1998-2002 in Zimbabwe. 

My makeup passion became stronger and stronger, l was in my early teenage years then. I started to experiment with makeup painting my lips with berry juice since I could not afford to buy lipsticks or allowed to wear it by my parents, the berry juice came in very handy. I even applied some brown shoe polish on my face as foundation, yes, I said it…. brown shoe polish on my face. The passion was real and please don't try that at home lol. As if the berry juice and shoe polish were not enough, I also crushed charcoal and used it as my eyeliner LOL. l was an extremely an innovative and improvising teenager. 

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Fast forward 2004, I relocated to Australia from Zimbabwe. I was so excited to finally full-fill my dream of wearing all the makeup I have always dreamt of. At least I was 19 years old, and I could afford to purchase makeup and wear it without any one's consent right!!! Yaaaas I screamed with excitement but boy oh boy my excitement was short lived, I could not find a good foundation that matched my melanin rich skin tone in Australia. The lipsticks were not pigmented enough to suite my skin tone either and the eyeshadows too. I was devastated, what to do now? I asked myself. l said to myself, “if l am facing this problem this means that every melanin rich Queen and Princess is also experiencing the same problem in Australia and all over the world right?”.

 

2011-2013...I was at the Avondale college studying my Bachelor of Nursing Degree. I would go to lectures wearing bright coloured lipsticks and makeup that I would have asked my sisters to purchase for me back from Zimbabwe. I swear those days the DHL delivery courier already knew my address by head, that’s how frequent I got my makeup delivered from Africa. My makeup was not always on point, but my confidence was boosted and that is when I realised that makeup played a very important role to women. I all realised that makeup was very therapeutic and can make a woman feel very beautiful and confident. l said to myself, "one day, I will share my experience with women all over the world. 

 

2016…. By this time I was working as a Registered nurse. I discovered that 70% of the conversations that I had with the female patients were mainly about makeup. They started off by commenting my makeup and then 10 mins later I would find myself standing and discussing makeup. Working as a nurse made me realise how much women loved makeup talk and how much therapy and comfort it brought them. Some patients would wait for me to come back to work tomorrow so that they could ask the name of my lipstick again since they did not catch it the previous day, how cool was that…. well, I found it very cool I must say.

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Early 2016, I decided to enrol myself in TAFE to study makeup. I had made up my mind, I was going to become a makeup artist. The thought of me working as a makeup artist (MUA) brought so much joy and fulfilment. 

Six months passed so quick and boom, I received my certificate ‘iv’ in makeup. l was officially a trained MUA. I opened a Facebook group called “All Things Ruby Lyn Makeup”. On that group I was posting makeup tutorials and encouraging women to love themselves. My aim was to help women raise their self-esteem and boost their confidence via makeup and I achieved just that especially with the women in Zimbabwe that I call my sisters. Everyone on that page was enjoying the teachings and encouragement however, the question remained the same “Where do we purchase the makeup? There is no right foundation for me here in Australia, there is no good quality makeup here in Zimbabwe”. Some people on the page would ask, “What about here in the UK what do I use?”. I realised that there was a huge gap in the makeup industry especially for women of colour all over the world.

 

The only way was to create a makeup line that accommodated woman of colour in Australia and all over the world. l enrolled myself in multiple cosmetic formulation courses. My aim was to get enough knowledge about raw materials and cosmetics. I started off by creating mineral powder foundation from scratch. l experimented a lot with natural raw materials until I came up with a perfect mineral powder foundation formular that is loved by women of colour all over the world. The Ruby Lyn Makeup line is still growing, we are still adding mineral powder foundation shades to suite every woman of colour out there. 

 

My aim is to make sure that all the Ruby Lyn makeup products are made to perfection. High quality and high pigmented products that every woman will fall in love with. Our lipsticks are created with so much love and so much attention. We use high quality ingredients that are FDA approved. We value quality over quantity oh yes we do, excellence is our mantra. The eyeshadows are highly pigmented to suite every woman especially the rich melanin queens. In short, I must say, our products are produced using raw materials that are carefully selected and they are professionally produced.

 

My joy comes in seeing women feeling confident, loving and admiring themselves after a makeover. l believe that every woman is beautiful, and makeup enhances their natural beauty. Makeup is fun and it can be very therapeutic. l love makeup and I love creating it. I have also managed to gain a name that means a lot to me. They call me THE MAKEUP LADY.