Conversations with Zoriana Arico

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoriana Arico

Zoriana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve always loved makeup from a young age. I can remember being five years old playing dress up as Christina Aguilara with Limited Too glitter all over my face and eyeliner smudged on my eyes. When I was learning makeup at a young age, we didn’t have videos or tutorials to be easily accessed at all times. My method of learning makeup was trial and error. Have you seen those memes about girls with orange faces and nude lip gloss? That was pre adult me..but hey, that nude gloss is making a come back!
From 5 years old, I became obsessed with horror movies thanks to my uncle always showing me the classics and new ones. The Birds was my first horror movie, and Nancy from The Craft was and is my forever favorite character. I also always have been in love with pop culture . At the age 14 I was always looking at celebrities or characters that I admired, and I would figure out exactly what kind of makeup they were wearing, how it was placed, and try to do it on myself. I started really getting into character makeup when I began creating my own costumes for Halloween. At 15 years old, I dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, and at 16 I was Poison Ivy…crafting my own hair/wig, makeup, styling, and creating the full costume.
After studying Psychology in college for some years, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career that had more creativity. That’s when I started searching for makeup schools. I originally wanted to go to school only for Character/SFX makeup, but when I looked at Robert Fiance’s program, I chose the Esthetician’s course. That program included a full 5 week makeup course, and I would be able to legally perform extractions (which seemed like the coolest thing to me at the time). This was when I started to really get comfortable applying makeup on other people. That is the first time that I had felt the happiest… It gave me such joy to see the reaction on peoples faces after their transformations.
After Beauty School, I was primarily working as an Esthetician, and Freelancing Makeup for a brief amount of time. While I was spending most of my time on my Esthetics career, I knew in my heart I wanted to expand my creativity with more makeup ventures. I have struggled with mental health issues since high school, but never had received the proper care. I felt like the world was buzzing around me, so much so, that it made me dizzy. I couldn’t seem to stand still long enough to accomplish any of my goals. As an adult, I had realized I should be doing certain things that any normal person would be able to do with ease, yet I could not. I was keeping myself back. It took me a very long time to get the proper help, and understand my issues. Heck, I’m still figuring it out on a daily basis! I had let a lot of my life pass me by without ever feeling whole. I could run, but couldn’t hide from the fact that I had a dream that never left me.
I always wanted to move to California, and I always wanted to work on films. After, having some break throughs with my mental clarity, I slowly created a plan to get my makeup game back into action, and to eventually move to Los Angeles. Well, I am in Los Angeles, four years after my initial plan to get me out to CA. I’m here, and I’m ready to pursue my dream that I had put on the back burner for far too long!
In one year of being in Los Angeles, I have met so many creative and knowledgable individuals that truly inspire me everyday to keep creating. Recently, I have worked on a few small sets, and have been doing plenty of exciting collaborations with local models and photographers. I’ve been Freelancing for my Makeup Business ZorianaMUA doing glam, character makeup, bridal, film, and editorial. It still feels so wild that I had packed up my whole life, and moved across country with barely any friends or family in LA…but the thing that terrified me the most, was the thought of never making an effort to pursue my goals in life.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Every road will have its obstacles, but that road is always going to be there no matter where you stop. I realized it’s in my power, and always my choice to choose what road to take. Some struggles that I’ve endured are primarily my own mental health holding me back from achieving certain goals or tasks. Everyone has their journey, and one aspect of mine is having to consistently work on maintaining a healthy space of mind. I have my entire family in NJ, and recently my mom has been in not the best of shape. Balancing my life in NJ and CA is hard, and even harder when there are unforeseen obstacles. My mom’s sickness has shown me that no one is every really in control with anything in this universe, but what matters is how you show up and act.
Being a freelance artist, I have to be willing to take the risk of the unknown.. but what do we ever surly know anyways? It’s been quite a transition of navigating how to network in LA compared to my home state, NJ. Although, any struggles I do encounter, I always take every experience and make it into a positive one, because that’s what life is about- growing.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a Makeup Artist that Freelances under my business ZorianaMUA. I specialize in Glam, Editorial, Character, and SFX makeup. Although, I am truly versatile in all different styles of makeup. I’m not the kind of artist that likes to do just one style of Glam. My personal choice of makeup is bold, alternative styles. I enjoy the newness to every individual client, team, or production set that I work on. I love to come together with our ideas, and create magic in the end. I’m most proud of my Character makeup transformations. I love looking at a picture, and on any and all types of faces it give me a challenge. I contour, shade, paint, and transform you into that creature, or person.
What sets me apart from others is… myself. I am my own person and creator… I love to get inspirations from other makeup artists and creators, but for the most part what really inspires my creativity is nature. I think everything in its form, has at one time been done, or done similarly/subconsciously… that’s just human nature. I pride myself on trying to think outside of the box, and I enjoy letting my creative inspirations come from something as simple as patterns that live within old tree bark. I not only love my career in Makeup, but I love to create content for Instagram, and Tik Tok that is not just makeup content. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I want more, I strive for difference, that’s what inspires me, and I hope that inspires others.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Don’t give up. Give it your all, and try again until you’re happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zorianamua.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zorgore
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/zorianamua

Image Credits
1. Photographer- Daniel Taylor, Model- Lidia Esmerelda
2. Photographer- Harlan Cone, Model- Gianna Fung
3. Photographer- Ramón Márquez, Makeup on Model-Kamryn Hansen
4. Photographer- Dima Otvertchenko, Model- Jakki Storm
5. Model- Elizaveta Shipunova
6. all me
7. Model- Allison Ryann
8. Photographer- Kenneth Stipe, Model- Jakki Storm