June 28, 2016

Meet Silver Lake / Echo Park Freelance Makeup Artist: Ash Mathews

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ash Mathews. Ash is an amazing makeup artist with a particular interest in natural beauty makeup. She has worked for the major magazines in the field but the ride was never easy for her. Ash enjoys her status as a freelance artist and her long-term plans include a men’s cosmetic brand. Below you’ll find edited excerpts of our interview with Ash.

Ash, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?

I started out in the beauty industry as a hair color specialist with an immense passion for becoming a makeup artist. A move to Southern California in 2010 is what finally got the ball rolling. My specialty is natural beauty makeup and that fits a lot of client’s needs in LA. What started as look books for up and coming fashion brands turned into a career of enhancing everyone’s natural beauty. I booked Shape Magazine, Runner’s World, and Marie Claire based on the “no makeup look”. I just love what I do for a living and feel very fortunate for the opportunities that have opened up.

Has it been a smooth road?

It hasn’t been a smooth road at all but if it were easy I wouldn’t appreciate my career the way that I do. There were definitely times when I had just enough gas to get to a shoot or only had chips and salsa for dinner 🙂 The thing about being a makeup artist in my experience is that the career highs are really high and the career lows seem really low. It’s a freelancer struggle and you have to balance yourself and your life or it all seems crazy. I wouldn’t change any of those experiences though because I truly appreciate everything now. Booking the cover story for Runner’s World was a major milestone and so was booking Marie Claire.

What are your plans for the future?
I’m open to any opportunities in the future. That’s the great thing about being a makeup artist, the directions that you can take career wise are far and wide. I have an idea for a cosmetics line but that will be much further down the road. I would like to create a cosmetics brand that caters to male grooming. With marketing being a must for businesses on social media, I feel there is a missing link for both men and women to get camera ready in a low maintenance way.

Let’s dig a little deeper into your story. What was the hardest time you’ve had?
In 2012 I experienced a hard time while my passion and creativity was taking off. Mainly because creating doesn’t always pay the bills. Looking back on it I now realize that was a period of growth that I had to do in order to attract clients. A portfolio is your voice and resume when you’re building a business. It was important that I invested the time and effort to show my best work.

I had to get a roommate at that time and that was very challenging. With no family and a very small professional network in California finding someone to live with was a challenge within itself. My first roommate was amazing, the second one was cool too, and then I got a roommate with undiagnosed mental illness. That was something that I wasn’t prepared for. Pretty sure roommate number 3 was schizophrenic and possibly bipolar. He thought I was talking bad about him with my mind. Basically an impossible situation to argue with or sort out. Needless to say I told him he had 30 days to move out. Thankfully, by then my business was starting to take off and my financial woes were beginning to go away 🙂

Pricing:

As a freelancer I’ve realized that each and every client has unique needs. It’s best to email me with the general scope of your project and I will gladly get you pricing information within 24 hours.

Contact Info: