Meet Nathalie Candelaria Santiago | Small Business owner & Makeup enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathalie Candelaria Santiago and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathalie, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have always had an overactive imagination. I fell in love with art and drawing as a child and as I grew older that love remained but also expanded into different art forms. I just absolutely love doing something creative with my hands. I love the mellow feelings it brings me while I’m creating and then the proud accomplished feelings of when that project is finished!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Before starting my business I expressed myself creatively through makeup. I started doing makeup back in 2018 when I was feeling the worst in my postpartum depression. Being a SAHM is hard mentally and makeup really allowed me to feel like myself again all while introducing me to a whole new community online where everyone was relatively nice and supportive. Because of my makeup skills I’ve met a bunch of amazing talented artists online and it’s because of them and their support that I’m even able to continue my business. I started off making jewelry and then branched out into making my own makeup. I hand make my blushes and highlighters and honestly that has to be the one thing I’m most proud of. Wearable art! It’s not easy. It take a lot of time and honestly people don’t like to talk about it but success is scary. When I first introduced my handmade makeup items they were selling out left and right. The support is amazing and terrifying at the same time. Because I hand make all these items I really do make them with my whole heart and I love to hear feedback. Thankfully it’s been nothing but extremely positive feedback! But with success does come negativity as well. I run my brand on the bases of HIGH VIBRATIONS. I have crystal jewelry in which I do educate on its metaphysical properties and all my makeup is named and inspired by crystals. This is where the challenges I’ve faced comes into play. I’ve had multiple previous customers purchase and then copy my jewelry for their own businesses. I’ve even had businesses copy my crystal inspired highlighters. What I learned from all of this is to let it go. I’ve struggled mentally with the heartache it brought to have people do this to me but I’ve learned to ignore the outside noises. You really have to do you and be 100% true to you in this business. If your heart is really not in something and you’re only out here to “get rich quick” you most likely won’t succeed. When you’re a small business people don’t separate you from the brand. YOU ARE THE BRAND. So if you’re out here being fake and messy best believe it’ll affect your business.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in New York so Ofcourse anyone who visits the city wants to go to Times Square ! I myself am a Brooklyn baby so I would take my friends to Coney Island. And probably take them to sunset park where I grew up! We’d have to eat the amazing Spanish food from 5th Ave!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Honestly the person who deserves the most recognition is my mother, Jeannette Santiago. She has always been so supportive of me. My dream job as a child was to be a forensic scientist like on those CSI shows and my mother bought me my first microscope and everything. I did however change my passion towards art and my mother had no problem switching and supporting me and in my new passion. When I told my mother that I was opening my own business she invested in materials for me to start! I’m a stay at home mother who had no personal income of my own until opening this business so really my mother had a lot to do with my initial success.

Website: Natoriousartistryco.Etsy.Com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/natorious.artistry

Facebook: Natorious Artistry & Co

Image Credits
Tuesday Cady (heyitsTuesday), Nathalie Candelaria Santiago & rachel lyons (cakeface with Rachel )