Mawasi “Mo” Mar­tin is a make­up artist, moth­er of one and en­tre­pre­neur. Hav­ing taught her­self make­up artistry, it is now past a decade that she has been in­volved in the in­dus­try and proud­ly states that she is versed in all styles of make­up from en­hance­ment make­up to cre­ative/avante garde styles. Not on­ly does Mo love do­ing make­up but she is pas­sion­ate about shar­ing the love of her craft through teach­ing make­up at work­shops and class­es at her Ari­ma based stu­dio. In 2016, Mo start­ed her own in­die brand of cos­met­ics, Caribbean Queen Cos­met­ics, and in 2017 she was named the Trinidad so­cial-me­dia Am­bas­sador for Black Opal cos­met­ics. To put it sim­ply, Mo has been mak­ing waves in the lo­cal in­dus­try while help­ing women to em­brace them­selves whether it be lov­ing them­selves with make­up or by high­light­ing her per­son­al jour­ney in fit­ness, skin care and ad­vo­cat­ing for women with Poly­cys­tic Ovar­i­an Syn­drome. As we pre­pare you for the com­ing of Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions, we sought to find out some more about Mo’s love for make­up and her best make­up tips to take to the streets.

1.Tell us what you love most about make­up.

For me, make­ups’ ver­sa­til­i­ty is the most beau­ti­ful thing about the art. Make­up can be as sim­ple as tint­ed mois­turis­er, lip gloss and mas­cara and go all the way to the out­er-world trans­for­ma­tions of SFX make­up.

2. What’s one thing for which your clients can re­al­ly count on you?

My clients can count on me to make them feel com­fort­able and at ease while in my chair with my “keep­ing-it-re­al” but gre­gar­i­ous per­son­al­i­ty. A make­up artist should make you feel right at home while do­ing her job.

3. Which step do you love the most when do­ing make­up and why?

I love the foun­da­tion ap­pli­ca­tion step. It trans­forms the face in­to a flaw­less can­vas and can sub­tract any­where from 10 to 15 years off a client’s face. Add to it con­ceal­er - even the most tired and over­worked per­son can look bright-eyed, fresh and awake!

4. Tell us about the best achieve­ment/mile­stones in your life or pro­fes­sion.

Since I was an ado­les­cent my dream was to be a stay-at-home moth­er and a suc­cess­ful en­tre­pre­neur. My daugh­ter made that dream come through by gift­ing me her birth and mo­ti­vat­ing me to achieve.

In ad­di­tion, hav­ing my own suc­cess­ful make­up line, Caribbean Queen Cos­met­ics from 2016 to 2018, and be­ing cho­sen as the Black Opal Trinidad Am­bas­sador with­in that same time pe­ri­od has been a great ac­com­plish­ment for me. Sim­ply be­ing able to have a suc­cess­ful ca­reer that shows my artis­tic pas­sion while al­low­ing me to trans­form not on­ly faces but touch peo­ple’s lives is in­deed a bless­ing.

5. What make­up tips can you give us in prepa­ra­tion for Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions?

Sweat-proof/wa­ter-re­sis­tant foun­da­tion is a must es­pe­cial­ly if you will be walk­ing in the Eman­ci­pa­tion pa­rade. It’s a ter­ri­ble thing to be look­ing all pret­ty and your foun­da­tion is melt­ing away in heat and sweat. Look for cream foun­da­tions or foun­da­tions that specif­i­cal­ly say “Long-wear”.

Add tra­di­tion­al el­e­ments to your look with trib­al dots or pat­terns. Even bet­ter, some­thing that In­dia, Africa and Trinidad share in com­mon is mehn­di de­signs which are very pop­u­lar in Niger­ian, East African and North African cul­tures. So, if you can, do a tra­di­tion­al African mehn­di de­sign on your hands and feet to el­e­vate your look.

In­sta­gram: @cqc_by­mo