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

Hi Marissa, thanks for joining us 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.

My love for makeup and all things beauty started at a very young age. It began in my mother’s bathroom playing through her makeup bag. Eventually it grew as a teenager when I was able to purchase makeup on my own. My friends and family would allow me to practice on them and it got to a point where they would ask me to do their makeup for special occasions. Being in the industry and know what I know now, I would have worked on more faces sooner. It is a scary thing working on new faces in the beginning, but with more practice, comes more confidence.
The biggest obstacle I faced when learning makeup was finding the difference in Instagram and professional makeup. Instagram/YouTube makeup influencers were a HUGE things growing up and influenced a lot of us who had a love for makeup. However, when learning makeup, YouTube isn’t always the best avenue.

Marissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in a pretty small town on the coast of NC. Have you heard of Swansboro? Chances are you haven’t, but that is where I call home and the beginning of my love for makeup started. After graduating HS and spending a couple of years working in different fields, I decided to try and get licensed in esthetics. I have always had a love for makeup but was convinced that it was a real career and couldn’t make a living from it. I found it almost impossible to stay booked and busy as an independent makeup artist just starting out and thought a license would help with that. Once I graduated from my 9 month course, I was lucky enough to come across an ad from a bridal team looking for last minute help. I took a chance and reached out and the rest was history! After getting my toes wet in the industry, I decided it was time to start my own company and Reign Beauty was formed in Jan 2021. Giving artists the opportunity to do what they love for a living really feels surreal sometimes. Our team started off with about 10 artists and has grown to 20 in a little over 2 years. One thing I am most proud of is the diversity in our team. It is important to us that each client sees themselves in group and knows that when they book us, they will be taken care of.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artists is truly my clients reaction to the final look. There is nothing better than handing someone the mirror and hearing a gasp or OMG as their first reaction.

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

Our start was not an easy one. The bridal company I started with decided to shut their doors at the end of 2020 with no notice or heads up, leaving a dozen artists without jobs and over 150 brides without hair and makeup for their big day. Many of these brides had already paid their deposit (some even paid in full) and because the previous company filed bankruptcy, they would not be receiving any money back. When I decided to start Reign Beauty, there was a moral decision that I felt like I had to make. Start my new company fresh with an open calendar or allow these brides ,who were rightfully upset and stressed, to be our first customers. So in good faith, I allowed those brides to book with us, only paying whatever their remaining balance was with the previous company. Our first year in business was a bit stressful but it has turned out to be quite rewarding. We formed beautiful relationships with our first year brides and have even worked with them again later down the line at other weddings.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.reignbeautync.com
• Instagram: @reignbeautync
• Facebook: Reignbeautync
• Other: Tiktok: @reignbeautync