The artist behind Cardi B’s mysterious makeup looks, Erika La’ Pearl, did not arrive at her current position easily. Her ambition to overcome all gender stereotypes and establish her name in the spotlight actually came true, which is a tribute to her perseverance.
The celebrity spoke candidly with TZR about her difficult road to success and the reasons she was hesitant to come out as trans.
Make-Up Gives Her Confidence
Erika La’Pearl the beauty tycoon shared her biggest insecurities with TZR throughout their conversation. She admitted that she had long kept her gender a secret out of worry that she would not be accepted as a trans woman.
Back in the day, Pearl worked on a few music videos for independent artists and told TZR that she wouldn’t reveal her real identity for fear of losing their business.
She also mentioned that she used to experience discrimination whenever she brought up her gender.
There were times the men who hired me would get uncomfortable if I was on set. I could feel it.
She was able to perform at her best thanks to makeup. The artist identified makeup as a crucial aspect of her identity. Pearl believes in using her position to give individuals who experience the same issues of being rejected and evaluated solely on the basis of their gender a voice.
‘Real beauty is confidence, strength, integrity, personality, and kindness,’ she said.
What Pushed Her To Become An Aspiring Make-Up Artist?
Erika La’Pearl career only started to take shape after she relocated to Atlanta. After watching her buddy do cosmetics, she developed a deep-seated affinity for the art.
She was doing a 9 to 5 job at the time, which she detested. She made use of her downtime after work to practice makeup alone. She quickly made the decision to enroll in a make-up program, where she learned how to apply makeup for photo sessions and fashion presentations, among other situations.
That was the beginning of her extraordinary artistic path, which led her to a position as Cardi B’s makeup artist.
She did, however, note that she had never dreamed she would get this far and had only ever pictured herself working as a cosmetic artist in a salon. She admires the most well-known makeup artist, Pat McGrath, and truly hopes to work with her in the future.
Pearl Before Transition
Erika La’Pearl revealed to Pop Sugar that she has loved makeup since she was a young girl. When she was younger, she used to be excited by her mother’s beautiful pigmented cosmetics.
She used to conceal her love for makeup because she was too shy as a child to express herself. The artist was a male during high school and came out as transgender when she was 18 years old. Beyond this, however, little nothing is known about her transformation.
Even so, she mentioned having a successful surgery from the renowned body-feature-altering specialist Emil Kohan in one of her Instagram postings. And this raises the possibility that she was referring to her plastic surgery.
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