Meet Sharelle Lawson | NYS Licensed Esthetician and Professional Makeup Artist and Owner of Phenomenal Beauty Cosmetics.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sharelle Lawson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sharelle, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I first started to do my makeup I never thought that I would be doing it as a business, my closest friends always told me that I should do others peoples makeup but at that time I was doing it as a form of therapy for myself. When I decided to do my makeup I remembered how it made me feel, it made me feel beautiful so when I decided that I wanted to take on becoming a professional makeup artist seriously I didn’t want to just do it as a means of income or to become the next famous celebrity makeup artist I wanted to do it to make other women like myself a busy mom, student, business woman, and employee feel beautiful also. I base my business around people who just want to take that 45 minutes to a hour out of their day to do something for themselves to feel like them again.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have been a freelance makeup artist for the past eight years. When I started doing makeup it was just something I’d do for myself as a form of therapy during the time when I was in a bit of a domestic situation. I stumbled across this Youtuber by the name of Jackie Aina and we had similar stories only difference was I was a mother. Watching her and hearing her tell a little bit of her story brightened up my day and it also made me feel like I was just having a moment with one of my homegirls and as I followed along with her while doing my makeup. I started doing the makeup of these two twin teenage girls who were not my complexion but trusted me to do their makeup as they were pursuing a modeling career. I would do makeup for free on my friends and anyone who would let me practice. Just watching their reactions to the finished look made me feel good and from there I knew this would be something that I loved doing.

As a single mother who was working a full time job and in school at the time it wasn’t easy. I had to try to set aside money and time to build my makeup kit , at that time I would buy drug store makeup that was more affordable and buy my makeup brushes from Amazon or the local beauty supply store until I was able to actually start to be able to afford the more expensive makeup from Sephora and Ulta. As. I started to build my portfolio and started to utilize my social sites more as a building stone for my target audience I started to gain clientele. As I got more comfortable doing makeup I started to step out of my comfort zone. Ive taken the risk and have done makeup for free on sets of Movies and Music videos and that has also helped me gain more clients.

I wanted to move on from just taking clients in a home setting so I begin working as a independent contractor at Juled Makeup Academy as I no longer wanted this to just be a side hustle, I wanted this to be my career. I knew I wanted this to be more of a profession so I created a booking site and made myself a business google page. I knew that if I wanted to actually profit off of this that I would have to broaden my horizons and I started to take on bridal parties. Bridal is literally now my bread and butter outside of prom and graduation season, but when I first started I wasn’t really conducting as a business professionally and working with more people outside of the studio and at a faster pace was a little hectic. I have this mentor (Sherille Williams) that I looked up to who would always give me advise on how to keep my business flourishing so when I felt like I wasn’t really getting a profit from doing bridal she then showed me how to actually treat it as a separate business, she taught me about doing contracts for my bridal clients and also how to price and present different packages for my future bridal clients.

I wanted to do more as a makeup artist so at the end of 2020 I started to brainstorm on expanding. I wanted to add my own line of cosmetics to my resume as makeup artist so I started with mink lashes and lip glosses. I looked on Youtube as I used that as a guide for many things in my business on how to find vendors for lipglosses and lashes. Once I found the perfect vendors for both I then created a logo and then on my 33rd birthday in January of 2021 I launched Phenomenal Cosmetics. When I first launched I had 6 pair of mink lashes named after the zodiac signs of the most important people on my life and then i paired it with two lip glosses similar to my most popular ones that I had in my kit. At this time I then changed my prices a bit to include the lashes and glosses in my services and I also had some to sell. After the first launch was successful alot of people wanted me to expand the lashes line to include all zodiac signs so I did and also added two new gloss shades and two lip pencils. In March of 2021 I started my DBA for my two businesses Phenomenal Artistry Beauty and Phenomenal Cosmetics and in June of 2021 I took the proper steps to get my LLC.

With all of my makeup clients I would always preach to them about the importance of skin care while I did their skin prep for their makeup and how to take care of their skin after taking the makeup off , I new I wanted to learn how to not only show my clients but I wanted to educate them as well. In the fall of 2021 I enrolled into trade to school at Erie1 Boces to complete 600 hours of Esthetician school. In February of 2022 I graduated and in June of 2022 I took my state bored to become licensed as an Esthetician. By the summer of 2022 I started to travel to Atlanta at the end of each month to gain more clients in a city that was not my hometown.

Throughout the steps in my career I’ve learned that you have to not necessarily have to have tough skin but you have to be able to take constructive criticism as it comes. Every business has it downfalls and there will be months when you will make alot of profit and there will be times where you’re barley breaking even. You have to know when your businesses slower months are for one service so that you can push the other service that you provide. I don’t always try to stay up with the lates trends but I do always stay educated so I’ll take classes with celebrity makeup artists and local makeup artist also so that I don’t stay stuck in one place and I can grow more from my craft.

My brand is all about building self-esteem and promoting beauty and healthy skin not only for women but also for men. As an esthetician I gear more towards men and young athletes as they don’t sometimes know how to properly take care of their skin. Especially have two teenage sons which one of them are an athlete I want them to build in a proper skin care regimen. I want people to know that even though you might start your journey in one direction life might take you down a different path as you grow. My educational background from a college stand point is in Journalism and Communications and I am far removed from that (lol). If you have a skill that you love figure out a way to change that skill from just a hobby into a profitable business and do not be afraid to ask for help along the way.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Buffalo I have a few favorite places to visit one of them being this locally owned bar/ restaurant called The Oakkroom. I do bartend and serve there as another form of a side hustle so my opinion might be a little biased (lol) but before working there loved the atmosphere and they have amazing food and drinks. As a sports fan I live in the city with the BEST football fans in America so I would always force my friends to go to a Buffalo Bills game with me where we have the best tailgating experience before going to watch our lovable dysfunctional football team. Because I live so close to Canada going to Clifton Hills in the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and going to Toronto is one of my favorite things to do and favorite little getaways.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate this shoutout to my village. My children, my mother and siblings, my closest friends and most importantly my clients. These are the people who keep me going and my biggest supporters and I am forever grateful for all of the continued love and support.

Website: www.phenomenalartistrybeauty.as.me

Instagram: Phenomenalrelle_mua

Other: Tiktok Phenomenalrellemua

Image Credits
bridal photo credit: Kristy Tasca Photography, @Kristatascaphotography on instagram