize that I just love doing red carpet, I love bridal I love really beautiful makeup. In between I went on tour, was a brand ambassador for brands and got to travel to the wildest places. I love making women feel they’re absolute best. Make Up has always been confidence for me. For as long as I can remember ,even if I didn’t have the best outfit or the most expensive bag if I had my make up done, I felt like a million dollars and I was on top of the world. For me it’s not just about doing Makeup. It’s about the experience I have with every single client, and I want every single person to leave my make up chair feeling their best.
I work for so many powerful amazing women, many of my regulars are women in high power that own their own companies, companies that we all love and admire, and the fact that I get to make those women feel good with my craft is the best thing in the world to me. I’m talking ultimate girl bosses, peep my IG for them. I’m an 80’s baby, so this is what girl power means to me.
In my most recent years, my best friend Korey Fitzpatrick (celebrity hair stylist) and I decided we both wanted to start families, we wanted to be little more grounded, so we came up with the idea to create “bad brides club” a full service luxury bridal experience. We took our lessons tips and tricks that we learned from years on the red carpet and we brought it to the aisle. We have established an amazing community of brides,
Planners and photographers and we are attracting our dream clients. Still manifesting to attract a summer of weddings on the amalfi coast. But it’s coming I feel it haha! It’s been so much fun, and being with people on the happiest days of thier lives is a pretty rewarding experience. That could be an entire article on its own.(maybe next article? Wink wink)
We are still small but expanding and hoping to find more artists like us to in our 20’s and help them grow and mentor them. “Must be Hardworking, excited and people who really love their craft” Stay tuned, bad brides club will take over!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I have been doing makeup for about 20 years now, and I truly have to say the main way that I get my clients is still by word-of-mouth, makeup is old school. Obviously Instagram really helps and staying up-to-date with that and constantly posting, which is really a job in its own. Of course, being a successful makeup artist means you’re gonna need talent, but you are going to need a personality to match. When people are hiring you to do their make up it’s because they have an important event to go to and when people have important events, the energy that you’re giving them in that glam chair is how they are going to go into their day. This is what plays a significant role in you getting rebooked or them telling a friend about you. One of the most important things that I tell our brides when I have a consultation call is that we can do whatever you want as far as Hair and Makeup but I think the most important thing is that the vibes are good and we are there to keep the energy high! I would say almost after every wedding or every red carpet. I always get a message either from the Bride or my agent giving me feedback telling me that they loved their make up, but they really loved how I kept them calm the entire day and they will never forget that. When I get those messages, I know my purpose in the world and it feels good.
So always remember when building a clientele, every job is the potential opportunity to land another one

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It’s very interesting because I feel like my business has grown a great amount over the last five years, but the same time in the Make Up world we had to navigate Covid and the entertainment strikes. As you know this was a very hard time for people in our line of work. My business partner and I just recently had a conversation about this, and I’m really happy that we never really closed off our business to a certain type of clientele. We both started out in red carpet and doing mostly celebrities, but we never really gave up on our personal clients. No Job was ever too little or too big to us. When facing these challenges, especially when you are self employed you need to be able to think fast and act quick. I am so grateful for my clients who need makeup on a Thursday for that big meeting and a boost of confidence or that client who just is a mom and has her kids dance recital. These are the people who kept me in business during the times the big things were out. Always treat people the way you want to be treated and conduct business fairly. Living by that motto has provided me with consistent work throughout these major setbacks. So moral of the story, is don’t forget where you come from!

Contact Info:

• Website: Elenamiglinomakeup.com or https://www.traceymattingly.com/artists/makeup/elena-miglino
• Instagram: @elenamiglino
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@elenamiglino?si=R12HTULiWYxUqyEB
• Other: https://www.badbridesclub.com/

Image Credits

Jaymo James both bride shots
Don Nixon for Jennifer Fisher
Smallz Raskind for Tracy Anderson