Today we’d like to introduce you to Daisy Maldonado.
Hi Daisy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello and thank you for the opportunity to be a able to share my story. My love for all things beauty started in high school when I would do makeup for all the cheerleaders in the bus on our way to football games. That required an array of cosmetics that my father was not the most pleased with when we would check out at the counter. Little did he know he was contributing to shaping my life goals and aspirations. In college I studied Theatre, and as a result, I had to take a makeup course. It was at that point in my life that I knew I wanted to continue my education in professional makeup. Shortly after graduating in 2003, my mother enrolled me at MUD (Make-up Designory) in Burbank, California. I continued to study all aspects of makeup and medias, including sanitation standards, color matching, makeup for film, tv, commercial, music video, print, etc. After completing the journeyman program at MUD, I went on to get my experience working with numerous beauty brands including Sally Beauty, Origins, MAC, Smashbox and L’Oreal. I truly believe working with these beauty brands was the perfect segway into the position I am at now. It gave me the opportunity to build my kit with the gratis I was given, training was included so you were able to learn about product and how to use them to create different looks and most importantly it gave me the chance to practice on normal clients who weren’t going to be filmed for tv or photographed for a magazine. I managed to live and work in LA for 13 years before I realized I was ready to be closer to my family. In 2016, I moved back to Texas and made Austin home. Moving here was probably the best thing I could have done for my career. My work here has been fruitful and I have never been happier. I’m really grateful for my time and experience that I had in LA. The grind was real and it taught me how to thrive in such a cutthroat industry. Bringing that hustle to Austin allowed me to get to work right away in a new city with hardly any contacts.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely was not a smooth road. There are so many talented artists out there and it makes for a lot of competition. You have to be thick skinned and know that you will be turned down a lot, but eventually you learn that not every job is for you. You deal with a lot of personalities, most pleasant but others, not so much. So you’re not only doing makeup, you learn how to deal with clients and talent in the most respectful ways to maintain good working relationships. A lot of learning to read people, perfecting the art of gab and keeping the peace 100% of the time even though the circumstances are not ideal. This industry is not for the faint of heart, it can get very stressful, so being able to maintain composure is really important. You have to learn to be “on” all the time.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I mainly do commercial, corporate and print work. But honestly, I enjoy it all and I never say no to any opportunity to make extra income. But if I had to pick one, I would say that I really love natural, clean beauty. There is nothing better than taking someone’s natural features and enhancing the beauty they already have. Gone are the days of using tons of products, major contouring and wearing so much makeup that you don’t even look like yourself…… For now at least. I’m really into the “no makeup” makeup look and being able to use 1 product for many purposes. Before Covid, the barely there makeup was beginning to trend, and fortunately with Covid, it went into full gear with the mask wearing. The idea of only having a hand full of products and wearing the bare minimum is so liberating to me. I’m known on sets for being very kind, very easy going and great with clients. Sets already have so many moving parts that being able to go with the flow and being able to take direction and being flexible is always an asset to have…Makeup is not the only thing we are contributing to sets, we are also building long and lasting relationships to continue to do good work for as long as we can.
I’m most proud of the longevity of my career and for finally being able to reach my goal of joining the union. Eighteen years in the business is an immense badge of honor. There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears that have gone into my profession. Literally. What sets me apart from others is my years of experience and being able to have spent many of those years learning from some of the best in Los Angeles. Another really important thing I pride myself in and get lots of compliments on is my cleanliness, sanitation and organization. So many artists struggled on whether they would go back to it after Covid hit, understandably, but I feel like cleanliness and sanitation were always the main priority from the get go. A few adjustments added to knowledge we already had was all we needed.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Networking is SO important. Go out, meet people, get on the meet up app, join Facebook groups, you can never network enough. Make people know who you are. If you’re just starting and don’t have a network, make networking your job for 8 hours a day. Get on your computer and find people that you think could help you and set up meetings with them. Sometimes seasoned artists are willing to let you shadow them. These are all things that worked for me.
Contact Info:
- Email: mixmasterdaze@gmail.com
- Website: www.makeupbydaisy.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/daisymaldonadomakeup
