First I would like to start off by saying how excited I am for the next few weeks. If you don’t know this already, for the month of July on every Thursday I will be posting articles on women & their business within the beauty/ self care industry. To stay updated with I Am Woman be sure to subscribe at the bottom of the page, as well as follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Now to get into what you all came here for, my interview with Kaiya Denson. While I haven’t known her very long, I can say she is such a vibrant person to be around and I am so happy she has participated and allowed me to share her story with you!
Kaiya is a licensed cosmetologist and her full time job is at European Wax Center where she has worked for 5 years. However she is most known for her make up talents, she has worked in various locations including Blue Mercury. For those unfamiliar with Blue Mercury, it is comparable to a Sephora, however some of their products are more high end. As well as working at the Wax Center, Kaiya is a freelance makeup artist, she does proms, weddings, and other special occasions. If you are interested in booking her, feel free to read our I Am Business post on Kaiya’s business by just clicking her underlined name. And right before we were all quarantined, Kaiya was hired as a freelance MAC make up artist, where she will be in the stores selling their products, as well as helping you to apply them!
Since the beauty industry is such a woman-heavy business, I was very curious as to what the atmosphere was like in terms of challenges and acceptance. Kaiya informed that with her experience she feels as though she never faced any specific challenges or hardships, however it was a very competitive world. She found that it was hard to find good loyal people who had your back. In a previous post, I Am Lisa Ramos, I have spoken about unity within the community of women and how it lacks. As a society, as a group we really need to come together to support one another to meet a common goal, instead of tearing eachother down to cross a finish line. What I mean by that is, as a team you reach common goals faster because everyone brings a different skill to the table. If you’re running a race, you only have you and what your immediate skills, but once you cross that finish line, there’s just another race awaiting because the world is always evolving. By working together, changes and challenges don’t seem as scary because you have a group of people working to adjust and attack. In all industries, not just the beauty realm we must learn to come together as one.
Kaiya was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived there until about 5th grade, when she and her family moved out to South Brunswick, New Jersey. Kaiya graduated from South Brunswick Highschool. All throughout highschool Kaiya was very art focused, after highschool she tried a semester at Middlesex County College attempting to push herself to become an art teacher. She ended up realizing college just wasn’t for her, so she took a year off to work and save her money in order to enroll in cosmetology school. With help from her mom, who she considers her biggest supporter (shout out to her mom for supporting and sharing her work!), she enrolled into beauty school and about 10 months later graduated from the Raritan Valley Community College Cosmetology program.
Over the past few years, she would consider her greatest achievement to be having her work published in a magazine called The Doe Online. She hopes that in the next 10 years she will have more printed and published work, as well as some of her own products, and fully living off of her artistry!
I am thrilled I got to start off Self Care Month with this beautiful ray of sunshine, Kaiya. It was so amazing getting to sit down and talk with her. Please head over to the I Am Business section of this page to help support her makeup business! Also remember to keep the conversation going in the comments! (you do not have to login to comment, they are open to any and everyone!)
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