Today we’d like to introduce you to Martinique “Martie” Gonzalez.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Well, I would like to first introduce myself, my name is Martinique Gonzalez but I prefer to go by Martie (its easier to pronounce). I grew up in a town called Redlands that’s located in California. Before we dive into how I got started in the beauty industry, I want to take it back from the very beginning. After I had graduated from Redlands High School, I immediately wanted to pursue a career in the medical field as a nurse. So I decided to enroll myself in a nursing assistant program, soon after I was working as a nurse assistant for about two years.
While working as a nurse assistant, I started to go back to school in 2013 to become an LVN (licensed vocational nurse). Unfortunately, that year was a very tough year for my family and me. My grandmother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. So my family and I traveled back and forth from California to Arizona during that year to visit my grandmother and to be with her and to help her during these very difficult times. During that time school just wasn’t my focus anymore. Truthfully I started to fail all of my classes and I started to lose my interest in being an LVN… which led to getting dropped from my nursing program. Soon after my grandmother ended passing away. Her passing made me really re-evaluate what I truly wanted to do with my life, and the one thing that I’ve always absolutely loved was make-up. But during that time all I cared about was making sure to go back to working full time because I was now stuck with a student loan.
So for the rest of that year, I went back to working full time and some time had passed by. My aunt Vanessa has been one of my biggest inspirations and role model, she herself is a make-up artist as well as a cosmetologist. I always remember being little and visiting my family in Arizona. I used to go to my grandmother’s house and I would sneak into my aunt Vanessa’s room and I would go through all of her makeup. I would sit down and swatch every eye shadow. I was obsessed with all of the colorful looks and glitter. When I was in high school, my aunt Vanessa started to pursue her career as a makeup artist. I would see her hustle and passion for it and I always admired her for that.
Fast forward to 2015, I decided to take makeup seriously. So I started to watch makeup tutorials religiously. Slowly I started to learn the basics and the techniques on how to do makeup on someone else. Then I enrolled myself in Ruby’s Makeup Academy and learned so many new skills and techniques. Soon after I started practicing more and more on friends and family. From there on, I was working a 9-5 job and started to take on makeup appointments during the weekends. In 2017 I made the decision to move to the Los Angeles area to pursue my passion for makeup.
I currently am still living here and loving it! Moving here was one of the best decisions I could have made. Living here has helped me reach some of my biggest goals. One of them is having my work published in three different magazines (Shuba magazine, Creators Mag, Imirage magazine). Also, being able to work with some higher profile influencers has been truly amazing. I am beyond excited to see what else the future holds for me. All I can say is that I will continue to work hard in tell I reach all of my goals. I still have a very long way to go but I won’t stop.
Please tell us about your work.
I’m a freelance make-up artist. I create beautiful looks on my clients and I absolutely love it! Like I mentioned previously, I freelance. Meaning that I am my own boss, I travel to my clients home and completely cater to them. I mainly do makeup for photoshoots, weddings as well as doing makeup for day to day people. You ask “why I do this?” because I genuinely love creating art on people, it’s my passion. I love having the capability to enhance someone’s features and making them feel confident. It’s the best feeling in the world when a client shows me their reaction and excitement when they see the final look.
I want every client to feel empowered and beautiful. A couple of weeks ago, I had a client that contacted me so I could do her makeup because she had recently just had her second baby. She wanted to do a family portrait with her family. While we were talking, she was telling me how she hasn’t been feeling herself lately. She went to explain that being a mother has been the best thing that has happened to her but its also been tough. She said “I feel like I lost my mojo. I don’t feel confident, I haven’t even taken the chance to do my hair or makeup in months!’ So I knew that me being there glamming her up meant a lot to her. An hour passed by and I had finished doing her makeup. I told her I was done and she could look in the mirror. Instantly I could see her face light up and she was so happy with the results! She thanked me and proceeded to tell me that she hasn’t felt this beautiful or confident in a long time. When I hear comments like that is what fuels my passion. All I want to do is make people feel happy, beautiful and confident.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
The most important thing is to always surround yourself with people that genuinely love you and support you. It’s definitely important to have a great support system. My biggest supporters are my boyfriend, Zach, my aunt Vanessa, my brothers and my friends and family. Remove the people in your life that bring negativity, it’s not worth having those people in your life.
To be completely honest, I’m still working on becoming better with trying to network with different makeup artists in the industry. Social media is such a great way to network!
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
You can find the work that I do on my clients on my Instagram (@makeupbymartie). On my personal Instagram (@martie_mar) is where you could also find me, that’s, where I post all of my personal makeup, looks that I do on myself. I also have a youtube page which is Martie_mar. You can support my work by following me and sharing my work on social media or even just sharing it with friends and family. Anything is appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Email: makeupbymartie@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martie_mar/
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/makeupbymartie/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2lGWaXkpvKNrunHduJbNQ?view_as=subscriber
Image Credit:
Photo Credits: Tina Guerra (Ig: @bytinaguerra.jpg)
Demi (Ig: @legendaryshots.p)
Jennica Mae (Ig:@jennicamaephoto)
Chris (Ig@fireinthepalace)
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