First, it was slay hairstyles then came smashing makeup.
Shaday Peters has brought a whole new flair and confidence to women with her artistic touch and is aiming for the whole works- her own makeup brand, cosmetic line, and cosmetic hair boutique.
The inception of makeup for her began at the age of 20 but went professional at the age of 23, and has been styling hair for over 16 years now.
“Before I started doing makeup I was interested in hair and nails,” she said. “As a child, I didn’t understand or knew anything about a calling. I started off practicing on myself with ponytail styles from grade six in primary school years. And then one day when my mom ‘butchered’ my hair, I cried and told my father I don’t want my mother combing my hair again because the style she gave me made me get teased at school.”
Since then she began combing her own hair, then her friends at school and eventually anyone, “until I got great at it and I became the new town stylist which is the village in St. Kitts where I was raised,” Shaday reflected.Saturday and Sunday became a routine for earning money by styling her friends’ hair for $10 – $15. By observing other stylists, her skills improved and eventually, she got into combing and washing men’s hair. The creative edge was not limited to styling but extended to the creation of her very own hair treatment by adding raw Aloe Vera and steaming it into the hair.
Shaday remembered that make-up didn’t become a passion for her until adulthood, as she grew up not liking it at all but when she got into the beauty industry she started tampering with makeup on herself for years until she felt she was good enough. However, what really opened her eyes to serious makeup artistry was the need to be able to offer a combined service at queen shows because of the challenges she faced having to simultaneously create hairstyles while a make-up artist puts on makeup on pageant contestants and queens. She, therefore, decided to be both and because of this move, it has landed her a number of jobs because of her versatility and cost-effective service for clients.
Shaday specializes in weaves, braid styles, natural hair, shortcuts and hair colouring. She has done her magic on Miss Jr. BVI, the then Miss 5th Form, Miss 6th Form and Miss World BVI, as well as models of Summer Sizzle for the past two years.
Outside of this, she offers her services at fashion shoots, fashion runway shows, weddings, and dramatic theaters such as Halloween.
She shared some of her tips to aspiring beauticians and do it yourselves.
1. Find your own style
Often times, a lot of upcoming makeup artists tend to copy a lot of other makeup artists. Nothing is wrong with having them as inspiration but I would advise them to find what is unique in them. Then they can continue to experiment on others with eye shadows, colours and blending makeup.
“For me, what was unique when I started out is that I started out with eyebrows. I am a perfectionist with eyebrows. And I believe that once your eyebrows are done perfectly, even if your makeup is not fully on point, it would look on point because that is the center of attention on your face.”
2. Learn face structure
Focus a lot on educating yourself on the structure of a client’s face, the blending of the makeup, your application and also your mixing and blending of colours.
“Experiment a lot on blending different colours so that you will know if your mix a blue and a green you will get a particular colour etc.”
3. Learn basic skin care
If you don’t have healthy skin, your makeup would not look flawless. There are a lot of people who have scars and it’s brilliant to put on makeup application that can hide the scars and all of that but your makeup would look healthier when you have healthier skin.
Shaday’s Makeup Steps