October 15, 2016

Meet East Atlanta Makeup Artist: Morgan Marin

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgan Marin.

Morgan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I owe my entire career to my mom…she took me to my first concert when I was three and I knew immediately I wanted to somehow be a part of what I witnessed that night. I discovered around the age of 12 that I loved to wear makeup. My mom was incredibly supportive of anything that piqued my interest so she encouraged me to further my education of both the music industry and makeup.

I first began my career in makeup with Benefit Cosmetics while pursuing a degree in Music Business in 2007. I quickly fell in love with MAC Cosmetics and was hired a few short months into working for Benefit to open a new counter for MAC in Charlotte, NC. I moved to Nashville, TN. my senior year of college for an internship in the A&R Department at Warner Music Nashville and transferred to a MAC counter near my record label. I married my love of makeup and music and began working with country recording artist Julie Roberts as her personal makeup artist after she lost her home in the 2010 Nashville flood after a magazine reached out to me to do her makeup for their cover.

In 2013 I relocated to Atlanta, Ga. after my mom encouraged me to pursue genres outside of country music. In April of 2013, the week I was scheduled to move to Atlanta, my mom was diagnosed with Lung Cancer that had spread to her brain. I moved to Atlanta and began splitting my time between MAC Cosmetics, a small urban record label in Atlanta, and going home to Charlotte to take care of her while she battled cancer.

My mom passed away in November of 2014. My mom played an incredibly vital role in my career growth and development and her passing quickly motivated me to reach success in her honor. As God would have it I was introduced to Columbia Recording Artist DeJ Loaf in the months following the death of my mother. I had the privilege of accompanying DeJ on Nicki Minaj’s International PinkPrint Tour as well as DeJ’s personal tours that followed. In a beautiful twist of fate, DeJ was offered her own lipgloss color as part of a collection from MAC Cosmetics called Future Forward, highlighting music’s up-and-coming female artists such as Tinashe, Lion Babe, and Halsey. I left MAC Cosmetics in March of 2015 to tour and felt incredibly honored when they released the promotional packaging for their Future Forward collection that included makeup by myself on DeJ.

I took a break from touring to create a lash line and raise a family but I keep my love for makeup in the music industry and have been blessed to work with some of Hip Hop’s most talented artists while at home in Atlanta.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve always been told if your dreams don’t scare you they’re not big enough and nothing worth having comes easily. I’ve lost out on a lot of sleep, I lost my only parent and I spent a lot of time living in big cities alone to get to where I am today. Those sleepless nights were usually spent with artists like Monica, Future, Eminem & Big Sean. I may have lost my only parent but she was the greatest parent I could have asked for and those big cities I lived in alone were cities I dreamt of living in as a child. When you follow God’s will for your life you don’t remember the struggles….you find a way to focus only on the good those struggles bring.

So, what should we be on the lookout for, what’s next in store for you?
My plans for the future have shifted from being on the road to developing business ventures in Atlanta that allow me to bring my passion for creative artistry to a much wider audience of beauty enthusiasts. I used my experiences as a member of some pretty dope glam squads to develop a line of custom-designed lashes called Let Them Be Lashed. The packaging is inspired by Marie Antoinette and all of the lashes are named and styled after some of the incredible queens in my life, including my incredibly cute Fairy God-Daughter Lilu and one of my favorite business women and entrepreneurs, Tiara ‘Mizhani’ Walton. I am also in the process of opening a fitness + beauty studio with my partner, Sean Brink.

Let’s go backward a bit – can you tell us about the most trying time in your career?
The most challenging aspect of my career has been chasing my dreams alone in unfamiliar cities. My career has led me to live in New Jersey, Charlotte, Nashville, and now Atlanta. Starting over in a new city is always a frightening task but incredibly worth it. I’ve accumulated countless lessons, friends, clients and most recently the love of my life. No matter how tough it is to start over in a new city I would never trade any of those people or experiences for an easier route to success. Those experiences strengthened my relationship with God and my determination to live a life I love.

What about “Wow-moments” – any moments that stick out? Any moments when you felt like you had made it?
I don’t think I’ll ever have an “I made it” moment…when one dream comes true I always find myself chasing a bigger one. I have had so many incredible experiences but the one that stands out the most to me is my first night on Nicki Minaj’s PinkPrint tour, standing on the side of the stage watching DeJ Loaf perform with Meek Mill to a sold out crowd. That was the first time my passion for makeup and music truly came together,

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