Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Idaewor.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Julia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The earliest I remember playing in makeup was in sixth grade when I was 11 years old. My mom used to be an Avon representative, so she was always stacked up with Avon makeup as well as MAC Cosmetics and I used to raid her makeup bag just for fun. I remember one day in sixth grade, I saw her eyebrow pencil and decided, “I think I’m going to fill in my eyebrows today!” So I did exactly that and I remember just walking down the sixth-grade hallway and going throughout the school day feeling extremely confident and beautiful (mind you I probably looked CRAZY). However, that moment was the impetus for me to become obsessed with makeup. I have two older sisters so I had plenty of makeup to play in and I started really small at first and stuck to mainly mascara, lipgloss, and a little bit of lipstick. However, eighth grade was when I began to start filling in my brows every single day and I remember my friends always looked at me crazy because I was probably the only eighth-grader who wore makeup consistently every single day, but I loved it so much that I didn’t care.
Fast forward to the summer before sophomore year of college and I was completely hooked and obsessed with learning how to do makeup. I remember I used to stay up until 6am some nights watching YouTube tutorial after YouTube tutorial just obsessed with learning how to do eyeshadow and perfecting my technique. Later on that year, I got good enough that some of my friends asked me to do their makeup and it dawned on me that I was actually a pretty good makeup artist. I decided to start my makeup business in junior year of college and the rest is history. Doing makeup on myself as well as other people is like therapy to me. It is so beautiful seeing people transformed into an even more beautiful version of themselves and to watch the self-confidence and self-esteem that accompanies that transformation. I am a huge Beyonce fan and one of the reasons I look up to her is because she empowers Black women so much through her music and it inspires me to do the exact same thing through makeup.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Like many things in life, it definitely has not been a smooth road. A lot of people do not know this about me but in 9th grade, I went through a terrible bout of low self-esteem and self-confidence. I was a cheerleader on the Varsity Football Cheer Squad and I was constantly surrounded by beautiful woman day in and day out. For some reason, I felt like I was in competition with them when it came to looks and I found myself comparing myself to them all the time. I felt so ugly and constantly stressed about the way my face and body looked. If you ask me to pinpoint exactly why I felt this way, I couldn’t tell you, but what I do know is that that was a terrible place to be in and I never want to find myself or any other woman feeling like that again.
When I was exploring makeup and the beauty community, I made sure to constantly remind myself that everyone is beautiful in their own way and reinforce that to my clients as well as any woman (or even man) I interact with. You can never compare your life to someone else’s because you both are on different paths and life is supposed to look different for you. I once was told, “Life is like an exam, but everyone has a different paper. Looking over won’t help you but looking ahead will.” There were other amazing makeup artists and other businesses in Athens and it was so easy to compare my progress with that of theirs, but remembering this quote as well as my unique identity helped me stay focus on truly honing in my craft and being the best Julia I could be.
Please tell us about Juju on that Beat.
I run a makeup artistry called Juju on that Beat (@jujuonthatbeatmua and @thegirlnxtdior on IG). I specialize in all types of makeup looks such as full face, natural looks, dramatic looks, all types of complex and simple eyeshadow looks, etc. I pride myself on delivering top-tier customer service to my clients and reinforcing the idea that makeup does not “create” beauty, it simply enhances it. As a company, I am most proud of the way that I am able to connect myself with my clients on a personal level. I was chosen to do makeup for the probate of the Lambda Delta Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and I felt so honored in making those young girls feel special for their extremely big day. Learning about all of their stories and how they are now forever united by their sisterhood makes me so happy to have been able to not only witness but help them feel beautiful to celebrate the newest chapter of their lives.
I was also able to do makeup for a woman and her mother’s Christmas photoshoot last year. The woman was in her mid-40’s and her mother appeared to be in her 60’s or early 70’s. They have a tradition of doing a family Christmas photoshoot every year and doing their makeup while learning about their family history as well as being given advice for navigating life as a young woman made me feel extremely fulfilled. I love how makeup does not just allow you to make others feel beautiful, but it also makes the world seem a little bit smaller and relatable and connects you with people you never would have normally crossed paths with.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would do pretty much all of the same things, but the only thing I would have done differently is start earlier. In life, we often feel like we have to have everything together and all figured out before we take one step forward to accomplish our goals. I did my first full face of makeup on someone else (shoutout to Wunmi Oni who was crazy enough to trust me) at the beginning of my sophomore year of college but did not completely start my makeup artistry until my junior year. I felt inadequate as a makeup artist and I did not believe in my craft until I had others validate and encourage me, but I shouldn’t have needed all that just to start. Sometimes we need to be the same cheerleader for ourselves that we are for others.
One of the favorite bible verses is Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 and it states, “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” You don’t need to have every single piece of equipment and all of your plans in place just to start accomplishing a goal you’ve set for yourself. Just start! And give yourself time to grow, so that when you look back at how far you’ve come you can smile knowing the journey was worth the “premature” start. Now that I have moved to New York City, I’m extremely excited to grow even further and use everything I’ve learned in Georgia to propel me forward in both the makeup and music industry.
Pricing:
- $45 – The Juju Beat (a full-on glam)
- $40 – The Mini Beat (a more natural glam)
- $30 – The Natural Beat (the no-makeup makeup look)
- $15 – Eyes and brows only
Contact Info:
- Email: juliaidaewor@gmail.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jujuonthatbeatmua/
Image Credit:
Michael Barnett Photography, Rebirth Photography
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