AWARD NOMINATED MAU TALKS TO POPPIE
Talent is an understatement for the beautiful Botho Pearl George. She is a 21 year old makeup artist, hair stylist, model and student.
The Metsimotlhabe raised young entrepreneur is currently undergoing her university studies at Botho College. She started practicing makeup in 2018 and mostly works on a house call basis, but also has a garage home studio for when she works from home. She shared more details with us about herself and her makeup journey. To start with her accolades, Botho’s work has gotten her featured on Yarona FM and even got her an international recognition, as she has been featured on a Nigerian magazine and nominated for fashion and art awards in South Africa. She said that she attained her current position through discipline and respect, respect for both her work and her clientele.
The versatile MUA (short for makeup artist) states that she does not specialise in any type of makeup and can range from special effects, which include illusion makeup and prosthetis, to full glam, better known as face beats. She says that the sea of possibilities is actually what she enjoys most about her job. She has fun with trying out different looks, brands and techniques. The most challenging part of her job, according to her, is dealing with unreasonable clients. Another challenge is having call times as early as 3:30am especially when working with brides, she says she never really gets any sleep when she has a wedding to do in the morning.
Despite these challenges, Botho loves every part of her job and urges people to take makeup as a serious profession which contributes to our country’s economy. She says that she is concerned by the lack of originality and self drive in our local makeup industry. Therefore, she encourages aspiring MUAs to be as authentic as possible and do makeup because they love it, allowing them to work from the heart.
On a lighter note, I asked Botho for her opinion on girls’ eyebrows and she said, “Girls here do their eyebrows, yes. The only problem is that they do not pay attention to their natural eyebrow structures, which play a big role in you getting to do your brows right.”
She advised anyone who is doing their makeup at home to know their facial structure and understand what works for it, because there are no two faces which can look the same (except for identical twins but they too differ somehow 💀). Practicing good skin care is also important when constantly applying products to your face. I personally believe that if we all followed this advice, everybody’s face would be ON FLEEK.
In her closing words, Botho Pearl George left artists with a word of encouragement regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. She said, “I know it’s hard and it’s going to be hard for a while, but pray hard, work hard and use the spare time we get from lockdown and extreme social distancing to create and explore more content. When all of this is over, everyone is going to need our services.”
Work page: Pearl’s Makeover Parlour
Poppie Moseki is the Fashion Editor of Focul Media House, mainly Africa's Very Own magazine. She handles all the fashion articles.
