Ra­ele­cia Tiffanie Hus­bands has been a make­up artist and nail tech­ni­cian since she was 17 years old. Al­though she spent a short time work­ing in the cor­po­rate world, her love for artistry and the beau­ty in­dus­try took her right back to where she start­ed. Be­ing a young moth­er had a huge part to play in her de­ci­sion to fol­low her heart and step in­to the world of beau­ty full-time. This de­ci­sion al­lowed her to have a ca­reer as well as the nec­es­sary flex­i­bil­i­ty to care for her daugh­ter. To­day, Ra­ele­cia is known by many for her fab­u­lous nail tech­niques and her range of make­up looks for mul­ti­ple events. We caught up with Ra­ele­cia to learn more about her jour­ney and to find out her best tips for the Christ­mas sea­son. This is what she had to share:

Tell us what you love most about be­ing in the beau­ty in­dus­try?

One of the things I love the most about be­ing in the beau­ty in­dus­try is the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet all sorts of dif­fer­ent women. My clients range from teenagers to ma­ture women, all with dif­fer­ent sto­ries and back­grounds. The in­ter­ac­tion is al­ways good when­ev­er we are to­geth­er.

What’s one thing your clients can re­al­ly count on you for?

My clients re­al­ly can count on me for punc­tu­al­i­ty and time­li­ness. I’m not per­fect and there are times some­thing may cause an ap­point­ment to run late but eight out of 10 times my tim­ing is on point and it’s some­thing for which my clients al­ways share their ap­pre­ci­a­tion.

What part of the make­up rou­tine you love do­ing the most and why?

When it comes to make­up, lips are def­i­nite­ly my favourite thing to do, there’s so much pow­er in a great lip­pie, it can re­al­ly take a sim­ple look to an­oth­er lev­el ef­fort­less­ly.

What ex­cit­ing nail trends do you sug­gest we try this Christ­mas?

My go-to nail trend for this Christ­mas - def­i­nite­ly chromes and soap bub­ble nails, it’s a su­per cool look when paired to­geth­er and it is one of the hottest trends for the sea­son. My clients and I ac­tu­al­ly planned to save this banger for the week lead­ing up to Christ­mas.

Tell us about three best achieve­ments/mile­stones in your life or pro­fes­sion.

I’ve al­ways want­ed to be able to have a flex­i­ble lifestyle that ac­com­mo­dates trav­el. I’ve def­i­nite­ly ac­com­plished that even though I have to put in ex­tra work to take the time off. As a nail tech I was su­per hap­py to at­tend Chaun Leg­end’s nail class. It was huge for me be­cause he’s a big in­spi­ra­tion to me. As a make­up artist, I was com­plete­ly over­whelmed when I met Sam Fine, he’s from the old school but still very rel­e­vant and I feel like he made the way for a lot of peo­ple in the beau­ty in­dus­try, he is al­so a huge in­spi­ra­tion for me.

What are three to four make­up and nail care tips you are giv­ing us?

My go to make­up tips will al­ways be to make sure you’re prop­er­ly mois­turised. It is su­per im­por­tant for great ap­pli­ca­tion. Al­so, nev­er use black ‘any­thing’ on eye­brows, even if you have dark hair, the dark­est you should go is dark brown it helps give a more nat­ur­al fin­ish. As for nails, don’t be afraid to use cu­ti­cle oil at any giv­en time. Our hands are con­stant­ly in wa­ter so it helps with any dry­ness in that area. I will al­so ad­vise women to fill (nails) on time. That goes a long way in pre­vent­ing nail dam­age.

In­sta­gram han­dle @make­u­pand­nails­bytiff__