Meet Natalia Buenrostro | Hair and Makeup Artist

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

Hi Natalia, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
As a child I always loved makeup and fashion, I grew up with two older sisters so I was always up to date with pop culture in the 2000’s and I just loved seeing all these celebrities and models with beautiful makeup and hair done especially for photoshoots or music videos. When I was a kid I remembering my eldest sister watching America’s Next Top Model i was so obsessed with the transformation process and I think something clicked in me from there because then I remember being in elementary school begging my mom to allow me to dye my hair or even play with makeup but good thing she didn’t because of course I was too young, but still I knew what I wanted since a child. Once I hit my teenage years I didn’t see myself perusing makeup at all, I used to enjoy painting and creating art on a solid canvas and the idea of going to an art school after high school. It wasn’t until as it got closer to me almost graduating high school and my mom finally allowing me to have makeup is when I started to show more love for makeup rather than painting. I ended up getting an artist block since Covid hit the middle of my senior year and just started doing creative stuff to my face and that’s when the people around me suggested me to go to makeup school. When I did my research and with the help of my AP Art teacher at the time I was lead to Cinema Makeup School, going to school there definitely made feel more secure on my career and where I wanted to be in life. Not only that I met some great people who have become great friends of mine and were able to make great connections there that helped us to where we are now. Ever since graduating I feel much happier in my career and happy with the path I am on now.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
What’s sets me apart from others is just definitely my upbringing, I know that definitely people who come from Hispanic households can relate a bit but being an artist with either old school Mexican-American parents or immigrant parents, it’s not the easiest. I’m blessed more than others I can say because even though my father grew up very poor in Mexico, he definitely wanted me and my sisters to peruse something and go to school rather than doing nothing after high school . There are moments where he still doesn’t under the process of my career as a Hair and Makeup Artist in the film industry but he’s slowly learning and happy to see me working more now. How I got to where I am today just feels like a flash, I started at the age of 19 and now being 22 I feel like everything went by so fast. Going to school and making connections in this industry has definitely helped a lot because in the beginning I was very much struggling and trying to understand things and getting work, but now I definitely feel more secure then I was before. There will still be hard times, but I feel like I’m able to get through them more rather than 2 years ago where I didn’t know where to start. I was able to overcome most my challenges by talking to other makeup artists to feel secure that I wasn’t the only one struggling, it made me know that I wasn’t the only one and that everything will be ok. Another thing that helped was having a great support system with family, friends, and going to therapy. Those 3 have definitely helped me a lot mentally and having people there to listen at my lowest moments made me want to overcome everything and get to where I am now. A lesson I’ve learned along the way is to talk to people, stop bottling up everything and just keeping everything to yourself. You’re not going to get anywhere unless you communicate for help. What I want the world to know about me is that I will push through anything for my career, my career is very important to me and I will do mostly anything to get myself out there and be able to make it bigger to make those who have always been supportive of me proud. That’s all I’ve ever wanted is to make myself and my loved one proud, and I’ll continue working hard for that.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well to start off I never have friends visiting because I’m an LA native, but i always have family visiting from Mexico! My dad is from Mexico and has 11 siblings (10 brothers and 1 sisters) so I have a HUGE family, and I’m very close to most my cousins so when family visits we kinda already know where to take them but also let them choose what they want to see. Most of the time they want to visit Hollywood Blvd, but we do warn them it’s not what they see in movies so we take them at night to see the true Hollywood Blvd and then they realize it’s a mistake. Most the time we take them to Disneyland because it’s something they always want to go to, we take them to the beach, but my favorite areas is downtown and East LA areas! My favorite places I love to take them to specifically which I grew up always going to is El Mercadito in East LA, Olvera Street, and what people call is the Piñata District but I always grew up saying “going down on Olympic.” It feels more like home because it’s more Hispanic populated there, everyone speaks both English and Spanish so it’s easier for family visiting to get around, and also not a lot of my family is comfortable trying a lot new things most the time so I feel like those areas make them feel at least more comfortable to be around.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to show my appreciation towards my family and friends of course for being there for me when they could on the ups and downs I had in the beginning in my career, because starting this career isn’t easy at all and I’ve had my low moments but I was able to push through and get to where I am now for having a great support system. Two other people I’d love to show my appreciation to is my two friends from makeup school Madison Rose Summerfield and Emma Page Bailey, they are the two most talented and kindest people I’ve met in this industry. All three of us were in the same class at Cinema Makeup School in 2022 and ever since then we stayed friends, but they both definitely have helped a lot especially when I was struggling a bit to get around, but I’ll forever appreciate everything that they helped me with and being in my life and hope we always continue working together.

Website: https://nataliabuenrostromua.squarespace.com/

Instagram: https://Nataliabuenrostro.mua

Image Credits
@nataliesomekh_
@coolsidsid