Meet Carol Menezes – Mangaluru’s engineer turned makeup artist

Make-up is an art in itself; an expression of creativity, its beauty in all its splendour. It's a love affair with colours, hues and shades. Despite the criticisms about how it makes a person’s look very deceiving, it possesses the power by giving you possibilities to transform your look temporarily, offers an experience to be a different version of yourself and gives you the confidence to feel attractive without going through drastic means such as plastic surgery

Just like a magician with his magic wand, a makeup artist owns the tools required to make one’s key features more noticeable thus drawing attention to their appearance and highlighting things about them that are attractive.

Carol Menezes recently decided to go a complete different direction from her engineering degree by pursuing a promising career path in make-up by watching YouTube tutorials and learning what products are used to achieve a certain look. With hands on experience in fashion designing, hair styling and makeup this talented Mangaluru girl is going places.

How young were you when you first played with make-up?

When I was around eleven years, I used to see other women wear makeup and I was so fascinated by the different colours and styles. Being at a young age, my mother didn’t allow me to use any. So the pocket money I used to get for junk food, I had saved it to buy make up to try on myself and eventually started buying more and better make up as the years went by.

When did you know a career in makeup industry was for you?

Well, just about four months ago as I was always interested in this but just never thought of taking it up as a career.

But after recently talking to a number of makeup artists, I soon realised it could actually be an exciting career with a lot of work. Plus there is so much creativity involved. I even did a comparative study with a software job and thought by working as a makeup artist; I would be able to work for as much as I want because I would be doing something that I am very passionate about.

What are some of your works as a make-up artist?

I have done makeup for the cover version of the song Hamsanaava from the movie Baahubali 2; also done makeup for Lagori, a popular music band for their music video and photo shoot. I was also fortunate to do makeup for Madhuri Upadya, the co founder of Nritarutya (an Indian contemporary Dance Company) and two other dancers as well. Besides these, I have done makeup for a bunch of other events like weddings and photo shoots for friends, family and others.

Who are some people that have inspired you throughout your career?

My cousin Gaurav sat me down and explained to me why I should be doing something I love and has been a huge support system in my life. He brought that skill out in me and discover that this was something I love doing on myself when I am free which makes me confident and content. It’s also very inspiring and motivational to see people doing what they love.

What three makeup items should every woman carry in her hand bag?

To be honest, I do not carry any make up in my bag. You don't necessarily have to carry any makeup with you

What do you find so fascinating about makeup?

I like how you can express your moods (happy, sadness etc) through makeup. Plus its fun to play with colours and look like anything and anyone with makeup.

What about your interest in fashion designing? Do you intend to pursue it as well?

I got interested in Fashion designing when I was very young by stitching clothes for my Barbie dolls with the waste pieces found at the tailors. I used to always stitch and design clothes for fiends and family. It wasn’t until last year, that I bought a sewing machine and started stitching skirts, bags, purses and designing them all by myself and very recently I was given the opportunity to design clothes for other people and also for a number of photo shoots which includes the outfits designed for the band Lagori.

To answer the second part of your question, I am versatile and love doing different things that keep me interested, but makeup is my focus for now.

Where do you see your career going next?

I would want to explore different kinds of makeup and various styles and eventually establish my own style.  I would want people to come to me because they won’t achieve that look with anybody else.