Meet Arielle Antoinette Pedmour (@arielleantoinette_makeup).
She’s a Professional Makeup Artist and CEO of Double A Makeup Artistry.
Arielle’s worked with celebrities like LeToya Luckett, Dr. Heavenly, and Tamika Scott. You can also spot her work in publications like Essence and Rolling Out She’s turned her skill into an innovative product with @theofficialmakeupkit and popular Glam Camps.
Listen to her journey about starting out as a girl who just wanted to feel better about herself growing into a sought-after artist.
Learn how she overcame not having a steady paycheck, internet trolls, & changing trends.
Transcript
Christiana: Hey guys, we’re here to talk to Arielle. A professional makeup artist. You’ve seen
her work on celebrities like Yandy and Dr. Heavenly and on publications like
Rolling Out. You may have even seen her work on Family Hustle, the TV show.
So what we’re gonna do today is get a little look behind the scenes on how she
creates the works of art that she does on people’s faces and her story about
how she became a professional makeup artist. So you ready? Let’s go.
Hey girl!
Arielle: Hi! How are you?
Christiana: Thanks for having us! No problem. I’m really excited to get talking about your professional
makeup artist business.
Arielle: Yes, me too.
Christiana: You ready to talk?
Arielle: I’m so ready. Let’s go!
[intro]
So you ready? Let’s go.
C: So how did this all get started? Why a professional makeup artist?
A: Basically, as a child, I didn’t really feel comfortable, I didn’t feel confident, pretty any of that stuff. So I started playing with makeup about 2011. I started getting paid maybe like a year or two after that.
Before then it was just practicing and building that experience, playing, creating enhancements on me, friends, family. I just I felt like it was like my happy place so I kept I kept going with it.
C: When did the transition into being a business?
A: Pretty much within the last two to three years when I went full-time. So basically I did you know just little gigs, little jobs or whatever, and I just I kept getting better as I practiced and practice on other people and then people were just willing to actually pay for it.
And back then it wasn’t so much as everyone wanted to be a makeup artist as it is now so it was kind of like, you know, I was getting business. I’m still gonna business, but it was – it was a thing to to work up to so I kept with it.
C: So what got you to take that leap? Because a lot of people are sitting in an office right now thinking I need to GO.
A: So I planned – I planned for months. You have to definitely make like an exit plan. So I
saved, I built. I have a mentor. She definitely was very influential in that as well, she just helped me to walk out on faith pretty much.
And so, yeah, I planned what month I was gonna leave, the day, and I wrote my notice and I left.
C: And as a business owner have you, do you feel like you’ve changed it all since you started?
A: I feel like I’ve learned a lot more as far as people goes, just how to, you know, deal with people and kind of be more strict.
I’m really easygoing and just more on the nicer side so I try to you know I have to step it up a little bit and be more strict so like as far as booking goes, scheduling time, and stuff like that. It’s just it’s a lot easier when I have a system.
Well, I usually have people booked online. There’s usually a deposit or you can do like the entire fee, and so you know it kind of makes – it makes like an agreement kind of so you’re not gonna forget. You’ve already paid, you’ve already signed up, it’s like foolproof.
C: So you try to get people to kind of commit upfront to showing up and letting you do the work. At a specific time, place, and everything.
A: Yeah, it’s like they’re obligated almost
C: That’s wonderful. When did you set that all up? The online booking…
A: I did that… I started that maybe… maybe like two to three years now. Before then I was kind of just manually doing it, and I felt like it was giving me a bit of anxiety like it was a lot just to keep record just mentally and on my phone so online is definitely the way to go.
C: What kind of tools did you use to so do the online booking?
A: So I like Square and Acuity is a good one too, but Square’s like my go to.
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C: So give us some highlights of your career so far what have you really – kind of – what can you look back and go wow I really did that!
A: I’ve worked on a few projects. Lately there’s a show that’s been out Family Hustle on vh1 that was that was pretty awesome. And I’ve done that for two seasons and I’ve also gone into Married to Medicine, working with Dr. Heavenly and Quad… Contessa and also like shooting for Rolling Out and Essence so those were pretty pretty dope.
C: How were you able to get those? Because those are pretty big deals yeah those are pretty big shows and pretty big celebrities so how did you land those?
A: The first person I did actually was Yandy. Of course I remember the first person. So, basically, social media. Like we have social media, we have this giant engine where anybody can really see what you’re doing. Especially if you’re consistent.
Yandy’s publicist, she reached out when they had an event here In Atlanta. She was like my first celebrity so it was it was it was pretty big. At what point was that that – did that happen early in your career or was it after some time?
This was like three years ago.
C: So it sounds as though you were being consistent on social media for… how long would you say?
A: I feel like Instagram kind of came around like 2012-13. So, pretty much since then I’ve been posting.
The quality has definitely changed but, yeah, it’s been a long time.
C: Yeah so I mean, you were on there for about five years before somebody said “hey”.
A: Yeah.
C: Wow, and I mentioned that because a lot of people think Instagram’s like a magic pill.
A: No, it’s not.
C: So what would you say the combination – what combination of actions do you think kind of led to that first big break?
A: Definitely consistency.
I feel like you need to kind of know which genre you want to be in and stay true to that, because there’s gonna be trends that pop up and go away.
But I feel like me knowing, you know, which type of looks work best for me as an artist, that’s kind of what stood out as well.
C: Now, how has your business changed? Because I follow you on Instagram and I see that you do different things, but I imagine that’s not how you started off. So how is your business, the things you do to either earn money or share your knowledge, how has that changed through
the years?
A: Well starting off I pretty much just did clients and I mean I still do clients but now I’ve evolved into more so teaching, because I want other women to, you know, know how to do it as well just being on set and I offer now like kits so women could actually learn their makeup.
They’ll have their own personal items and learn it.
C: So what is it like for you as the artist, to see your work either on a magazine or on a small screen or on Instagram photos? People kind of showing off their faces after you’ve done the work?
A: it’s a good and a kind of eerie side to it. Of course it’s fulfilling and you know it’s a good feeling to know that you’ve helped this person in some shape or form. Even if it’s just makeup, you know, whether it’s you know building confidence or just it’s their engagement photos, their Christmas photos.
It’s like a once in a lifetime event for them.
You know, social media also has like trolls and things of that nature so people are just willing to give their opinion and so that’s kind of the eerie side so you have to kind of deal with that as well as the good side.
C: How has it affected you as the artist?
A: Obviously, if they’re not there on set or at the person’s house, they don’t know, you know,
different scenarios that played behind the scenes so that kind of – that kind of plays into it. But of course they wouldn’t know that.
C: How does it affect you to see people kind of being judgmental, If you will, without knowing the whole story.
A: I feel like I’ve gotten better with it. You kind of you kind of just learn to deal with it. Most of those pages you go to there’s like nothing on their page. It’s like okay where did what are you
doing? I mean you just kind of have to roll with it. It comes with it.
C: What have you experienced as obstacles? What have you have to overcome in order
to either continue doing this full-time or have people continue paying you for your expertise?
A: I feel like I really had to fully commit. I was trying to juggle, you know, just a regular job and then also what I’m really passionate about. So I feel like that was an obstacle I had to come over.
C: What does that look like?
A: I don’t to say necessarily a specific religion, because you know everyone believes in their own beliefs. But just having a good faith in what you’re doing and you know knowing that you’re on the right path.
C: So an obstacle for you was getting past those lean times. Is there anything else that you
felt like you needed to overcome to be a professional makeup artist?
A: I guess getting outside of my head too. Nowadays there’s a lot of competition or just other people out there doing the same thing so I feel like just not really paying attention to that and just stay you know staying the course staying true to yourself.
That’s what you got to do.
C: Now let’s go into some advice that you might have. First, advice for yourself. What would you tell young Arielle who was looking in the mirror looking, you know, not seeing the things that she wanted to see. And looking for ways to maybe feel better about herself.
Knowing what you know now, what would you tell her?
A: Don’t take what, you know, other people say so literally. Open your mouth more. I’m kind of still learning how to do that now, but just opening your mouth, networking, talking to other people.
Because you never know like who you’re talking to and who they may know and just what opportunities can come from that. A lot – I feel like a lot of opportunities come from another person. So definitely open your mouth and just be just be you, be confident in what you’re doing.
C: And now looking out. Looking at other people who are trying to get into this
industry. What kind of advice would you have for them?
A: I would definitely say be consistent. We have we have the internet, we have social media, definitely use those. We don’t know how long it’s going to be here.
Like Instagram goes down every other day now, it seems like. But definitely use social media, network we have a lot of events especially here in Atlanta so definitely get just get out the house.
If you have to go by yourself, don’t worry about if Tiffany’s coming, just do your thing.
C: So we just got done talking to Arielle Antoinette and she walked us through how her perseverance, her determination, and her consistency landed her her first big break.
What really stuck with me is how she turned a personal problem that she was struggling with into a solution that she turned into a business. Some of you watching right now are dealing with something personal.
You’re solving the issue for yourself. But maybe this episode inspired you a little bit to turn that solution for yourself into a solution to other people, because I know it did that for me. Well, that’s it for today.
I hope you enjoyed this episode and I’ll talk to you next time. Bye!
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