Meet Valentina Pedraza

We had the good fortune of connecting with Valentina Pedraza and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Valentina, as a parent, what do you feel is the most meaningful thing you’ve done for them?
I believe one of the most important things I have done as a single parent is create a supportive and open environment where my son can feel safe to express themselves. Encouraging open communication helps build trust and fosters emotional intelligence, which is crucial for their development. It also sets the foundation for healthy relationships in the future.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart is my unique blend of knowledge, adaptability, and my true passion for the art. I have 11 years of experience and everyday it’s a new lesson. The industry has changed so much with social media influences and world events that keeping a fresh mind is much needed to keep the knowledge flowing. That goes hand in hand with adaptability, makeup is an environment filled with so many different types of people, atmospheres, likes and dislikes so being adaptable to any and everything is my unique trait. I’m more than certain all artist are passionate about their art, I try to bring my passionate into my connection with the client in my chair. My passion is deep routed from stealing my mom’s black eye liner at the age of 6 and sneaking off to give myself a cat eye. I love makeup and the joy it can bring someone.

I am most proud of my journey. I started working for a well known makeup brand at the age of 18 and took a leap of faith by moving by myself to New York at the age of 22. I was able to experience fashion week, broadway shows and so much training from highly respected senior artist. I’m so glad I made that leap of faith. I’m excited to continue learning to provide so much more for my clients.

As I mentioned before, everything started with me stealing my mom’s black eyeliner from her purse and hide to create a cat eye (which by the way it’s the thickest cat eye you probably would ever see.) All through high school I would use my paycheck to buy the whole makeup aisle from the drug store and create looks on myself that reflecting back, would be so cool to recreate. I graduated high school and ended up at the MAC counter to get my very first MAC lipstick. The assistant manager provided me an application because she saw so much potential and passion. Next thing you know I am working full time at MAC cosmetics fresh out of high school. I worked for the company 4 years and decided I wanted to try this on my own. Ever since 2017 I have been on my own doing freelance makeup.

My biggest challenge and also inspiration is social media. It’s been incredibly hard staying up to date with the trends and the dos and don’ts. I believe in self beauty and sometimes it’s hard to reflect that same message to clients who believe beauty is what that see on social media. Overcoming that challenge has been embracing it. Turning a negative to a positive, use it as a tool rather than a hurdle. It’s a great tool to market yourself and even teach your clients small things they can take home and feel like a little makeup artist themselves.

My biggest lesson is believing in myself. Seeing all these amazing artist on social media put me in a mental state of not being as good as them. I quickly knew I had to fix that and only way to do so was to believe in myself, my art and most importantly my clients.

I don’t like to think myself as a brand, but more as an experience. I just want people to know that my experience with makeup is about self beauty and how simple it can be to be you!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There’s so many hidden gems in Greenville. First thing will be breakfast, I would take them to Latin Flavors on Batesville, legit the best breakfast in town. Super fresh and a little piece of home. Once they are full and energized, I would take them for a stroll downtown Greenville, we have such a cute downtown with so many stores and great site seeing. We would stop by unlocked coffee for a mid day coffee run. For the rest of the week I would show them all the different breweries, my personal favorite, city scape. For adventure I would take them to Treetop Quest. Honestly the week would be filled with food, drinks and more food.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As cliche as it sounds, I would like to shoutout my parents. Being immigrants and coming into the US with practically nothing to their name and being able to create a safe future for their kids is admirable. Their hard work and dedication are a constant reminder to keep going with my craft.

My mother – Amanda, is the embodiment of resilience, empathy and selflessness. She instilled that in my upbringing and pushed me to always be the best version of myself and better than I was yesterday. She believed in my wild dreams that at times felt out of a story book. She is also my assistant. She travels with me when I have wedding parties and I need her help cleaning brushes or simply just being there to provide motivation. There is no doubt in my mind I would not be the mother and woman I am today if it weren’t for her.

My father-Luis, is the embodiment of hard work, dedication and forgiveness. He taught me that hard work pays off no matter the profession. He taught me grace within myself when mistakes were made. He brings me so much comfort when life provided a little more than I could handle. He would do small caring things to ensure my small business would thrive by buying me a new travel kit, or new lights etc.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glxwbyvalentina_/profilecard/?igsh=MW54YnNmYWF4bnJ1ag== 

Image Credits
Chris Kelly