Hey, girl, hey! I’m so glad you found me! I was getting a little nervous! Thought I was just about to be in here talking to myself (which I’m not above).
Come in, Beauty Pros. This is Your Safe Space
Welcome to the Foundational Beauty Blog! This is a space I’ve designed with my fellow beauty professionals in mind. A place for artists of all skill levels and backgrounds to explore, critique, celebrate, and affect positive change in our beloved industry.
If we’ve not had the pleasure of meeting yet, my name is Cydney Staples. I’ve been a licensed esthetician for over a decade and I work as a full-time commercial and editorial makeup artist. I also teach the esthetics program at a beauty school in Colorado. To say that I have a passion for the beauty industry would be an understatement. Since my early teen years, I would eat up anything beauty related in my Cosmo, Glamour, or Honey magazines (real ones remember Honey!). If I’m totally honest, there’s really not much else that drives me internally other than the beauty of our world and all the ways we get to play, create, and luxuriate within it. For my astrology babes, I’m a Libra double Taurus, so clearly, I was going to find a way to bask in beauty one way or another!
It’s been my experience that setting out on a creative path of any kind can often feel like an isolating experience. So it’s important for us to have and maintain connections and community with others who speak our language, understand our struggles, and can celebrate our wins. I’m here to be and foster that community; to be the thing that I needed at so many stages along my journey and still need to this day.
Did We Just Become Beauty Besties??
For my new beauty pros fresh out of school and working your plan for the last 3 years, I’ll be your Big Cousin Cyd (or Auntie Cyd? Teedie Cyd?? Good Lord…). Your trusted resource and extremely enthusiastic cheerleader as you navigate this new and maybe unfamiliar journey. There’s no need to struggle in silence and there’s no gatekeeping in my world. I’ve been collecting all my hard earned lessons so that I may help ease the burden of the next generation. If one of us already got it out the mud ,the rest of the journey shouldn’t have to be that hard, right?
For my fellow pros 5-10+ years into this beauty game, I’m your crew member on set, your co-worker in the salon or on location. I’m here to roll my eyes right along with you, and as soon as we’re done with this client we’re going to have a drink at the bar downstairs to rehash whatever it was we just experienced. Because why would the client request that?? Say that?? Act like that??
Baby, you know I get it, and I’m not afraid to talk about it. Quietly, to each other, out of earshot of the client, while still maintaining our professionalism in front of them. Truth be told, we are the pulse of this industry. We have put in the work, we’ve honed our skills and we have a gameplan for how we’re getting to the next decade in this industry. We are at the forefront of every recent shift in beauty culture in modern history. We are the generation that went from posting our #lunch on Instagram to creating beauty content that sets trends, sells products, and pays our bills. We are the cultivators of beauty culture and I believe that’s a power that we have the responsibility to wield wisely.
For my long time veterans, those of you 15-20 years into your careers, I’m your bossy little sister. I’ve been studying you like an encyclopedia for years. I'm obsessed with you. I love you! And I’m coming for everything you've shown us was possible in this industry. Stagnancy and complacency are career killers in the beauty world. I’m here to keep you inspired. To remind you why you started out on this path in the first place. To make certain that the fires of passion continue to burn for you. And if and when you decide they don’t, you have a community of educated, talented, hungry newcomers that you can happily pass the torch to.
Leave Your Beauty Mark
At the end of the day, when we’re long gone from this world, all that will remain of us is the way we made others feel and the lessons that we left with them. I want to be absolutely sure that I’ve done all that I can to put some of the good that was poured into me back into the world. Being as though I’m pretty peeved with the world at large, I’ll start with my own little corner, in my own little chair. I'll start with the world of beauty and the beautiful people in it that continue to create, who dare to dream, and who prove that light can and does drive out darkness.
I’d love to stay connected with you. Follow me on Insta to see what my work days look like, and follow me on Threads to hear how I felt about those work days. Join the Foundational Beauty email list and be the first to know when new blog posts are dropping.
In the meantime, I want to hear from you! What’s been grinding your gears or making your heart sing? What products or procedures are you loving or hating? What’s happening in your local beauty community that you want to bring to the forefront?
Photo Credits: Catherine Norwood, Josh Pruitt
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