Life & Work with Yuliana Duarte

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Yuliana Duarte.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My passion for makeup started when I was a little girl in my native Paraguay. Being a truly curious artist, I have over 25 years of experience and have covered almost everything from fashion shows to editorials, from television programs to beauty pageants, and currently as a Makeup Instructor in a beauty school in New York.

Prior to relocating to New Jersey with my husband and my two daughters, I lived, studied, and worked in New York, and before that in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay under some of the most renowned makeup artists in South America. I tried to grow my reputation based on my creativity, and technical skills, and I focused on inspiring many more students in this fabulous profession. I just love my job.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road was very bumpy, but I would not change anything. Every difficulty and every obstacle that I had has allowed me to truly appreciate the process and feel amazing about the results. When my parents did not have the resources to pay for the makeup lessons, this gave me the confidence to go and ask to be an assistant with no salary, just to be given the opportunity to be close and watch how they do it.

I washed a lot of brushes and carried many makeup bags when I was 14 years old but when I finally got my first salary, after two years, my first investment was to travel to Argentina and get more knowledge about the products and different types of makeups and since then, I did not stop traveling and studied different specialties in the beauty industry.

My other big struggle was when I came to New York. I had the experience, but I didn’t know anyone, and no one knew me. It was like starting from scratch again, especially because it was very difficult to express my knowledge in English.

I knocked on many doors and made contacts at beauty salons, photo studios, and beauty schools while I was working as a babysitter and in a coffee shop to pay my bills. These experiences give me the ability to show my students the different options and the shortcuts to start making money as a makeup artist/esthetician/cosmetologist.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Makeup artist is a very creative career, but I’m also a Licensed Esthetician, Cosmetologist. I have prepared hundreds of students for their theoretical and practice test to obtain their professional licenses in New York. I also studied until the 6th semester of Nutritionist Licensing in Asunción Paraguay.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I specialize in airbrushing, which is a special technique that I use a lot for brides. “I will perform makeup for anyone who wants to feel like a Diva or just special for the moment.” But what I really passionate about is to keep inspiring my students to become successful in the beauty industry.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makeupyuli?igsh=YWJlNmZ3ZXMwNWxm&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yulimakeup?mibextid=PtKPJ9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuli-duarte-a92081121?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits
Photography by Vicky Benítez