- 1 day ago
Esthetician and makeup artist Tiara Willis tells Sophia and Rechelle how she started in the beauty industry and building her brand behind the popular Twitter handle @makeupforwoc.
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00:00Hey guys, welcome back. I'm Rochelle. And I'm Sophia. And this is Magic Unfiltered, the
00:05podcast for girls who don't believe in glass ceilings. So today we have a very, very special
00:11guest, Miss Tiara, who is the brains behind Twitter handle Makeup for a Woman of Color.
00:20So... It's Makeup for W-O-C. It's Makeup for W-O-C, but on Instagram it's spelled out
00:26Makeup for a Woman of Color. So on Twitter you go by, pretty much it's W-O-C, huh?
00:31Basically, yeah. A lot of people are like, what does that mean? W-O-C, what does that
00:35mean? So are those people who like don't have melanin who ask you that question or is it
00:41just... Pretty much. Pretty much. The people who are not part of the W-O-C club. Not familiar
00:45with acronyms. So our audience can learn a little bit more about you and so we can also learn
00:51more about you before we get into this. Give us two truths and a lie. Okay. Two truths
00:57and a lie would be that I started Makeup for a Woman of Color at 14. I'm 18 years old and
01:07I graduated high school at 17. Okay, wait. So I know that you're 18 and I... Oh, you graduated
01:17high school at 17? When do you graduate high school? Yeah, I think that the lie is that
01:22you graduated high school at 17. Yeah, I'm going to go with it's C. You graduated high
01:27school at 17. That's the lie. Got me. That's the lie? Yeah. Wait, so you started Makeup for
01:35a Woman of Color at 14 and then I decided at 15 years old I wanted to graduate a year early.
01:40So I ended up graduating at 16 years old and right now I'm 18 so I graduated last year. Wow,
01:47so 14 years old. I know some people might have not even had Instagram at that time or Twitter
01:52at that time. So what made you want to just like start Makeup for a Woman of Color at 14
01:58years old? Well, I grew up in the age of YouTube. So I watched a lot of tutorials at a very young
02:06age. I would say about 11 years old. I started watching YouTube videos. My mom wouldn't let me
02:10wear makeup but I would like sneak it on and I would try out all different things. But the issue
02:16was was that when I would go out and buy those products it was either not in my shade or they
02:22just didn't have it at all. So I had to learn on my own and then over time my friends would come to
02:29me for advice like what should I wear? What do you think of this? What do you think of that? And I was
02:33like, you know what? Why don't I just make this into a platform? Because clearly there's a need,
02:37right? So why don't I do something with it and fill that niche? That's incredible. That's so cool.
02:44So yeah, definitely growing up in the age of YouTube I think makeup was revolutionized and became
02:49something that it never was. When did you really see a change in the beauty industry being a little
02:53bit more not only accepting but actually catering to groups and communities that typically were just
03:00kind of neglected? I think I started to see a change what a few years ago I would say maybe
03:09like three years ago when brands started expanding their foundation range because we were asking it
03:14more and more and more and more and more things started going viral on it. I kept viral that this
03:19is ridiculous. Why isn't this in my shade? Why is there only 10 shades of this product and none of
03:24them work for me? So once people started being more vocal I think and then brands eventually started
03:29coming out and saying hey like this is not good for us. It's not doesn't look good for us. Why don't
03:35we like we hear you? Yeah. So did you see a correlation in between like how your following grew and like
03:43just brands now expanding more shades? Absolutely. Or did you see more of like a grow when before these
03:49brands really started coming out and being more inclusive? I think it's when I like they happened at the
03:56same time and I think that finally building that community together our voice got louder because
04:02when you have voices coming together and uniting it's more impactful for sure. Yeah for sure.
04:09Why do you think it's it was that brands didn't really make shade ranges for women of color? Like
04:14what do you think? Because it's just like add some extra color to that or you already do research to
04:19make these products. Why can't you do that extra research? Seems like common sense. Like it seems like
04:23common sense like whoa everybody wears makeup. I mean you would think right but maybe they don't
04:32value that black dollar. Interesting is that black women actually spend a lot of money on beauty products
04:37we probably spend the most because we buy stuff for our hair, stuff for our skin, stuff for our makeup
04:42and people they just didn't value that dollar and now they do. So how do you think we can make them
04:50value that dollar even more? I'm definitely being more vocal about it. Definitely keep demanding get
04:57what you want and if it doesn't if that's not work make your own. You see a lot a big big surge of
05:04black-owned business coming out saying you know what you don't want to make it for me why do I do that
05:08myself? Yeah so how have you seen your community and how are you able to grow your community because
05:14that's huge. You have 200k on Twitter right and like about almost like 200k on like Instagram. That's
05:20huge especially from starting at 14 years old. Like what did you do differently that a lot of these
05:27people weren't doing? I spent time listening. I asked a lot a lot of questions because we needed to help
05:35each other so I made sure to ask a lot of different questions and then whatever people would say I would
05:39retweet it I would share it so that we can all you know see each other's responses and that creates
05:44engagement that creates conversation and then people can come back saying hey that worked for me
05:48hey that didn't work for me and we can get different ideas from each other. I think that definitely grew
05:53the conversation grew grew more and more. Okay so top three makeup items and then top three actual
06:02specific products. Makeup items definitely since last year my Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb is like a
06:09staple in my routine. I put my mom on. I put all my friends on. Everyone if you know me you have a
06:14Gloss Bomb in your bag for sure. And my favorite product as well would be like highlighter. I love
06:22the glow. I love that dewy look and definitely good mascara. I love I love NYX mascara. I love
06:31drugstore mascaras because you don't have to spend a lot to get good results. Yeah. So
06:37so describe your skincare routine in emojis. Skincare routine in emojis. Definitely heart emoji. The
06:45heart eyes emoji for sure. And I would say also the crying emoji because I like to use exfoliant.
06:53Sting a little. So you I take like a fan and I'm just like trying to calm down. Another one would
07:01definitely be that is it glitter or is it like the star like the stars. Yeah definitely that because
07:09you I always have I always like a dewy look. Like a glow. I like to go to bed like very very glowy
07:14because in the morning you're sitting. You're talking to the queen of face masks over here. I do a face
07:19mask every single day. I've it's gotten to the point where. She does three a day. I have like I have I
07:23have like a group text with different random people like 50 year old dudes that text me asking me
07:28what to use on their skin. Mask recommendations. I make Amazon cards for people. It's like my
07:35favorite thing to do on the side because I'm making face masks making face masks for people. So you make
07:39them yourself. Yeah sometimes I make them sometimes I use them. But sheet masks are like in the best
07:47thing you could ever do. So Tiara since skin is in you are also a licensed esthetician. So what are
07:55some of the crazy things or myths about skincare that you can educate all of us on? One of the
08:02biggest things that people think pores open and close. Pores there's no there's no muscle connected
08:09to them. They don't contract or anything. People think hot water opens your pores. Cold water closes
08:15them. That's not true. Pores are pores are open. If you have large pores it's our it's usually because
08:21they're congested. So you want to clear out that congestion using exfoliation. That's what will
08:25make your pores close so to speak. So pores definitely don't open and close. Another thing
08:31is people love to scrub their face with all different kinds of things. You definitely want
08:37to be careful doing that because you don't want to be too abrasive on the skin and then it gets so
08:41sensitive to the touch. I come in I see a lot of my clients they have these like broken capillaries
08:47especially by their nose because they've been scrubbing um too much. So definitely those things.
08:52So how did you get started in the esthetician game? Well already having my business I was surrounded by
08:59the beauty industry and I always wanted to help myself with my skin because your makeup can be
09:05great but if your skin isn't on point underneath it definitely can come through. So I'd watch all of
09:11these DIY tutorials. I tried everything. Yeah. And one day I was on YouTube and this esthetician she
09:17was like don't do these DIY hacks and she basically broke down everything I've tried and I went
09:24and I went to the lemon and sugar and honey and toothpaste toothpaste on your pimple. Did you do the glue?
09:29Yes I did. Glue? In the toilet paper? Mm-hmm. Glue and toilet paper? Yeah. Or the egg? Yeah. Egg white? Mm-hmm. I've done or the um me and my friends would always mix cinnamon, lemon and honey together and put it in the microwave and get it hot and then put it on her face. Oh wait what does that? I have no idea what that does.
09:50What is it supposed to do? It didn't work. I have no idea. Maybe for acne? I don't know. What about like turmeric and turmeric the Aztec clay and like coffee? I don't think the coffee will do anything. The Aztec will help mop up that extra oil. Turmeric? It's a debated ingredient just because there is a lot of evidence showing that can be irritating to the skin but a lot of women especially in India are using it and saying it's rocking for them.
10:19I don't think it's uh you should you can try it for sure. So those DIYs aren't on the they're not black listed but how did you get into the esthetician game? Yeah so I started so I found her I saw her video and she was like I'm an esthetician I had no idea what that was. The one on YouTube? Yeah I had no idea what that was and it's a profession for skin. You give facials you do waxing you do makeup I had no idea what it was. Um so I started researching it and I found quite a bit of black estheticians on Twitter.
10:49Um and I started following them and I was reading all their tweets and I started incorporating them into my own routine. I was learning all of these things. I've always been interested in science. There's a lot of science behind skin care and it's nice to see it applied in your real life. Um and I was thinking about what I want to do after high school. I definitely wanted some to pursue something that would advance the business that I already had.
11:10Um and I was like why don't I become an esthetician? So I the requirement to be an esthetician is 17. So at the time I had graduated high school at 16. So I hadn't even made the requirement yet.
11:23Yeah.
11:23But when I applied I told them hey I'm not technically not old enough right now. But when I'm in school I'll be 17. So I was I was 17 and one month old when I was in school.
11:34Get ready.
11:34So I was I was the youngest person in there. All of the women there were much older than me. Um but it was cool. I got I got to learn a lot from them hear their stories. Um and and I definitely learned a lot and now I can use that for my platform.
11:47Do you have any mentors or anybody that you look up to in esthetician or like an influencer in the beauty space in general?
11:56Definitely. One of my favorites. She's in Los Angeles. Nye. L.A. Beautyologist.
12:00Oh okay. Yeah I know. We go to her. Yeah.
12:02Oh you do?
12:03Yeah.
12:04She's dope. Um she's she's very very smart and I think she's uh she explains things very easily and very easy to understand. I love her. She's awesome.
12:12Oh that's dope. So is it is being in the beauty space sometimes intimidating being so young um you know and do you think that sometimes people don't take you seriously or when you got to school and you're the youngest in the room you kind of felt like you had to shrink. Did you feel like you had to shrink yourself?
12:29Yeah yeah yeah. The I remember the first weeks of school I really really struggled because my teacher I felt like she didn't like me and I had no idea why. I really couldn't figure it out. I actually went up to her and I said hey like do you have an issue with me? You know did I do something?
12:47Just straight up put it out there.
12:48And she was like no no no everything's fine and I started talking to other girls I think it's your age um because I was I was always the one that would raise their hand I had all the answers I got all the good grades and tests and I think she thought I was like a know-it-all because I was so here comes this young girl thinking that she knows everything so I get that.
13:06Do you think she stalked you and was like she has so many followers and didn't yeah because she thinks she's all that she has all these followers and she's so young and she did this and she did that I don't like her. Now she loves me now we're BFFs but BFFs yeah but I definitely I definitely experienced that for sure.
13:24So with representation do you think that skincare is taken as seriously as makeup because and how do you also balance that because you love makeup but also you're an esthetician and you love skin well I would assume that you love skin so how do you balance that?
13:41I've seen like within the past year my my audience kind of shift to makeup to a skincare page um and I'm very vocal about it I'm like hey is this okay with you um and they and they love it.
13:54They have all these questions for me and I think but you can definitely have a balance for sure yeah um because they go hand in hand right if your skin underneath how does it look um and then you could put your makeup on top and it can be even more beautiful.
14:05So as an esthetician how does makeup affect your skin because I know so many people they don't want to wear makeup because they're scared of breaking out or there's some people who sleep in their makeup and then their skin is trash and it's just like how do you navigate wanting good skin but also loving a good face beat?
14:21So the act of wearing makeup itself isn't the harmful part you putting makeup on isn't the effect because makeup and skincare the chemistry process is kind of similar um it's both just emulsives of different oils um and silicone but they just add pigment on top of it the act is the removal if you're not removing your makeup properly and I think most people have the misconception that if I don't see it
14:45it's gone um wipes in general are not enough she's I'm the wipe queen it's not enough wipes I mean
14:53like do you wash your face at night she goes yeah I use the wipes like no you gotta like
14:57double get in there triple cleanse and then baby wipe and then use the wipe and make sure
15:01I'm telling you because you'll use the wipe and then I'll also do an oil cleanse where you take um
15:08an oil you can I like the Dermalogica pre-cleanse a lot but even um just a regular oil blend whatever
15:13one you like um just rub it into your skin you can give yourself a little massage maybe about three
15:17minutes just really get in there you'll see it start to break up and then you can use your
15:21cleanser on top that's called double cleansing and even then once you if you use a toner on a cotton pad
15:26you'll see makeup residue still on the pad so that shows it gets into your pores don't have
15:33like you've never been there before I mean I have but I mean it's not an ideal situation to like see
15:39all of your dirt on the no it is an ideal situation because if you don't do it then you're sleeping with
15:45makeup and then you don't see that's when you break out you'll see acne on your face so I definitely
15:50would prefer to see it so what are some questions that you wish that your audience
15:55stopped asking you
15:58stopped asking me why do I need to wear sunscreen like why are you so obsessed can you leave me
16:08alone because I every morning I'm like good morning good morning guys did you wear your sunscreen today
16:14they're like oh my here she go here she go again but it's it's so important sunscreen especially for
16:20women of color because oftentimes my friends my followers my clients they come in experiencing
16:24hyperpigmentation that is one of their main concerns and I tell them if you're not wearing
16:29your sunscreen you're not going to see results I can do every treatment on you I can give you every
16:33serum if you're not wearing sunscreen it's not going to happen for you so what sunscreens would
16:38you recommend I know a lot of times when people research sunscreen you always see like these like
16:41make sure you get a sunscreen with zinc oxide and make sure you get this type of sunscreen what
16:45sunscreens would you recommend and how would you recommend navigating the sunscreen space without
16:49getting that white film so these are the I like to give them a checklist so your sunscreen needs to
16:55be between an SPF 30 and 50 you need to reapply you need to reapply at least every two hours if you
17:01can't at least midday and you definitely don't want that white cast so mineral sunscreens containing zinc
17:07zinc oxide or titanium dioxide tend to leave that white cast so for women of color we want to stay away
17:12from those and consider chemical sunscreens um those would be oval um avobenzone um and those they
17:20prevent leaving that cast one of my favorites right now is there's the sunscreen called black girl
17:25sunscreen it's sold at target it's so good it's it goes on clear there's no no cast looks great great
17:31under your makeup that's one of my favorites for sure and it works to prevent all that other
17:36for sure so it's almost like mo melanin mo problems you know like mo money more problems
17:46just like more more okay more melanin more problems mo bomba
17:52so what's the difference between skin types and and melanin and these melanin counts because black women
18:02have more melanin and we definitely have to treat our skin with more care and there's also not that
18:08much education on how to treat our skin as well as products or products so what do you recommend
18:14being a black woman having melanin what are some other than SPF what are some other things that you
18:19need to do or some things that we don't know about our skin extra steps sure so definitely for black
18:25skin i think exfoliating is definitely important black skin tends to be thicker it tends to be more oily so
18:31we need to exfoliate more chemical exfoliants are great considering a chemical doing a chemical peel
18:36during the winter months a session maybe three to five of them will definitely help lighten any
18:41hyperpigmentation that you have as well as staying hydrated is definitely important if you don't want
18:47dull skin and being careful with things that you try like trying lemon is more like trying lemon juice
18:56on your skin is more detrimental to black skin we are more prone to um error during treatments yeah
19:02um there's a thing called a fitzpatrick scale it goes from type one to uh i believe six and dark skin
19:10black skin is the bottom one and you'll see on the chart that the lightest skin it's not as prone
19:16to hyperpigmentation dark skin is the most prone so it gives the esthetician a guide on what treatment i need
19:22to provide for this fitzpatrick type so definitely considering that so side note i'm just someone
19:30who like i'm all about the peels oh yeah okay side note i did a foot peel like a week ago
19:37and i forgot so last night i last night right so i got out of the shower and i looked at my foot or not
19:44even at my foot i looked at the floor and i saw this trail of just like dead skin but i was like what is
19:51that so i hopped on my bed and then i looked at my foot and my foot was like completely peeling
19:56and i got scared because i forgot and then i was like whoa what is happening to me i was like i i
20:03looked on web md and then i realized like rochelle you did a chemical foot peel last week
20:11and then it dawned on me i wonder if you can do one of like get one of those peel things for your face
20:16because that's not like it's not chemical peel i don't know what's in it oh that's not a chemical
20:21peel no oh i assume it has some the foot thing that you put your foot in or whatever you see but
20:28it's not like a like a tca peel no no now here probably is the issue is that the packaging actually
20:36was in a different language it was in korean right it was in korean so i didn't you have no idea what's
20:41i thought it was a chemical peel well i mean you can just go with it when did you realize your black
20:47girl magic i realized my black girl magic i would say when i entered high school i grew up in west
20:54chester county um so there wasn't a lot of black people around i didn't have a lot of black role
20:58models so i kind of had to find be my own role model um and once i realized that my black features
21:06were something that i can be proud about that i could be confident in and that i don't have to
21:10shield behind i don't have to hide behind and i actually can embrace them so i didn't i didn't
21:16start wearing my natural hair until high school um and it simply was because i was tired i was tired
21:23of trying to be someone who i wasn't i definitely think that when i just let go and just became who i
21:30was it's very free it's a very free experience so do you think that also was a part of you starting
21:36your channels because it happened at the same time putting yourself out there so how were you able to
21:41deal with putting yourself out there it was definitely hard i did it i did it slowly for sure
21:47um but once i you just have to take a leap sometimes um and you see the reaction you see all
21:52of the support it definitely made me want to keep on doing it so if you could look into a crystal ball
21:58say it's right there right where would you see yourself in five years ten years i definitely
22:06see myself within the next three years i would love to open up my own spa for sure offering different
22:12facials and body treatments and then like along the line definitely start my own skincare line where i
22:18can cater it to my clients and cater it especially to women of color because i think um there's definitely
22:23more uh research and more uh skincare products that needs to be put out for women of color what are
22:29the tips because i know i definitely grew up in the youtube generation so i feel like maybe the people
22:33who were in that same route we've kind of grown with the different youtube influencers and the jackie
22:39ines and the whatever what are some of your tips to make makeup something that's more doable and easy
22:44for people you can start small you don't have to attempt to do a full face foundation contour you can
22:50start small with a little bit concealer i definitely love to add color um for makeup and it doesn't
22:56have to be a lot it could just be a pop of color maybe a bright blush or a cool eyeliner or a bold lip
23:01and that's definitely one way you can have fun um specifically for dark skin the contrast i think is so
23:06beautiful when you have neon pop of color and then really beautiful dark skin and you definitely stand
23:11out in a crowd it's like her makeup is awesome she's a star so you know to wrap things up we have a
23:18a little a little something a little something can you guess what it is before we tell you it has
23:25something to do with wrapping i hear oh how do you know did you do your research i might have oh i feel
23:33like it was ashley ashley looks sus hmm it was her y'all got a rat yeah all right all right it's it's all
23:42right anyway so we need a couple of bars that you can give us you know for for this freestyle that
23:50we're asking you to do okay you know so make it unique to you you know what you do talk about you
23:58know maybe you could wrap like a skincare routine or all right well i need a beat oh don't worry i got
24:06you on that i got you you ready i'm gonna beat box okay
24:10yo yo yo my name's tiara i'm an esthetician i got the power i got ambition
24:28and this is essence you better listen okay and give us all of your attention
24:38you can listen to my rap on apple spotify soundcloud i'm across all platforms all streaming
24:51platforms let them know when the mixtape's dropping she's going on tour january 2020 see you there
24:56all right guys thank you for tuning in this is rochelle and i'm still sophia and this was
25:03magic unfiltered you can listen to this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts apple spotify
25:09all those good places and you can follow me tiara at makeup for wc on twitter and on instagram
25:15makeup for woman of color all spelled out and we're out we're out
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