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Beauty Queen

Makeup artist Mandy Rose teaches others to look and feel as good as she does in her Birmingham studio.

Once upon a time — in the not-so-distant past — there was no such thing as social media.

“We didn’t have camera phones, Instagram — none of that good stuff,” Mandy Rose Arabo says of her high school days. “So my friends and I didn’t wear that much makeup on a daily basis.”

When she did have a special occasion, her sister, Michelle, would do her face for her. One day, when Arabo was 17, her sister wasn’t available, so she dug out all of Michelle’s goodies and applied it herself. It turned out that Arabo had a knack.

“I got tons of compliments that night,” she says. “My friends started asking me to do their makeup, and pretty soon I realized that I actually had a talent.”

Eventually opening two local makeup studios called Mandy Rose, Arabo, new mom to baby Berlin (named after grandmothers Bernice and Linda), has worked hard to earn her perch at the helm. After graduation, she headed to New York City to attend the Make-Up Designory School, a college-accredited makeup school, where she studied professional photography makeup training, with a focus on perfecting makeup for all types of lighting. Returning to her native Michigan, Arabo earned her aesthetician’s license from the David Pressley School of Cosmetology in Royal Oak.

“After seeing in New York all the possibilities for careers in makeup, I knew I wanted a career beyond weekend jobs for bridal parties,” Arabo says. In 2009, she rented a small suite inside an office building and officially launched the first Mandy Rose Studio. Teaming with professional photographers, she worked for trade while building her portfolio; she worked with bridal magazines and websites to reach brides in need of services; and — “my favorite part,” she says — she used her textbook makeup education to teach others how to do their own makeup.

Five years later, Arabo and her sister, a professional hair stylist, opened the doors to their first storefront location of Mandy Rose, a full-service hair salon and makeup studio in West Bloomfield. And this TK, she celebrated the one-year anniversary of her second location, in Birmingham, a makeup studio and academy with a professional “classroom” lined with stools and tools — a cheerful area for students, bridal parties and girls’ nights out.

In addition to classes for students of all ages and intensity (any artist who completes the Mandy Rose Certified Makeup Artist Course will always have a chair in the studio to work on their clients), Mandy Rose Birmingham offers makeup services including full face, half face, eyes only, liner and lashes, plus eyebrow and eyelash services like tints, lash lifts and more. She also carries her own line of Mandy Rose lip products, a full line of “clean” makeup, cream contour kits, a full skin-care line and more. “We are all about makeup education,” Arabo says. “We don’t just sell a product, we make sure you know how to use it.

“I love being able to do my own makeup, and I love teaching others to do their own, too,” Arabo says. “The confidence that a perfectly winged eyeliner or chiseled contour gives you can change your mood and your outlook.”

“There are steps to applying a full face of makeup — you are literally painting your face,” she says. “And I can teach you how to do it. I love that I can share my tips and teach my tricks to help women feel their best, anytime.”

MANDY’S FALL TRENDS

  • “Try a lipstick accent: Fluffy clean eyebrows, soft eyes, dewy foundation that looks barely there — then Bam! A stunning statement lip in dark red, brown or violet,” Arabo says.

  • “Blush is back!” she says. “We nearly forgot about blush when we obsessed over the dark brown contoured look, but for this fall it’s all about that pop of color. If you’re not going to put color on your lip, put it on your cheeks. Soft eyes, dewy skin, light gloss and a punch of a beautiful warm peach, berry or baby pink on the cheek.”

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