Meet Cayci Jean | Special Effects Makeup Artist

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

Hi Cayci, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have been in love with Special Effects Makeup since as long as I can remember. A dedicated theater kid growing up, I was no stranger to performing on stage and had big dreams of one day becoming some sort of superstar. When I was twelve years old, my best friend and I signed up to audition at the local haunted house, not thinking anything wrong of two clearly underage children working in such a setting. We had tricked our parents into taking us to the audition and by the time my mom realized what kind of audition it actually was, we had run into someone we knew; the owner. Being a close friend of ours, it was a little easier to get my mom to say yes to allowing me to audition and try my hand at this kind of acting. I cannot thank my mother enough for the long nights she waited just outside those haunted house doors waiting for her littler girl to have the time of her life as she experienced what would be the beginning of the rest of her life. I fell absolutely in love with the art of haunt acting and quickly found an even bigger passion that had already been brewing, Special Effects Makeup. For the next nine years I dedicated every year to Hellscream Haunted House in Colorado, and developed a deep love for all things horror and makeup. I promised myself that one day I would move to Los Angeles and turn my passions into a career, and that day is today.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
When people think of Special Effects Makeup, there are many things that can come to someone’s mind. When I think of SFX Makeup, I think of the creatures and creations that we see that truly distorts our view on reality as we see it. The things that make us question reality before our very eyes. I have always had an eye for detail that inspires me to want to create hyper realistic works. SFX Makeup is an art that you can never perfect, but you can spend a lifetime learning and practicing to become a master at. I would not be where I am today professionally if it were not for my years of haunted house work, makeup classes and education, and countless hours getting my hands dirty learning how to create something amazing out of the bare minimum. Mastering my skills to feel confident enough to finally move to LA was only half the battle. The other half was more years of saving money and working hard to be able to financially support myself when the time came. Tuition for makeup school, moving expenses, living expenses; all that wonderful stuff I had never done before in my life, and yet I was already saving for it when I started my first job at sixteen. I grew up in a town that wasn’t on the map when I was a kid, and now I was headed for one of the biggest cities in the country with a dream and my childhood cat. All of those years of saving, learning, and preparing myself for my future couldn’t have paid off more now that I am finally here doing what I love most. Every day I am learning something new either about my skills or just as a young woman growing up and living out her dreams on her own for the first time.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Since moving to LA a little over a year ago I have been nonstop working and have not had much time myself to explore the things around me. I would love to be able to take my friends to places that I myself have been wanting to go to because I know they would love them as well! One thing that has always fascinated me about LA is the amount of speakeasies there are throughout the city. This would be a definite must on the list to check out as many as we can! Another treasure that I would love to enjoy with friends is the many art museums and installations throughout the city. In a city that is bursting with artistic freedom, I would love to see the best art the city has to offer. Hollywood is a fascinating place and industry, and deserves its own recognition when small town folk get to experience the world of movie magic for the first time. No tour of the city would be complete in that case without a look inside the magic with a studio tour. With so many big name studios located so closely together, it’s only a matter of which piece of the magic you would like to see! LA is such a new world to me, and I am excited to get to explore it more wherever it may take me!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are many people I would like to thank for helping me pursue my passions along the way, but there is nobody I would like to thank more than my parents. I was a wild kid who had a wandering heart that wanted to try everything while growing up. I jumped wholeheartedly from one activity and love to the next, always insisting that I was going to do everything. Earlier the same year I joined the haunted house, I had discovered Special Effects Makeup for the first time. I had taken a small class offered to me by my theater club in middle school, and something just clicked for me. I hadn’t seen it yet, but my parents definitely did. Just a few weeks later for my birthday, my parents gifted me a full beginners Special Effects Makeup kit. That kit is all it took for my entire future to change into what it is today. That first kit set me on a path to creating amazing things that I am grateful to be here creating today. There is nobody I would like to thank more than my mom and dad for seeing that spark in me, and gifting me with the greatest gift I could have ever asked for.

Website: https://caycijean.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caycijean/

Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16700278/

Image Credits
Jackie Parra