Meet Trailblazer Rachel Boles-Harfouche

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Boles-Harfouche.

Rachel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I guess my story is kind of all over the place, especially when it comes to makeup. I’ve always been fascinated with makeup. I remember being eight years old and I would take my moms foundation and make dots all over my face to cover my freckles. Then, when I was in high school, I was obsessed with black eyeliner but unfortunately the people I was living with at the time were extremely against makeup and told me that I was not allowed to wear it and that black eyeliner and black nail polish meant I was having sex with all these guys (PS black eyeliner just means you’re a boss woman with great taste). So, I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup anymore. Once I got to college, I was OBSESSED with Amy Winehouse eyeliner, blocked eyebrows and black or violet purple lipstick. I was never bad at makeup. I always had a gift at just somehow knowing tricks. For instance, I knew how to contour my cheekbones when I was 15 even before contour was really known. Now, I didn’t know that I was contouring but I noticed that when I put a brown shade near my ear at the start of my cheekbone that it reshaped my face. My makeup skills didn’t actually truly advance until law school. I would be so insanely stressed out from studying all day long that I needed an escape. So, I would take an hour off from studying a few times a week and do my makeup just for fun. I really tried to begin to experience new things. I put down the winged eyeliner and black eyeshadow and started to venture out into creative glamorous looks. In the past two years, I have consciously taken the effort to actually practice techniques, learn new techniques, create my own, learn FX makeup, learn creative and artistic makeup, learn to draw pictures on my face, etc. The past couple of years took a hobby into a passion, and now this passion and my education will combine in order to help me create my own company.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh god, no. I don’t think any road is smooth, to be honest. Especially, any successful road. You see in order to watch your dreams come to life, you have to never give up. You have to wake up early every morning, stay up late every night, watch other people’s dreams come true while you feel stand still, you’ll be confused about where to go next, you’ll feel lost, you’ll feel like you’re at a dead end and that you made a huge mistake. You’ll go broke, be stressed and want to give up. And as crazy as this sounds, when you feel all those things just know that you’re on the right path. Because what makes success so unique is that you never gave up even when the odds were stacked against you and every fiber in your body was telling you to quit that it’s too hard.

I won’t get into insane detail with my struggles but here are a few:
1. I had to fight against every mean thing that was said to me (coming from adults, parents, college kids, work employees, etc.) about the way I expressed myself. Which was hard. It was hard to be belittled and demeaned. It broke me a few times and made me cry and be very insecure inside, but I drowned out my insecurity and would wake up the next day and put on gold glitter on my lips and wing my eyeliner out to my temples. Because I wasn’t going to let people that don’t understand me to define me.
2. I was extremely broke. When I was in college, I had absolutely no money. I was 19 years old and working 18 hours a day six days a week, being a full time college student (online courses now because I needed to work to pay rent and tuition), had nowhere to live at one point and had to eat food out of my sorority housing kitchen trash or take surveys around my campus for a free slice of pizza. I was absolutely exhausted from working and the stress I was under, but I knew I was gonna be something someday. I knew that in order to reach the level of success I wanted, I needed my college degree and my law degree, so I sucked it up and didn’t let the obstacles keep me down.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
People know me most for my Instagram. My Instagram (@rachel__diane) is a beauty based makeup page. I create several glam makeup looks, creative artistic looks, Halloween looks, FX looks, and so much else.
But I feel like I am also known for having a law degree and working in the LA Public Defender’s office as a clerk during my 3rd year of law school.

I have actually just begun putting in the groundwork to start the process of creating my own company. I can’t exactly say what it is yet, but it will be combining my two passions: makeup and creating justice in the legal world.

Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
OH YEAH. You can take your past experiences and let them cripple you or you can take them and make them empower you into an insane force. Always remember, success and happiness is the best revenge.

I have never had an easy life. For the first part of my life, I was living with my mom in California INSANELY poor and had to watch her fight every day to keep us safe and keep us fed. Then, I moved and even though it was a better living situation, I had to fight every single day for myself and my sanity. I had to fight to be who I am. I had to fight to not let mean words get to me and mentally affect me in detrimental ways. I had to fight every day to love myself because I felt like I was the only person around that did love me. And then at 16, I lived on my own in my own apartment and I had to fight again. Fight for money. Fight for survival. I literally only had a mattress in my first apartment that I pulled out of a dumpster. I had to fight off predators. And then, in college, my life at first seemed to get easier because my mom was back in my life and my new adoptive father. They were helping me. But when I hit 19, my parents separate and my father filed bankruptcy and I had to fight all over again.

I feel like if it wasn’t for my experiences, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to get where I’m at today. To reach the level of success that I have at such a young age. It helped me never give up. I literally do not have it in me to EVER give up. If it seems impossible, I will find a way to make it happen still. And trust me, if I want something I will ALWAYS get it. It’s the fighter in me.

Pricing:

• I do not offer legal services at this time because I am waiting for my CA BAR exam results
• Glam makeup/wedding makeup $125 per person plus traveling fees
• Halloween/FX makeup $200 per person
• Photoshoot makeup $125 for the application, traveling fees, plus $25/hour if I am needed to stay on set

Contact Info:

• Website: www.youtube.com/rachelbolesharfouche
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @rachel__diane
• Twitter: @rachel__diane

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.