The Life of A Ladybug: Beauty lover of color: Angie!

Thank you to the ladies who have emailed me, volunteering to be interviewed here on The Life of A Ladybug! I'm so excited to tell the beauty blogosphere all about you!

If you're still interested in participating, please email me! There's no deadline - I'm going to keep this an ongoing feature, so let me hear from you!

I always ask the interviewees to answer the same questions:

1. How were you introduced to makeup? When did you fall in love with it and why?

2. What do you love most about makeup?

3. Do you tend to be traditional/classic in your makeup styling or are you more experimental? What are your favorite techniques or looks? What are your favorite products/beauty lines?

4. Which products do you think every woman should have?

5. What do you think about the beauty industry and its relationship to women of color?

6. Share anything else you'd like to share: info about you, your business (if you have one), what area of the country you live in, etc.

Beautiful ones, I'd like to introduce you to Angie! Angie ... beauties. Beauties ... Angie. Let's hear from her:

1. I was first introduced to makeup when I was little. My mom always wore makeup religiously and my favorite thing to do was watch her apply it. One Christmas I begged for one of those Barbie heads, which came with a little sponge. Depending on whether you wet the sponge with hot or cold water, different eye shadows, blushes, and lipsticks would appear on the doll after "applying" her makeup. I clearly remember throwing out the sponge and using my mom's expensive makeup to create my own looks. Needless to say, she moved her makeup out of my reach after that. From around the age of six, whenever aunts or uncles slipped me money I would secretly buy drugstore makeup and apply it to myself and friends at school.

I had one of those Barbie heads, too! LOL!

2. I've always had acne, so when I was "officially" first introduced to makeup, I would create these wild looks to my eyes or lips to distract from my skin. My absolute favorite thing about makeup is making somebody feel more confident about themselves, by simply brightening their eyes to make them look less tired or covering blemishes, etc. I also love how one can convey any mood they want simply by changing up their makeup.

3. When it comes to myself, I'm extremely experimental with my looks. One of the best parts of makeup is that it washes off! If I find things that work well for me, I'll continue to do it on other people who I apply makeup to. For example, I love to put a little highlighter down the top of my nose, on my cheekbones, and on my chin to highlight and slim those features. One of the things I teach people is to put a night aside and just try a lot of different things! You never know what'll work unless you try. Another thing I tell people is that whatever the box says the makeup is for is wrong. Makeup is makeup is makeup, and anything can go anywhere. Eyeshadows make great highlighters or blushes on the face and decolette, and lip glosses can make great eyeglosses. As cliche as it sounds, I do love MAC. They just have such a wide selection and amazing pigmentation. Urban Decay, Makeup Forever, Nars, Dior, and Napoleon Perdis are all favorites as well.

4. As bare minimum things, I think every woman should have a great skincare regime. To clear up my own acne, I found that using natural products from Caudalie, L'Occitane, and Skyn Iceland work best. A good broad-spectrum sunscreen, eyeshadow, blush, lipgloss, and black mascara round out what should be used daily. Some liner is great for night to dress up a look. This is all you really need, because, as I had said, these are all multitaskers. Use eyeshadows to fill in brows and highlight. Blushers are great for contouring.

5. I think beauty industries are trying harder to include formulas more fitted towards darker skins, however I still feel they are lacking. Bare Escentuals has been around for years and only this year are they adding darker colors to their collections so the darkest of dark won't look ashy. There are several lines, such as Black Opal, that are geared towards deep skins, but I feel these are unneccesary. Makeup lines should cover all tones, not just the lighter ones.

6. As for myself, I just graduated from the Elizabeth Grady School of Esthetics and am gearing up to get my license. Personally, I've always wanted to work behind runways and do makeup, but since skin is the canvas, I decided it would be beneficial to understand how it works. I work full time at Sephora, and I live in MA. My eventual goal is to move to NY and start working towards fulfilling my dream. If anybody out there needs a makeup artist, or there are any photographers looking to benefit both their and my own portfolio, definitely email me at ambethoney@yahoo.com

Thanks so much for sharing with us, Angie! Beauties, if you have questions/comments for Angie, feel free to post in the comments!

Thanks again, Toya!