Life & Work with Solange Whitlock

Hi Solange, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Makeup has been my passion since I was little. I was born and raised in Brazil. Coming from a humble family, I didn’t have much money to spend on beauty products. But I always had lipstick on and black eyeliner.

When I moved to Japan when I was 19 years old (where I lived for 15 years), I had an extremely busy schedule working. I had so many jobs that I can’t even remember all of them. I didn’t forget about beauty. At this time, I actually had the money to buy the products I wanted, but I didn’t have the time to put makeup on because of the long hours of work and for the most part, my face was covered with a mask (part of the Japanese culture).

One day, I called my mom back in Brazil, as I was going through a very tough time in life. I was crying, missing her, missing my family, missing everything that I left behind… After listening to all her words of encouragement, she said “go wash your face, go in front of the mirror, and put some makeup on. You’ll see a beautiful Sol and it’ll make you feel better.”

I followed her advice, and that was it! I liked what I saw in the mirror and that definitely made me feel better and ready to keep going on my journey in Japan.

That advice got stuck in my mind, and I started giving the same advice to some friends at work when I saw them feeling down.

I thought, “it’s amazing how you see yourself in a beautiful outfit or all dolled up can make you feel powerful!”

Going to beauty school in Japan was out of the question, as it was so expensive, although I thought about that, especially when I was freelancing as a model at a few model agencies and saw the MUA’s working.

Moving to the United States in 2016, I barely knew English but I knew that I would have more opportunities here than in Japan. I started looking for beauty schools and finally, I decided to go to Cosmetology School in Virginia Beach. Although I like doing hairstyles, I hated cutting and coloring hair.

One day, We had a guest speaker from a salon coming to the school and teaching the beauty for weddings, hairstyle and makeup for those events. I fell in love with the class and Liz (our guest speaker). I wanted to go talk to her after class, but I was shy…

I put my shyness aside and went to talk to her as if I was going to talk to someone famous, haha. I asked if I could shadow her in a wedding (already expecting a NO as an answer). Immediately she pulled up her calendar and asked if I was available (giving me a date).

I couldn’t believe that! And of course I said “YES”, all excited. I drove over an hour to shadow her, and After that day, she let me shadow her one more time, and right after she asked if I wanted to work with her and her team. What a blessing!! She also taught me a lot about hair (she styles hair so fast, and I was always amazed by that.)

The cosmetology school didn’t teach much makeup :/ so I went to a makeup school where I could learn more about it.

Working with the salon team, I also opened my own business (and Liz always supported me).

Fast forward, I moved to Jacksonville, Florida and started over my business here. I reached out to Photographers, wedding vendors and did a lot of free work only to connect with people, and little by little I started growing my business.

I’m thankful that I met a lot of great people in the same industry and we all support each other. I get a lot of clients by referral as I refer my clients to them as well.

I’m grateful for each person who has referred my business to their clients or friends, and extremely happy that (at this moment) I have only 5 stars reviews on Google. 🙏🏼

Making people feel beautiful is so rewarding! (Thanks to my mom who is probably watching me from heaven). ♡♡♡

I love doing not just weddings but also boudoir makeup where I can be a little more bold, headshots, maternity, graduation, and any special events.

I also offer 1on1 class for beginners, where I teach the person to use what she already owns, and I suggest some products and tools.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a studio yet, so I’m on site HMUA, bringing all my makeup/hair products and tools to provide the best service I can.

My dream is to have my own space one day and have assistants so I can book large bridal parties or send my team to different weddings/events 🙏🏼.

I’m still a very small business, but I’m working on it to grow!

Mentioned here:
*Cosmetology School: Rudy & Kelly Academy a Paul Mitchell Partner School. Virginia Beach
*Makeup School: The Makeup School by Sarah Rillon. Virginia Beach
*Salon I started at: Darling & Dapper. Virginia Beach

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?
Definitely not easy! Coming from a different country, everything here was new.

The business part of the business is a challenge for me. My thing is painting faces and styling hair!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a makeup artist and hairstylist specialized in natural glam where I don’t change but enhance. I ask my clients what made them choose me, and most of them say that they like how natural my makeup looks and how beautiful it photographs 🙂 . Especially on a wedding day, where every bride wants their fiancé to recognize her when she’s walking down the aisle.

My clients have mentioned great customer service in their reviews and how clean and organized my kit looks, so that makes me happy . I love to bring positivity and make that moment fun and relaxing.

I think my Brazilian personality sets me apart from the others. My story that I have told hundreds of times once they hear my accent and start asking about myself.

My client’s satisfaction is my priority, so every time I finish a makeup application, I always ask them to be completely honest and if they are not satisfied with what they’re seeing in the mirror, to give me the chance to fix it. I never take it personal if for any reason they aren’t happy with something. I just want the chance to make the adjustments needed. That’s the beauty of the makeup, you can change it. Happy client, happy artist!!

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Hmm, I never thought about that to be honest. I think that living life and choosing what path to follow is a risk itself. You want to choose the right path where it’ll lead you to success in every aspect, but you’re not 100% sure which path to choose, so you take the risk and hope for the best, then work and do your best.

Leaving Brazil and my family behind was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. I prayed that they would be safe and healthy until I came back one day. I knew that I would miss their Birthday, holidays, celebration, and I wouldn’t be able to be there in person when they needed me.

Although I don’t regret leaving Brazil to try a better life for myself and my family, my heart feels sad for not have spent the last few years of my mom’s life next to her, but at the end, she said she was proud of me, so that was comforting and her strength still inspires me to keep me going everyday.

Now, speaking of work and about taking risks on what I do, the fact of being an on site artist, I’m risking myself every time I have to hit the road for a long-distance Wedding.

I almost died when a car ran me off the road and the other driver took off. My car did a 360 on the ditch, almost hit a tree, but I managed to put my car back on the road with the steering wheel kinda loose. 9 hours of travel turned into 15 hours. I was at the wedding on time though! 😂