Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kyra Dowling. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kyra , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
When I decided to get my high school graduation photos done professionally and my photographer’s on-staff makeup artist called in sick at the last minute, I reached out to every person I knew who might have contacts in the makeup world so I could hire someone quickly to save the day. There was only one makeup artist able to fit me in at 6:30 in the morning, and while she expertly applied my makeup, she told me she was planning to expand her business and take on a team. I told her about my dreams of working in makeup professionally and she asked if I wanted to learn from and train under her! I was so honored that she would take the time to help me fulfill my dreams. To me, this was clearly the opportunity God had in store for me to get my foot in the door, and I trained with her for about two years after that. Since then, I have continued to work very closely with her as I branch out and begin to work on building my own business from the ground up, and she continues to guide and support me along the way.
Knowing what I know now, I could have picked up my trade a little more quickly if I had dedicated myself to constant, hands-on practice. In the beginning, it is essential you have real life practice so you can become familiar with not only your products and how to work efficiently, but also working under pressure, with certain time constraints, in inconvenient spaces, and with different skin stages, textures, and tones. The most essential skills I learned in makeup would have to be the practical application of color theory, how to layer specific products, and the importance of clear and concise client communication! It’s nearly impossible to practice makeup professionally without these.
The main obstacle that stood in my way early on, and even now to some extent, is my introverted personality. As you can imagine, it’s pretty tough to build up a client and communication based business without having the confidence to introduce yourself to people! I have really gotten out of my shell and grown in my ability to communicate through this process, though, and it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. That isn’t to say it’s any easier to walk up to strangers and make new client connections now, but I am definitely getting the hang of it and becoming more confident in the process now.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Howdy friends! My name is Kyra Dowling and I am a freelance makeup artist from San Antonio, Texas. While makeup is my passion and the work I do for my clients is my literal pride and joy, I am also a full-time student studying Biology with focuses in Zoology and Astrobiology. If it sounds like a lot–it kinda is! But that’s the super cool thing about passions: you can absolutely have several of them! I love what I do and I love what I study, even though they may not exactly coincide with one another.
The way I got into the world of professional makeup is only what I can describe as an act of God. I grew up loving makeup and playing with it as often as I could. As I got older, I began theoretically exploring what it would take to do makeup professionally, with the idea that I could work in theater or dance productions, but I always felt like I was stuck ‘outside the circle’. I eventually gave up on the idea because I had no idea how to get started or involved, and it just didn’t feel like it was in the cards for me!
When I decided to get my high school graduation photos done professionally and my photographer’s on-staff makeup artist called in sick at the last minute, I reached out to every person I knew who might have contacts in the makeup world so I could hire someone quickly to save the day. There was only one makeup artist able to fit me in at 6:30 in the morning, and while she expertly applied my makeup, she told me she was planning to expand her business and take on a team. I told her about my dreams of working in makeup professionally and she asked if I wanted to learn from and train under her! I was so honored that she would take the time to help me fulfill my dreams. To me, this was clearly the opportunity God had in store for me to get my foot in the door, and I trained with her for about two years after that. Since then, I have continued to work very closely with her as I branch out and begin to work on building my own business from the ground up, and she continues to guide and support me along the way.
I provide professional makeup artistry for all events, specializing in a beautiful, natural skin look as the base to all of my work. I work with clients for weddings, quinceaneras, modeling gigs, creative photography, senior and graduation photo sessions, and much more! It’s my true honor to be able to use makeup to show people their internal and external beauty, and I’m blessed to be able to call makeup my ministry. I believe God called me into makeup artistry so I can show others how He sees them: perfectly crafted in His image and truly, deeply beautiful. I am so proud to display the gift He has given me, and it is my goal that the work of my hands reflects this.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The main mission driving my creative journey is that I want others feel the love of Jesus. I believe that every person is inherently created beautiful by God, and in a society that teaches us we have to be perfect or meet a specific societal standard, I think it’s very important to have an emphasis on natural, personal beauty. Through makeup, I enhance already existing features and help people feel more confident and beautiful in their skin, in turn showing them how Jesus sees them!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I really had to unlearn toxic perfectionism. Early on in my life, I was taught that the work of my hands needed to be done to the best of my ability. This is an amazing lesson to learn fundamentally, as it teaches you to never just give your second best to the projects you work on. However, this lesson really fostered an environment where I began striving for perfection in everything I did. It’s no surprise that makeup artistry quickly followed suit in this area! However, as with many creative pursuits, makeup artistry is quite fluid. While there may be a very general template makeup artists can use as far as the basic process goes, most of the creative artistry itself is very individual! My craft has to be tailored specifically to each person, changing depending on skin texture, color, age, bone structure and even hair and eye color. It became crucial that I learn how to separate good, solid work and toxic perfectionism so I don’t ultimately fail my client and even myself. There is no cookie-cutter way to do it, it has to be individually methodical!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @kyradowling_mua
Image Credits
Madalyn Dobbs, Tori Murphy, Jacelyn Sellers