By: Trinidad Guardian

Monday January 17,

Heather Nightengale is tough to pin down. The Western Canada Regional Manager for Make Up For Ever, divides her time between Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and her home in Victoria. That’s when she’s not in New York, Los Angeles, Miami or Paris. So when you get the opportunity to grab some photos and ask some questions for a Blanche Macdonald graduate profile, you seize it. The woman with the hectic travel schedule has quite a story to tell.

 

“I began my love affair with Make Up For Ever,” she laughs, “when I was finishing my last class on the Blanche Macdonald Makeup Program in January 1998.  “A student came in with a lip palette in vibrant fuchsia. It was Make Up For Ever. At that time we weren’t familiar with the brand at all. It was sold at Holt Renfrew, so after class I hustled over there. I remember looking at the array of colour in the eye shadows and instantly being stopped in my tracks. I thought, ‘This is the line that has the kind of colour that fits me’.”

She’s been part of the Make Up For Ever family ever since. Nightengale was the manager of the first Make Up For Ever counter in Victoria at the much-missed department store, Eaton’s. And a few years later, it was Nightengale who was asked to head the brand’s expansion as it widened its operations over the westernmost half of the second biggest country on the planet. Which is ironic, because she spent her formative years on the small Caribbean island of Trinidad.

“I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up,” said Nightengale, who was then known as Heather Douen.  “I remember costumes and colour at Carnival time, which is big in Trinidad. When I was indoors I would do a lot of plastercine, moulding faces and little fashion dolls. I’ve been working with faces since I was a little girl! I distinctly remember when I first saw my mum putting on lipstick when I was five or six. I was intrigued!”

Nightengale’s family moved to Canada, where she went to college and became an early childhood educator. But the love of colour and creativity never went away. Heather studied art, but there was something inside her that wanted her innate creativity to be more than a hobby. “That’s always been a part of me. I like to paint and draw. I went to the Alberta College of Art and Emily Carr before studying Early Childhood Development at Mount Royal in Calgary. After that I spent quite a few years in childhood education and loved every moment of it. But I wanted to change into a career where I could use my artistic with my psychology skills, and work with people.”

The realisation that that career could be makeup brought her to Blanche Macdonald, Canada’s leading school of makeup, fashion, hair, esthetics and nail design. “There were similar elements in the programme to what I’d learnt in art school, for example, understanding colour. And a lot of the techniques come from the artistic background. The education that Blanche Macdonald provided enhanced what I had already.”

Before her experience at Holt Renfrew, Heather had planned on splitting her new found makeup skills between the film, fashion, theatre and retail industries. “I’d modelled in my past, so I was used to being behind the scenes. I’d had makeup artists work on me, and I knew what it took to do creative fashion makeup and hair. When I graduated I did a few short films. When I was working in Victoria on a feature film with David Carradine called Guaranteed On Delivery—three or four weeks on set with night and day shoots—I realised it wasn’t for me. I love my sleep! I admire artists working in film, but it wasn’t the perfect fit for me.

“I love that I’m able to share my passion for this makeup. I’m excited to get out of bed every day. I’m an artist myself, and I work with other artists! There’s a plan, but every day is different. I have fun with the people I work with and the people that educate me.” The girl from Trinidad inspired by colour, art and her mother’s lipstick has achieved what she set out to do. It’s a tough job, but it’s a job that fulfils the creative drive that was always bubbling under the surface. 

“If you want to become a makeup artist have that dream and make it happen!” she insists. “Be patient, but be determined and continue to go after what you want. If you truly love something and you want to be part of this industry, keep doing it!