Buzz Interviews Whitney McElvy of Beauty By Whit
My love for makeup and beauty honestly didn’t start until my sophomore year of high school. I was about to get my braces off and I wanted to go back to school with a subtle new look to compliment my new smile, so I thought I’d try out makeup. I can remember studying YouTube videos for hours! Just trying to learn how to do simple winged eyeliner, so I went to Target and picked out the cheapest but best liquid eyeliner I could find. Let’s face it I was only 15, with minimal money so I had to remember I was ballin’ but on a budget lol. I went home after that and stood in my bathroom mirrior, re-watching winged eyeliner YouTube videos again and again, practicing until I felt like I got it right. That’s where my passion for makeup began! By no means were my skill in makeup anywhere near a professional level when I started, but I was motivated. Motivated so much that I made it a goal of mine to learn something new about makeup every year and to master it. Whether it was learning how to do my foundation, eyeshadow, eyebrows I was determined to learn and make makeup my own, my own style that is. Growing up as a kid I’d always dream’t about becoming a doctor, a pediatrician to be exact, but that all shortly changed after entering high school where I found my true passion, art. I took every art class my high school had to offer until I graduated and I feel in love with painting. I ended up going to college to study fine arts, I started at Grossmont Community College where I got my Associates Degree in Fine Arts. I then transferred into San Diego State University where I graduated from last spring and received my BFA degree. Throughout college I got hired at Sephora, where my skills, knowledge, passion and love for makeup grew even more. I had started out as a cashier then I was promoted to a beauty consultant, where I later became a certified artist. While working there I’ve learned more about makeup than I had ever expected to. I not only learned to perfect makeup on my self but on others as well. With the support, generous compliments and touching encouragement of my amazing Sephora co-workers doing what I loved never felt like real hard labor to me. That’s when I knew being a makeup artist would be my forever career. My dream is to be a professional makeup artist and work on movie sets or T.V shows, shoot even to do runway shows for fashion week! I know this is only the beginning for my makeup career and God has blessed me with opportunities I would have never thought of, I’m excited to see what else is in store!