Conversations with Danielle Poe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Poe. 

Hi Danielle, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I grew up in Akron, OH, moved to Columbus OH for a couple of years, and then moved out here to Denver about 8 years ago. 

I got my cosmetology license while I was in high school. I did High School for half the day and vocational school for the other half. I loved everything about the beauty industry while I was in school. But It’s funny because I grew up getting dirty and hanging out with friends out in the woods behind our house, a total tomboy. So, I’m not sure were wanting to do hair and makeup for a living came into play. I grew up riding four-wheelers through the woods, raising goats, and basically living in the lake at my grandmas’ house. We were outside getting muddy more than anything else. So, I’m definitely not high maintenance when it comes to my appearance, but being able to throw on some hot pink eyeshadow and some eyeliner that goes out to my ears gives me some kind of thrill I’ll never be able to explain. 🙂 

Once I graduated and got my license I worked in a salon for a couple of years, I realized pretty quickly I hated doing hair but I loved doing makeup. So, I stopped doing hair and I started working at Home Depot. Don’t ask why, I have no clue why I decided to work at a Home Depot with a cos license and no experience of home improvement. lol. I was a broke college student trying to sell rich people appliances that I had no clue how to use myself. But through all of that, I would do makeup looks on myself and my friends. I’ve been doing makeup for about 14 years now because I never stopped working on it. It’s mostly been on myself with a few weddings and school dances sprinkled in. 

Just this past year in 2021 I decided to get serious about turning makeup into my career and I created Danielle Reed Beauty LLC. Turns out it’s easy to make an LLC but harder to turn your vision into a reality. I knew I didn’t want my company to be in the wedding industry as I am not a big fan of working weddings. I really love doing crazy and bright colors, stuff you couldn’t just go grocery shopping in. I want to work in fashion and editorials. I want to do runway makeup and maybe try to get into TV. if I could do anything for the Star Wars franchise, I would just simply pass away haha! I took a couple of makeup classes and got some more certifications since it had been so long since I had any formal education. I did makeup for a couple of boudoir companies and I was asked to work on a photoshoot for a local fashion designer who was coming out with an eco-friendly legging line this past year (check out rebellelion she’s insanely talented!) Working on that line with her was such a dream come true. Getting to put a creative look together and seeing it being used for a launch was just totally surreal. A lot of the big events were just getting going again so I really didn’t do a ton of work outside of social media. I am currently waiting to hear back from Denver Fashion Week about helping out in their spring show. 

I always want to use my platform to help women and men feel beautiful and empowered in their own skin. I want to make sure that everyone can see the beauty in themselves and that they don’t need makeup or certain clothes to accomplish that. You don’t need to be a size 2 to feel beautiful. I have struggled with my weight my whole life and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why I enjoy doing makeup the way that I do. I can make myself into anyone I want and escape my own body while I’m doing it. But it took a lot of self-reflecting to realize that I can walk around bare-faced and be just as beautiful as I am with a face full of makeup. Gold eyeshadow isn’t going to change who I am as a person. 

When I decided to turn my hobby into a business, I was actually about 2 months sober into my recovery from alcoholism. This is a huge part of who I am now. Because recovering from alcohol and substance abuse is a lifelong journey. It’s something that I’m going to have to work at every day of my life now. 

I started abusing alcohol right out of high school. I ruined a really important relationship with my high school/college boyfriend because of it. I got into an incredibly toxic relationship almost immediately after and moved to Colorado to be with him, and was in that for about 6 years. my drinking just got worse and worse and I refused to admit there was a problem. We went back and forth with our toxic behavior for way longer than we should have and I finally left during the worst part of the pandemic in 2020 and moved into an apartment by myself. Once I was out of that relationship and I didn’t feel like I was being controlled every day I ended up going wild with my drinking, and also brought some drugs into the mix as well. My family didn’t know how bad it was getting since they were in Ohio and I didn’t have a significant other telling me to slow down so I spiraled out of control and in just 7 months and ended up with a DWAI at the beginning of 2021. 

I was in the darkest place I’ve ever been in and I was so ashamed of myself to the point where I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror or talk to anyone in my family when they were just trying to see if I was okay. The day after I was arrested, I went to my first AA meeting at the request of my mom. I went mostly to get her to stop worrying about me and so I could say I worked on my drinking before I went back into it. Because even though at that point, I knew I needed help but I still wanted to keep drinking. I went to AA every day for a couple of months and did nothing else. I was fortunate that I was able to focus solely on my sobriety in the beginning. I ended up finding my family and myself in those rooms. AA hands down saved my life. I know for a fact I wouldn’t be alive today if I wouldn’t have walked into that room at the beginning of last year 

A couple of months after I initially got sober, I was riding what they call the “pink cloud” pretty high and I thought I could do anything so I built my LLC for Danielle Reed Beauty so I could start working on my dream of doing makeup for a fashion show and get my work in magazines. but the road to recovery is not straight in the least. I have been in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows this past year. between my brain chemistry just trying to even itself out without drugs and alcohol, to my horrible self-talk while I try to heal from an emotionally abusive ex, it’s been exhausting. as of writing this I am one year and 26 days sober and I feel like I’m just now starting to understand how this all works. 

I’m still passionate about changing people’s lives through the power of makeup, but overcoming everything I’ve been through these past couple of years has made me realize how far I want my business to go. It’s going to be about way more than just fashion shows and magazines. I really want to make an impact in this world and let everyone know that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to ask for help and it’s okay to accept help. We can’t live this life alone and no one deserves that. You don’t deserve to be in that abusive relationship, you don’t deserve to self-harm or self-medicate to make yourself feel better. I want to help people heal and I want to use my company to do it. 

My company is still small but I can feel big things happening already from it. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been anything but smooth, I thought that I could just build this LLC and the work would flock to me. 

It turns out that not a lot of people want to pay you to touch their face during a pandemic. who knew?! 

It has been a slow-going and I am still an incredibly small business of just one. I am overcoming a lot of mental obstacles along with some financial ones. but I believe that my vision for what I want this company to be will carry me through all of these. 

I want to reach people who are down and broken so if I nothing else I can be the little angel on their shoulder telling them everything is going to be okay, along with giving them a killer smokey eye 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Freelance Makeup Artist and the Owner of Danielle Beauty LLC. 

I would like to say I specialize in editorial makeup and makeup for television. I mostly just love using any kind of bright colors, whether that be eyeshadow or liner or lipstick or even blush. I just want to make it exaggerated and extreme. I think it’s beautiful to use someone’s skin tone, eye color, and hair color in the makeup colors I use. 

what sets me apart as a makeup artist is that I don’t think people should even wear makeup. obviously, people can go full-faced to the gym if they want to. whatever makes you feel confident. but I think it’s more about working on feeling beautiful in your own skin and just using makeup to enhance your own beauty (this actually is more popular in the makeup industry now than it was in the past) 

I got to work with some insanely talented artists on a photoshoot for a clothing line launch. I was found on insta by Rebellelion and she was doing a photoshoot with photographer Jake Holschuh for her eco-friendly leggings launch and wanted me to do the makeup for the models because she liked the looks, I had on my Instagram. I was so honored that she even liked my crazy style let alone wanted me to help her! I got to do the makeup on all 3 models and she ended up using some of the looks for her launch! her line goes up to 8X and she used all different side models. 

I have always had strong feelings about the fashion industry when it comes to body dysmorphia and just the way that they portray body types so it was amazing working with a women-owned designer who used real women to model her line <3 

What does success mean to you?
I don’t look at success the same way I did in my 20s. for me, it’s just a sense of accomplishment. whether that be an awesome photoshoot or just getting through another day sober when I thought I wouldn’t be able to. or even when I’ve been working on a new trick with my dog and she finally gets it. society focuses so much on being the richest and most important person but personal success is more important. do you feel good about yourself while you’re achieving your goals? are you working with purpose? or are you knocking down whoever you can to get to where you want to be. 

Contact Info:

• Email: daniellerbeauty@gmail.com
• Instagram: Danielle.Reed_Beauty / personal is dannie.poe
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Danielle.Reed.Beauty/?ref=py_c

Image Credits
Jake Holschuh