On Authentic Beauty with Makeup Artist Connie Tsen
In this episode, I'm joined by Connie Tseng, who is a makeup artist here in DC, Virginia, Maryland, whose work has been featured in Harper's Bazaar, Glamor and Elle. Connie has worked with everyone from CEOs to politicians to models, celebrities and everyday women.
What I love most about Connie is her belief in authentic beauty. She treats each face like a work of art, and sees the beauty in every woman she meets. Her clients have included former secretary, Madeleine Albright, Dr Jill, Biden, Jenna Elfman and Billie Jean King, as well as myself. I've also sat in Connie's chair, and I've known Connie for several years, and every time she does my makeup, I just leave feeling more like myself, but elevated.
Somehow, there's just something magical about her presence and her gift with makeup, and I can't wait for you to experience that in this episode’s conversation with her.
In this conversation, we discuss:
That beauty isn't about perfection, it's about your presence. It's about being in touch with your presence underneath the surface, and letting that truth come forward in how you see yourself, how you show up in the world, and how you choose to be seen.
That it's okay to be ordinary. Sometimes we get caught up in trying to be exceptional and forget that our true uniqueness can come simply from accepting our ordinariness and that there's a beauty in that.
How beauty is very individual. Each person has an individual essence of that is beautiful, and makeup can be used to enhance that and also help you connect more deeply with it, as well as others.
That beauty is also an energy, because when you feel beautiful, you carry yourself differently, and others respond to that energy. It's not necessarily being that perfect look or golden ratio.
How beauty can also be a strategic tool that you can use depending on what you want. You can use it to tell a story to people of who you are. You can use it to shape the message that you want to share with the world.
How self consciousness can get in the way of you experiencing expressing your beauty.
That beauty is much more versatile than we think. Everything that we see and everyone that we look at has beauty within them, and you can show up in different ways, depending on your mood, your intention and your own sense of style. With regard to your own beauty.
The inner voice that often gets activated within you when you go through difficult times, and when you make contact with that inner voice, it can help guide you, and it's very supportive, like a quiet knowing inside you.
Victoria: What advice would you have for parents whose children are struggling with this question of beauty?
Connie: I think maybe, and this is just my humble opinion, it's maybe having approaching a bit more from an art perspective, instead of going to, you know, like a contour kit, just maybe get, like, a primary color water kit, and just see, how the water, how you can, you know, mix the different colors and create another color and play with shapes on there. Then maybe they can see, ah, makeup is just you putting colors on your face, and you're composing them in a different way. There is the playing, such as the brush, the 3d aspect of it, and such as the whole face on there. So it's not the commoditized contour and highlight. hey can look at Kara Roger in the museum, and learn about the light and dark. They can look at David Hockney to learn about the use of vibrant colors and their shapes. I think it's just so much fun to exercise that way, with makeup as art on the face.
Listen to the full conversation on the Inner Calling Podcast here.
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