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

Jasmine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I honestly feel like I started right on time. Here’s why I say that:

I created a plan for my creative career when I was probably between the age of 11-13 years old. Many goals on the list did come to fruition, but not how I expected them to. Content creation was not a thing during my childhood, so I had no idea I would be interested in it. I got into makeup in 2016 during the beauty community rise on Youtube. It was then that I decided, this is something I’m very interested in and passionate about, because I love art. I wrote out a list of over 100 ideas that I wanted to do, and the list continued to grow daily, but no action towards actually creating anything.

I found out I was pregnant with my daughter in 2018. I did feel a bit of discouragement, because I was determined to make 2018 my year to get into creating makeup content. Instead, I continued to create ideas that I felt would be great mommy & me videos. I told myself that ” next year [2019] will be my year”. 2019 came and my life was chaotic with being a new mom, working a job I loathed, and balancing all the many hats I wore. I didn’t know how to start, plus I didn’t have a camera with the quality I wanted to create content. The pattern continued, I kept creating ideas, but no content.

Then 2020 comes and wipes away everything I worked hard for career wise; I was furloughed then let go from my almost 7 year career. I was heartbroken, but then found the silver lining that this may be my chance to go after some goals of mine. I was receiving unemployment checks and used those to invest into my new beauty/lash business. I was so proud I took that risk. In 2021, I started selling lashes and I had much support from family and friends, as well as other clientele. It was the confidence boost I needed. I finally decided to take the leap in 2022 to create content. I purchased a camera and started making trending makeup content and grew a following pretty quickly. I was so happy that I build up the courage and confidence to go after my passions.

My content career was finally taking off after many delays. Not only content creation, but so was my business. I was doing makeup for wedding shows, Homecomings, and all variations of celebrations. I was able to create lashes for my clients makeup looks, as well as get my certificate for becoming a lash tech. I feel like everything was aligning for me at the right time. I did the prep by brainstorming ideas to help me building my creative mind, then I invested in myself, took a step at another venture, saw success, and that was the boost I needed to go after my creative career.

I thank God for the delays and experiences, I needed them to get where I am today. I have so much hope for both of my brands Jmac Essentials [content brand] and JYM Collection {beauty brand}.

Jasmine, 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 want people to know that I’m a multifaceted artist. I don’t like to box myself in, because I have many different interest and do plan to explore all of them in this lifetime. My goal is to build community and to inspire with any form of art I’m into. If you have a passion for something, go after it. Figure out how to get there and achieve that goal. Faith without works is dead. I pray and ask God to help me with all of my creative endeavors.

It all starts with believing in yourself. Once you confidently believe in you, no one can stop you. Makeup was/is a therapeutic hobby for me, but I always got compliments and questions on ‘how to do’ or ‘if I did makeup ask a job’. So I decided, lets give it a try and see if we can make this a small business. I started by servicing friends and then collaborated with others on services. Seeing women enhance their natural beauty with my skills will always be my favorite part. Same applies to my lash business, I wanted to do something fun with lashes, so I added little embellishments to them. I’ve received much support in my work. I love for people to express themselves, that’s why I like my makeup, lashes and content to be colorful. Having lashes with numbers, words, and glitter, gives a different look. I want people to be themselves, because that’s how I am and will continue to be.

I experienced plenty proud moments throughout the years, but my most memorable moment was a compliment I received at an event I attended this year. I attended a Frizz Fest riverboat trip event here in St. Louis, Frizz Fest is a black owned company that celebrates black culture and hair. The event was fun, the brand is about giving people their flowers, so floral attire was recommended. I had on a flower crown and floral dress and I received so many compliments. The best compliment was getting to know the wonderful people at my dinner table, which so happen to be a table of creatives. A question was posed, “what is your brand” and before I could speak, someone had said ” your brand gives life, you are so colorful and the flowers , it breathes life”. That couldn’t be more true, I aspire to breath life into people, for people to heal and love life. This year on birthday and beyond I wore flowers, because that was my mission, to give myself flowers for all the hard work I’ve done. For someone to see that in me, being the first time we met, I felt accomplished.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I lost my job due to Covid in 2020, instead of wallowing in the pain of loss, I went after my goals. I turned that pain into gain, it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it! As I mentioned before, I used my unemployment money as leverage to buy supplies, merchandise, create a website, take classes and to create content for my business. No matter the obstacle, remain resilient, possibly pivot and you’ll find success.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing my art in videos, pictures, getting likes and comments, and support from people all over the world. I love it! My creations coming to fruition and receiving support is thee most rewarding feeling ever!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: jmacessentialsofficial ; jymcollectionbrand
• Facebook: Jmac Essentials ; JYM Collection Brand
• Youtube: Jmac Essentials

Image Credits

All photos taken by me.