I Choose ... the Magic of Makeup with Erica Taylor

You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hello, welcome to I Choose Me, the podcast that believes choosing yourself is the quiet revolution of looking in the mirror, really looking, and saying I'm here and I'm worth showing up for. If you're like me, you look in the mirror, you notice that your face has changed, which is not a bad thing. Do we need to update our makeup routine to match these hard earned changes? Though? Erica Taylor says yes. She is a thirty year veteran of the

Yeah, insane?

The do it all tinted face bomb? Am I saying it right?

Cheer tin facebomb?

Cheer tint I always forget that part?

Well, you know it's buildable.

It is buildable. I wear it every day. I love that stuff. Are you wearing it right now?

Look at that glow show you look glowychloey flashing, but that that helps.

With the glow. Congrats on your new book.

What I thank you?

So happy for you and you. Yes, I had a book out the week before your book came out.

I think I think you were at Were you at Bookends too?

I believe I was.

I was just there too.

I was that in New Jersey. Yes, Yeah, they do a good job there.

Nice.

It was amazing A husband and wife duo.

They're so cool.

Well, congrats on the release of the Magic of Makeup.

Thank you. I'm so excited. I knew or thought i'd be an author.

I know, well you did it. Is this your first book?

Yeah? To me, it's like a it's like a chooser Which Way book of makeup? You know what I mean? It's like the ADHD Guide to Makeup.

Okay, how long have you been doing makeup?

Thirty years?

Thirty years? And you started as a professional makeup artist in the industry or.

I started as a college student in art Okay, and I was getting punished for not having a job, and I always did my friend's makeup. So I went to a makeup counter and they hired me. An amaze at nineteen years old. No experience, no none, just doing my friends and being an art student. So I did. I specialized in portraiture, so I'm like, if I could do a flat canvas, I can certainly do a face.

There you go. I love that. You're like, sure I can do that.

I got this.

That's one thing I learned from Johan London. She said, if anybody ever offers you a position or gives you an opportunity, to say yes and then figure it out.

Yeah, ask for what? Does it ask for? Forgiveness not permission?

Yeah, it's kind of like that too. Hopefully you won't have to ask for forgiveness.

I mean, it depends, depends. It was a learning curve, you say.

I remember the exact day I looked in the mirror and thought, hi, mom, it caught me off guard. Aging is a privilege. Can you describe that moment for me, because I've had that moment too.

I just remember waking up one day and you know, I've lost my mom about seven years ago. Sorry, oh thank you, And I just remember looking one day and just saying, oh, there she is and I was like, hi, mom, and it was like, yeah, awesome to see her, but also like shocking. And I have this like mirror next to my bed that every now and I just wake up and I look at it and I'm like, what is that? And it's just like the face that you know is not the face that you see. And it's a really weird thing.

It is weird, but it is just what it is.

Well, yeah, I always say it's not a good or bad thing, but it's a thing.

It's a thing. Let's all take a moment for the thing.

Yeah, And I think that we go through it and we're all told like, well, just accept it, and it's like, I mean, obviously we have to accept it, but we are allowed to feel a kind of way.

Yeah, you're allowed to have your feelings around.

It, for sure. So I'm always like when that happens, tell them Eric is at high and I got you.

But also, you know, you don't have to just accept it because you are the master of changing things with makeup.

Yeah, you know, and that's the magic of makeup, right. So it's and it's not you know, people say it's a catfish. Well, it's wearing a nice dress. A catfish is wearing a nice fitted suit a catfish. Now we're we're putting ourselves together and our best foot forward. Right. But if I always thought to myself, if I can manipulate a face from a flat surface from a canvas and give that dimension, why can't I manipulate our faces into a dimension that we want.

You have so many masterful like tips and tricks, which I love so good. I was just looking at your Instagram thinking I need a lot more time on my hand so I can learn everything you're talking about here.

I think it's like in a nutshell. And even when I say like dimension, I mean like volume, right, meaning like you know, artistically, like manipulating light. Right. So it's like if you just do whatever you're doing, just pick everything up like a half inch.

That is a good way. I think that should be the name of your next book.

Picking up my half inch for so many things.

Yeah, oh god, you and I, whenever we're getting together, we're trouble. I knew that from the first time.

Now I know it again fresh.

Yes, but you you also talk a lot about on your Instagram about great drug store options for makeup and skincare. But it's so confusing. Oh my god, there's so many choices. What we need you to really help us know which ones to choose. So give us some of your favorite drug store things that are not only good for our skin, but well, you know, give us the look of like.

High end yes. And it's hard because there are so many options, and I think drug store really struggles with foundations for us. I will say that's probably the most challenging is concealers and foundations. I will say one of my favorite drug stores is the Loreal Loomy Laglow tint Okay. She's like a cross between a tinted moisturizer and a

Orbital three hundred and sixty degree orbital.

Yeah, because Alla worried about this, but this is a whole other situation.

As you meets love too.

Yeah, because the shadows will look creepy, things will look dusty if we're not handling like a little love there too, the old new situations.

It's so fun. But you know what Loreal comes through.

You know, for since in high school, for me, it was always like kind of like you don't have your eyeliner, grab Loreal, so you know, and I feel like Lorielle kind of focuses on the ladies of a certain age as well.

You say in your book that you weren't afraid to on the moms, and you know.

What, so many makeup artists were. I remember explain that to me.

Why, Okay, mom's doesn't mean you're you just had your first kid. It means like you're old or older and your kids are grown up?

Is that mom? Forty plus?

Okay?

Like that kind of mom. So here's the thing. There is a different textual situation to the skin. And I'm going to say it like really candid. The first time I touched mature eyelid, I was like, why is it moving? It was like the shadow wouldn't stick. I was like I would lift the I would like lift it, do the shadow drop it.

And I was like, oh my god, you know you're getting older when the makeup artist has to lift your lid to put your eyeliner on, or when you have to do it, yeah, because you can't. You can't get the line because it's like it's like drags, it flaps, it drags and it moves.

My daughter was like, why does it wiggle when you touch it? So I remember being like, okay, first of all, it's dryer, the shadow won't stick, it's dusting off, and it was a different texture. But as an artist and a troubleshooter, I was like, all right, we got this. But I also learned that mom had the money to spend. So if you made mom happy, she also bought for herself and the daughter. This is true or son whoever was there, Right, Mom.

Buys, Mom always buys.

Got the card. Everyone buys.

So what did you learn as far as like how to take care of the moms in a better way other than lifting her flapper up hydration?

She'd lift her flapper hydration and it was about, okay, so if your lid's here, I pick it up. I do the shadow. Then I drop it it falls. So that's why I discovered the over the river through the hood.

Okay, what over the river? Yeah?

Yeah, over the river through the wood.

Yeah.

My song with my ADHD brain like over the river through the hood. So to lift it eyes we go, oh my god. It was like let it resting, beeface and compensate by going higher like a sunrise. So I was like, Okay, we can still do the same thing, but we just have to get on the same like playing field.

So make sure you're going over the overhang.

Over the hang hang with the eyeshot, yes, and you have to go a little darker on the hang to kind of like make it look less hangy.

These are all very technical terms, you guys, so right, I.

Speak the common vernacular of people's.

Oh my gosh. So you share Yeah, you've shared that story in your book about your daughter. She said, why does your eyeshot? Why does your eyelid move like that? I can remember when I was younger and I would go like this to my Grandma's hand and it would like stay up and then it would take a really long time when I let it go to like go back down.

But ours do it now and also the back of the hands that you say that when we're testing like concealer and foundation, that's the closest thing to this.

This the skin on the back of our hands is the closest skin to our under our eyes.

Doesn't have sabaceous glands. Neither does our under eye area. So when you test concealer, people will say test it here on your lines, but no, for us, test it here. If it looks dry on this guess where it's gonna look dry.

Right here, Eric, everything's gonna look dry on these hands.

Okay, if it looks hydrating on this hand, it's a winner. I bet you the acosmetic shirtin face bomb will look better. Will look hydrating on this hand better?

It really does. Okay, that makes sense. So now I'm gonna put the bomb on my hands. Not a problem at all. You've a test.

Yeah, let's see, she got a little sheen.

Yeah. When you were working on the Moms though, I'm curious, did that kind of change your perspective or you're sort of like connect between self care and you know, seeing women not choosing themselves, Like, did it change kind of like how you speak to them or guide them?

Seeing the moment, the mom felt beautiful again, and she got a light back in her eye and she could get emotional, and it was almost like, and that's why I say, we don't have to handle our pretty down. I remember the moms being like, no, it's her turn. It's about her now. It's not about me anymore.

No no, no, no, no no.

Right, But was like, why can't it be about both of you? So what I would do the moms, and the moms felt luminous and pretty again. I remember someone would cry. They would I would just cover an under eye that they hadn't seen for a while and teach them a trick, and they were like, I look so good. And it was really like I had to cry and hug me, and it was just such an emotional moment. And I realized that it was a point that you start caring for your family and you stop remembering you.

That's so true. I can remember myself remember when my girls like started to become like really like pretty teenage girls, and I thought, oh, okay, well it's it's fair time. Yeah, and I'm good. I'll just stand back here and let them shine and be so happy for them. I don't need it, Yeah, I don't need to feel good or need the attention or.

Yeah, And I feel like society made us feel like we have to hand it down, like you have to hand it, almost like passing the crown, where men were getting like debonair and we were handing it down and then we get replaced for newer models. Oh, it's a crazy thing. It's a crazy, crazy society thing. And I just feel like that's how we're all trained. And the moment watching her eyes light up, when she was like, wow,

There's such that fear of of women for women as we age, the fear of becoming invisible or disappear.

We disappear, and it's a real thing. And I think we're made to feel like almost we should feel guilty, to feel a kind of way or almost we feel guilty when we want to still be glamorous. But you know, and I think times are a change.

Yeah, they are. Thank goodness, so happy it is happening in my lifetime.

Get to watch it, We get to be a part of it.

That's right. For a woman that's reading your book or listening to this podcast who feels like she is lost in the cycle of work and kids and responsibilities, what is the single most important mental shift she can make today to start choosing herself again. As far as how you see.

It, I mean, we're still allowed to play dress up. Yeah, We're still allowed to have cheap parties. We're still allowed to be girls. You know. I just think remember that was a part of dressing up and going out with your friends in your twenties. What was the best part getting ready.

To get ready?

Yeah, that was the best part, being your friend's house, drinking glass wine, getting ready, and that was like before a wedding, what's the best part doing your makeup with your bridesmaids or you know, all of that glamour part. Like, we're still allowed to do that, And I think I want to make makeup fun again. I want to make getting ready and dressing up fun again and not lose that magic that it once was. And it became scary and it became intimidating because the things we were doing

Yeah, that like, uh, you don't remember that. Look. I used towear it in the late eighties maybe even the nineties, like eyeliner all the way around, the eyeball.

Whole thing, whole thing, and then remember the shadow. We all did it, the light, the dark, the light, the windshield wiper, the wiper.

Yes, we all did it.

And I taught it to you in the nineties. You know what I mean. I was there at a mac counter like, yes, a harder V do it?

What's the difference now? When you put on your eyeshadow, I.

Would think of it like I would say, think of it like a sunrise, like a gradual just like dark fading up to light or even sometimes like the one shadow express. But I think it's like and I have it on, it's just kind of like fading it up, no harsh edges, just like up and out to accentuate and lift.

It is really hard when you're putting your own makeup on to not get that harsh edge at the end of like your dark eyeshadow that you're trying.

To muscle memory. Yeah, you want to do it, huh uh, you want to do it so bad, But when you kind of go up and out if you cut. If you do that dark edge, you can kind of stop your eye right there. But if you go up and out, it's accentuating things in an outward direction.

But important note for that is the blending brush.

Oh, blending brush a soft rush and just the tip.

Why not the whole brush?

Well, you know, I've seen clients over the years digging their whole brush in like uh too, which looks like this. It's too much, and then you go to put the shadow on and it's everywhere, and now you can't clean that up. So it's better to end. And the reason I say just the tip is a of course it's funny, I'm gen X, but I really mean it because if you're using just the tip of your products, you'll never have too much.

Yeah, it's better to build than to have to start over or take away. Taking away is really yeah.

Watch city, there's no nothing is good when you start to take away.

Yes, have you felt that though? I mean, I don't know why. I look at you and I think you're younger than me. I don't even know. I think you might be few years younger. I'm fifty four, well a few years so I'll be fifty this year.

Oh, my gosh, Okay, I'm jumping in.

I'm just so excited for you. It's the best ever. It's like your twenties all over again.

I'm ready to be a crazy old cat lady and just yell at people on my lawn. I'm ready.

You don't have to do that just because you turn fifty.

I'm just like, oh, you know what, I don't understand it now because now that I'm turning fifty, I feel like I care less about what other people think. And I remember, I know how you can become an eighty year old and like get off my loan, Like, yeah, care what people think anymore. And it's kind of super liberating.

It really is, it really is. But there's a balance still. I think, like we have to we have to care a little bit about what people think, as it pertains to like how we're self sort of regulating how we show up, you know what I mean. Like it's not an opportunity to just go falls to the wall and bee like say whatever comes to your mind, and yeah, you have.

To have empathy and I think, you know, care for others.

Yeah, I wish that would go I wish that could go as too. You could just literally say whatever comes to your mind.

Do you know what? I always say that empathy is my biggest strength but also my biggest weakness. But because I feel like I have an open, bleeding heart and I can definitely get taken advantage of easily. But I also love that about me because if someone does take advantage, maybe it's their karma and not mine. But you know, kindness can be taken for weakness.

Yes, but that's not the case with you.

I'm going to hope not. But there are there are, there are some.

Here pretty strong. I feel strong.

I can definitely be. I can definitely, I can definitely. I got a bleeding heart. Yeah, I got a bleeding heart.

You want to help everybody? Would you say a bleeding heart is different than a people pleaser?

Yes, because I'm not a people pleaser at all. But if you come at me and you pull at my heart strings, You'll get me. Oh man, Yeah, you'll get me. If you're like I need this and I need that, I'm like, okay.

But can you tell when someone is intentionally playing with you, like pulling at your heart strings to get something cool? Maybe that maybe in your fifties.

Yeah, and my kids are even like MA, tell tell.

Everybody where you where you live, Tell everybody where you come from.

Like, Ma, that person just wants your money. I'm like, but maybe they don't. Maybe they just eat Hell.

Oh yeah, you're from New York. What what area?

I'm Queen's originally?

Okay, we talked about that. I think we talked about that because I spent a lot of time in Queens.

Yes, we did talk about that, Yes, Yeah.

And that Queen's is different now than it used to be.

Yeah, totally. I mean there's still elements that totally changed.

Maybe yeah, you never Yeah, it's got to be both both ways. I think you've served in the industry. I say served because you've served women over thirty years now, and you know, often they're women are our women are stretched, they're exhausted, they're dead, lacks on their own.

To do list, sometimes angry.

Sometimes they're angry because of it.

Yeah, And it was I would just disarm them with niceness, with being kind, Like I feel like they're so ready, they were always so ready to fight. And not everyone some lovely, some are scared to ask for help. Some because they never put themselves first, they're embarrassed. It's almost like if you don't know how to do makeup. You weren't you know, given your woman card, right, And then

Right, Nobody's gonna argue with me about this? Yeah, I love that. Do you have you reached a point like a burnout point, or a conversation, or just a moment where you realize that you had been doing the same thing, like putting everybody else before your own knees, putting yourself last.

I think it was when I really struggled when I had my kids were really young, and I executive and cosmetics, and I always showed up. And I had three young kids and I would always show up, and I would feel like it was more like my teams that worked for me and with me, I was like, why am I always showing up? And I make sure you have your days off and I make sure you have everything you need. I make sure, But when I need someone, no one's showing up for me. And I remember driving

Yeah. I think being forward facing with the customer can do that to you.

Yeah. And it wasn't even them. I love I miss peopling. It was more that I felt like the teams that worked with me didn't have my back all the time, and I always felt like I had theirs, And I was like, I was like, I don't wear a cape, I'm not a superwoman. I keep showing up, but I need help, and I just felt like I didn't have the help I need it.

So you just decided to do it on your own.

Yeah. Yeah, If the only one you can rely on is you, then let's go.

So amazing, amazing. Well. You could find Erica Taylor's fun and informative makeup posts at Erica Taylor two three four seven and her book is The Magic of Makeup, Your Handbook for a Youthful, Radiant Look. But before I let you go, Erica Taylor, what was your last I Choose Me moment?

It was, I would say when I left. My biggest I Choose Me moment was leaving that that retail that I had kind of done for twenty seven years and taking a leap of faith. And I was so scared because I was like institutionalized, you know, I had done the same thing, the same Hams from the wheel for twenty seven years. I worked my way from a counter to a regional director and I was so proud, and I was so scared to leave that, but I took a chance, and here we are, and now I'm talking to you.

Never we're talking on this line.

I've never imagined as my teenage self watching you nine o two one zero, obsessed, and you still look so freaking good. I mean, gosh, thank you running in person too, by the way, I say.

Yeah, we saw right across from one there.

So yeah, I chose I chose me.

That's amazing.

Take a chance.

That's what we gotta do. We can't wait around for other people to make things happen for ourselves.

No, we can't, because no one's gonna do it for us.

Yep.

We gotta put on our own superhero capes and go.

Put on your big girl panties.

I used to say that you put on the big girl panties. Let's go.

Oh yeah, you're the best. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here with you.