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

Hi Lauryn, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I started my first cosmetology program during my junior and senior year of high school trying to follow in my mother’s footsteps as a hairstylist, but I quickly learned during my experience that doing hair was not something I was passionate about. It was actually kind of shocking because I remember how excited I was when I first told my mother I wanted to start learning. I knew I still wanted to be in the beauty industry but my mom just told me not to give up so easily and that maybe I just hadn’t found my place yet. One day I started wanting to learn how to do my own makeup since I was bartending at the time, just to enhance my everyday look. I started watching makeup tutorials on YouTube, and I swear it was like a light bulb clicked on in my head, I thought to myself, “I want to try to be a makeup artist”. I started posting little make up videos on my Instagram just for fun, creating new looks not thinking much into it. I was a year out of high school, working a food service job still posting short instagram videos. One day I was about to hop in my Lyft on my way to work and I noticed that the driver had this huge black and pink logo on her car, “ForHerCosmetics” it instantly caught my attention. In the driver’s seat was none other than Miss Alyssa Space. I always get a little nervous when it comes to Lyft and Uber drivers so I kind of shied away from speaking to her at first but my curiosity took over and I finally asked her about the logo. She explained that she was a graduated chemist from MSU and she hand created her own cosmetic line with different lipsticks, lip glosses, and pigments, we immediately exchanged instagrams and our relationship grew from there. Two days later I posted a makeup video on my Instagram and she dm’d me from her business page and asked me to be a brand ambassador. As soon as I read the message I got so excited about the opportunity I literally screamed at the top of my lungs, I think I ended up startling my mom, mind you it was 1 o’clock in the morning . Knowing that I was gonna be the face of someone’s brand sort of intimidated me because growing up I never thought I was that beautiful no matter how many times my family tried to convince me otherwise, I had to learn to believe it myself. I definitely feel like once I started working with Alyssa she really inspired me to tap into my inner artistry. She has supported me and promoted me more than I could ever ask any friend for and for that I’m gonna be a ForHerBabe for life.The more and more I practiced my skills it actually became a form of therapy, as I became more comfortable in my craft I wanted to share it with other women too, that don’t feel that confident in themselves, of course you don’t need make up to be beautiful, but a little lipgloss and eyeshadow never hurt anyone.

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

I am the Lead Brand Ambassador and Make Up Artist for the most amazing black owned, stem based, and all natural cosmetic line located in Detroit, ForHerCosmetics. I provide natural, soft, and full glam services to my clients. Makeup sometimes has such a negative narrative to it, you hear a lot of people say “people just wear makeup because they’re insecure” or “it’s just fake” not realizing sometimes it can be really artistic and can be used as a form of expression or creativity. I love making my clients feel beautiful and giving them that extra boost of confidence, showing them that makeup never gives them their beauty, it just enhances what they already have. What I am most proud of when it comes to my craft is how self taught I am. I remember practicing everyday in my room buying so many different products and begging my family and friends to allow me to practice on them. I used to get so discouraged when I first started, beating myself up over mistakes I would make during my learning stage. I look back at old photos and videos of how my work used to look, when I look at how it looks now it damn near makes me wanna cry because all the work, stress, time, and effort was all worth it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I definitely had to unlearn for my line of work is that there is only one way to do makeup. I found myself trying to compare my work or copy other people’s techniques and for a long time I didn’t realize that everyone has their own process, you just have to be unconditionally dedicated and be willing to invest a lot in your craft.

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

One day I was working at a pop up shop for ForHerCosmetics and a woman in a wheelchair with 3 children approached me, asking me to try on lipstick. She couldn’t speak so she wrote down everything she wanted to say to me. I applied the lipstick on her and handed her a mirror so she could see how she looked with it on and she started writing her response, she wrote “I Am So Ugly”. I nearly started crying because when I was bullied in high school I had been told by so many other students that I was ugly so many times that I started to go into a head space where I started to believe it. I held her hand and told her that was absolutely not true, that whoever told her that was just jealous of how beautiful she was and they were just trying to project how they felt about themselves onto her. To this day I still hold on to that piece of paper she wrote on to not only remind myself of my purpose but to also remind myself that having a kind spirit can go a long way, that beauty is not just on the outside. This industry can be beautiful but it’s also super catty and competitive. You see a lot of people put each other down especially in this generation now where this “mean girl” era is so highly encouraged. I just wanna show people different, there’s not just one kind of pretty and that everyone is beautiful and special in their own way. That moment was the most rewarding for me because I got to be for another woman what I wasn’t for myself .

Contact Info:

• Instagram: iamlaurynnicole
• Twitter: iamlaurynnicole