This week on the Mompreneurs podcast, Emmy-nominated make-up artist Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks displays on her celebrated profession within the magnificence business, and the way she is channeling her a long time’ price of expertise into her personal make-up line.
From working the MAC counter in a midtown Manhattan division retailer to navigating the fast-paced lifetime of a star make-up artist as a younger mother, Sheriff-Kendricks adopted each alternative towards one thing higher. With equal elements resilience and sacrifice, Sheriff-Kendricks used her make-up artistry data and experience to ascertain her personal product line: Ashunta Sheriff Magnificence. The sweetness business veteran sat down with Mompreneurs host and New York Occasions bestselling writer, Nancy Redd, to make clear her unbelievable journey.
She found her ardour for make-up artistry at MAC Cosmetics.
Sheriff-Kendricks has clocked over 20 years within the magnificence business, beginning with a job in retail at a Macy’s MAC counter. She was a pure, coming into the world of magnificence already geared up with an honest quantity of expertise. “My mother carried out, my aunt was a mannequin, my sister was a hairstylist. So magnificence was at all times in my wheelhouse,” she defined.
However when difficulties at residence started to affect her work, she was let go from MAC. “I used to be devastated,” she mentioned. “I assumed I lastly received again on observe in life. I’m a brand new mother, I’m a younger mother, I’m decided to turn into a make-up artist, and I used to be simply beginning to see that there was a world outdoors of retail.”
Later that day, an opportunity encounter on the streets of Manhattan with a buddy and fellow make-up artist turned every part round. “I’m strolling down thirty fourth road crying hysterically, and I run into Wilbert Ramos. He was like, ‘Why are you crying?’ He used to work at MAC. And I used to be like, ‘I’m crying as a result of they fired me.’ He was like, ‘No. I do know what you’ve been going via. Include me.’ And he dragged my ass to Henri Bendel (division retailer) and he received me a job with a brand new model that simply launched referred to as Laura Mercier.”
With each new alternative, Sheriff-Kendricks grew her skillset. At Laura Mercier, a younger model on the time, she realized a unique type of magnificence. “That made me a extremely well-rounded artist, as a result of I knew how one can go avant-garde — I knew how one can go loopy and be inventive — however I additionally knew how to try this clear no-makeup make-up look from Laura.”
Sheriff-Kendricks continued to find new alternatives from there. “That’s once I began to essentially community and hustle and construct outdoors of the areas of retail and begin to do weddings, music movies, commercials, editorial — and from that have, that’s once I began getting superstar purchasers.”
She made her mark in Hollywood the place she labored alongside A-list clientele.
She secured her first superstar shopper, Diddy, who was her stepping stone to larger alternatives. “He put me in an area the place manufacturers noticed me, and that’s once I began to get these influential offers and model ambassadorships. Then I began getting in even deeper once I began working with Alicia Keys and Rihanna and extra ladies.”
Sheriff-Kendricks turned a sought-after identify for every part from red-carpet occasions to product improvement with Dior. She was the make-up artist behind Cookie Lyon’s timeless beat on six seasons of Empire, which earned Sheriff-Kendricks two back-to-back Emmy nominations. Her prolonged resume contains different notable initiatives together with the Academy Award-nominated movie Hidden Figures, The Misplaced Metropolis, and Survival of the Thickest.
Supply: Mompreneurs: Ashunta Sheriff Kendricks Particulars Her Journey From Celebr / Ashunta Sheriff
She suffered main setbacks in 2012, ‘probably the most hellish yr.’
It’s clear that Sheriff-Kendricks has mastered the pivot — recovering from life’s setbacks and having to regroup and reframe her subsequent step, whereas at all times shifting ahead.
She described 2012 as “probably the most hellish yr.” She needed to finish her first magnificence line attributable to a trademark infringement lawsuit, regardless of a profitable launch. “I didn’t even make it to 6 months.” And a critical automobile accident put her out of fee for almost a yr.
It was loads to get well from all of sudden — bodily, financially, mentally, and spiritually. However she was motivated by her religion, her household, and her ancestors to push ahead. “How did I survive that? I’m a powerful person who believes in God. My religion is really in God,” she mentioned. “I’m grateful to my ancestors who walked this Earth earlier than me.”
“It was a really humbling expertise. And that taught me to strategy my profession with much more zeal to push to have a model.”
She began planning her comeback in 2020.
As soon as the pandemic hit in 2020, Sheriff-Kendricks was decided to dive again into her entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient. “I mentioned, you recognize what? There’s no higher time than now. That is the time.” By 2022, she launched her first product, the Day & Evening magnetic lash set, which remains to be accessible beneath her present product line, Ashunta Sheriff Magnificence.
The budding magnificence mogul’s large break got here from long-time buddy and shopper Taraji P. Henson herself. The Golden Globe-winning actress posted a video on social media that includes the lash set, and gross sales skyrocketed. “I’m completely grateful to her for the remainder of my life,” mentioned Sheriff-Kendricks. “That was the kickstarting cash to assist me start 40 extra merchandise.”
Now two and a half years into operating Ashunta Sheriff Magnificence, the wonder entrepreneur is in her factor. Her clear, cruelty-free, and makeup-artist-approved merchandise may be noticed all over the place from Academy Award pink carpets to options in Attract journal, the Immediately present, and extra.
‘We don’t get on this place to not cross down the advantages to our kids.’
Immediately, Sheriff-Kendricks and her husband, actor and recording artist Corr Kendricks, are one large completely happy blended household, with eight youngsters between them.
She talked in regards to the privilege of with the ability to cross down alternatives to her eldest daughter Nami. “We don’t get on this place in Hollywood to not cross down the advantages to our kids,” she mentioned. “That’s what we do that for, in order that they’ll have a smoother, simpler experience.” Sheriff-Kendricks received Nami a job as a fancy dress manufacturing assistant on Empire at age 19. Immediately, she is finding out to be a fancy dress designer at FIT in New York.
(L-R) Make-up artist Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks, superstar hairstylist Vernon Francois, and superstar make-up artist Naeemah LaFond attend the Black Magnificence Roster x L’Oreal Groupe Hair and Make-up Fairness Dinner on the Park Lane New York throughout New York Style Week on February 09, 2024 in New York Metropolis. Supply: Shannon Finney / Getty
‘There’s a means we are able to at all times collaborate as model founders and as Black feminine entrepreneurs.’
Alongside her journey, Sheriff-Kendricks has stayed true to her values — embracing inclusivity and uplifting others. She emphasised the facility of collaboration. “That’s the help that we have now to offer, and we have now to offer it with love and kindness and wish to do it for one another, not only for ourselves,” she mentioned. “There’s a means we are able to at all times collaborate and cross-pollinate as model founders and as Black feminine entrepreneurs to assist one another.”
“There’s no diminishing me by uplifting you.”
Don’t miss out on the total dialog. Watch this episode of Mompreneurs that includes Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks above.
Catch new episodes of ‘Mompreneurs’ each week.
Each week, we have fun stunning Black entrepreneurs who’re concurrently wonderful enterprise moguls and superior mothers. Be part of host and New York Occasions bestselling writer Nancy Redd as these mompreneurs share their life tales and provoking recommendation. Catch new episodes of Mompreneurs each Monday on MadameNoire’s YouTube channel. Or hearken to the podcast on-line on the City One Podcast Community.
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