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

KAYLA, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

One thing that has been instrumental to the success of my company has been focusing on my own goals and my own path. It’s easy to get caught up comparing where you’re at in your career to others, especially with social media. However, I’ve found that putting up your blinders and truly focusing on your own unique path and only comparing yourself to where you were last year – it truly has the power to propel you forward to places you never imagined.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey as a Makeup Artist started when I was very young, around 13. I’d always loved beauty products and often wondered if I’d have the opportunity to make it an actual career. At the age of 16, I toured a cosmetology school with my Mom, believing that I wanted to be a Hair Stylist. It was during that tour, after meeting the Makeup Artistry course instructor, that I realized there was an opportunity to focus on what I truly loved, Makeup. I signed up for my first official course in the Art of Makeup and I’ve never looked back.

After graduating, I said yes to every opportunity to do makeup that came my way. Growing up in Southern California afforded me exciting jobs on small films, music videos, photoshoots and fashion shows. Although I was grateful to have had the experience in many different genres of makeup, I found myself quickly gravitating towards working with Brides on their special day. Something about curating a brides makeup look on one of the most special days of her life really excited and fulfilled me.

After moving to the Seattle area in 2008, I realized that brides had very little options when it came to bridal Makeup Artists who specialized in fuller glam makeup styles (in Seattle around 2008, there were plenty of Artists who offered very natural makeup, but very few who were offering full glam). I saw this as an opportunity and really leaned into bringing the soft glam looks that I’m known for, to my new city.

A few years into living in Seattle, I took a job as a Master Makeup Artist instructor at a Makeup School in downtown. It was there that I met many amazing students who I mentored throughout their careers – thus beginning my love for Educating.
Flash forward to covid era and things really started to expand for my business once the world began to reopen. My team expanded from 2 to 9 in two years and we quickly became known for not only our elevated soft glam style of makeup but for our exceptional level of service. Today, I am proud to lead The Kayla Kollection Bridal Beauty Team – a team of elite Artist, specializing in soft glam bridal makeup and awarded Washington’s Best Bridal Makeup for the past 3 years in a row!

In the past five years, I’ve been blessed enough to have wonderful brides hire me for destination weddings all over the world, taking me places like Mexico, South America, Italy, France and all over the U.S.. Destination weddings are one of the most exciting parts of my career as I get to combine the two things I love most – traveling the world all while making my dream clients look and feel their absolute best on their big day.

Right now in my career, I’m focused on expanding my destination wedding services to more places around the world and getting back to my roots as an Educator – next up on the agenda is executing a Makeup Masterclass experience I could have only dreamed of when I was first starting out. The goal is to educate and inspire the next generation of Artists in a way that can fast-track their careers so they can really live out their full potential as the Artist they’ve always wanted to be.

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

In 2022, my Husband and I welcomed our daughter Selena. I was over the moon to have a daughter on the way but I was deeply afraid of how our new baby would affect my career. I wanted to be a present mother and also have a thriving career and there were times I didn’t think having both at the same time was possible. My hopes for the idea of this “perfect balance” became even more bleak when I began experiencing very deep and real postpartum depression. There were days I had to show up for a bride on the most special day of her life all while I felt my entire world was falling apart and feeling the lowest I ever had.

Having an amazing partner like my Husband, my closest friends and my team there to support me during this time really lifted me up and gave me the fuel I needed in order to realize that I was stronger than I was currently believing I was and that I could indeed, do hard things.

Overcoming that hard period in my life and coming out the other side, even stronger, has really shifted my mindset and belief in myself.

I’ve learned that there will be periods of time where it will be necessary to put other areas of your life ahead of your career and that, it will not all come crashing down if you need to do so. My advice is to set yourself, your business and your branding up with a strong foundation from day one so that if you ever need to step away for a moment, you can do so with confidence, knowing it will be there ready to pick back up when you’re ready.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In todays world, it’s important to realize that you are speaking to many different people on social media and you have multiple audiences to serve within your broader audience. For example, for the longest time, I had the belief that my target audience was a newly engaged Bride-to-be and so I was only posting content that spoke directly to that client. In doing so, I was completely neglecting a huge part of my following – fellow Makeup Artists. When I made the shift into posting content that also served Artists, I saw growth and higher engagement almost immediately. It’s important to keep in mind the potential of your following wanting to learn from you and how you can best serve them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kaylakollection.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylakollection/

Image Credits

Morgan Long Photo
Janet Lin Photography
Kir Tuben Photopgraphy