Welcome!

Welcome to my weekly blog! If you’ve dropped in from the stratosphere I thought it might be good to start with a little bit about me and what you can expect if you decide to join me here..

WHO AM I?

My name is Lyndsay, I’m a 45 year old makeup artist and mum of three from Belfast in Northern Ireland. I haven’t always worked in makeup, in fact my degree is in Social Psychology and I have PGDip’s in Youth and Community Studies and Restorative Practice. I spent a long time working with children and vulnerable families and before taking a career break in 2019, I had worked for 13 years in the Dept of Justice as a Restorative Practitioner. You might think there are no transferrable skills into makeup but read on!

I was getting into the swing of my career break when the pandemic started and *shudder* homeschooling became the hardest job any of us have ever done. Truly horrific wasnt it?! I had always had an interest in makeup and to escape from my own head during lockdown, I enrolled in a couple of online makeup courses.

I was hooked..

I absorbed that information like a sponge and started posting some makeup videos on my Instagram @dollypond_mua teaching other people what I was learning. They were really well recieved and I realised that women, particularly more mature women like myself, were struggling to apply their own makeup to their changing features.

The following year, I bit the bullet, resigned from my nice safe public sector job with all the perks and benefits (which was also killing me softly) and I enrolled in a training course for aspiring makeup artists.

On my first day, I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

There were seven students and each of them could have been my daughter. I have never felt SO OLD. That insecurity stayed with me for most of the course..I actually felt ashamed of my age, I found myself apologising for it, running myself down, critising my skin and how my eyes were hooded. At every opportunity, I made derogatory comments about my own age. I cringed every time a new tutor entered the room and I mentally calculated how many years older than them I was. ‘Makeup is a young persons game’, I thought. Internally I stressed about what the hell I had done, leaving my job, placing my family under financial pressure to follow a stupid dream and entering an industry for beautiful people when I was probably closer to retirement!

But you know what my age brought me? It brought me maturity. I threw myself into every single aspect of that course. I practiced and practiced and practiced. My son was painted, my husband was painted, my mum, my friends, my nieces. If I could have put makeup on the dog I would have. I did my homework, I took it seriously and I ate, slept and breathed makeup. Failure was just not an option.

It actually amazes me what the universe will show you if you’re open to it.

I simply couldn’t hold back my passion. So I had to find a way through the fear, worry, and insecurity. I had to make it work for me.

When the course ended, the hard part started. How could I possibly take money from people when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing? I think this is where lots of people can stall or stop. Fear takes over, negative self talk is so loud and imposter syndrome is real.

I was so lucky to have had a lovely engaged following on Instagram who had been following my journey and were incredibly supportive of what I was trying to do, even though I wasnt quite sure myself! My followers were so keen to learn what I was learning and as my main demographic was 35 up to 65+ I started to realise that I could find a space to teach women my own age and older, how to apply their own makeup.

So, again I swallowed my fear, set up my dining room and started advertising makeup lessons and applications on my Instagram page for a limited time at a discounted rate.

I was INUNDATED!

From September to Christmas, I didn’t stop! Most of my clients were over 40 and I realised that (yet again) our age were being left behind. Over 40 doesn’t mean you stop caring, or stop wanting to look your best.

Yet the reality is, our skin has changed, our eyes may have become a little more hooded and the makeup we threw at ourselves in our twenties, just doesn’t work in our forties or above!

It requires a little tweaking, some new product recommendations and a few different techniques.

I learned so so much about what works on more mature skin, how to create beautiful flattering makeup on the more experienced visage and how to teach other women the same techniques so they could feel confident applying their own makeup. I was and still am, obsessed!

In terms of those transferrable skills, my years in mediation have come in very handy for all the chats in the chair! But again, this is where age comes in too. I can honestly say that I have had some of the best laughs and chats with my clients. We women of a certain age are very good craic! We have lived a bit, been through a few ups and downs and are pretty much unshockable! The fun and laughs we have while learning about makeup is one of my favourite parts about this wonderful work.

Fast forward and I am now based at my beautiful studio in East Belfast with a steady stream of lovely clients. I provide a full range of services, including makeup lessons and masterclasses for over 40’s, makeup applications and corporate work. I offer a full range of online services and launched an online Academy where all women, regardless of their age or skill level can sign up to learn new techniques to apply their own makeup.

I am just so excited for this year as I develop as a makeup educator for the over 40’s.

Makeup IS a young persons game, if you look at social media. It’s full of beautiful people. It’s also full of filters and editing apps. I want to create an honest, welcoming space, whether online or face to face, where women of any age can learn techniques and find products which work on more mature skin, eyes and lips. Makeup on a twenty year old will not be the same as makeup on a 40, 50, 60 or 70+ year old and I am committed to making makeup accessible for all ages.

This is not just a story about makeup. I have taken myself on a bit of a journey of self-discovery over the past four years. Having lost confidence after having children, feeling pretty lost and tired, wanting more out of my life, then literally wading through fear and self doubt to try and reach my goals. That part is ongoing but alongside the makeup I really really want to inspire you, as women, to expect more, be selfish if you need to, prioritise yourselves, express yourselves and hold on to your identity. No good comes from placing yourself at the bottom of the pecking order year after year. Reclaiming a little bit of yourself has the most incredible benefits and vibrations for you but also those around you (I think that’s another blog post!)

Lots of love for now

Lyndsay x