Your New Beauty Consultant

I was a preschool girl when I wore makeup for the first time.

I had my very first dance recital and it's recommended when you are on stage to wear makeup so you aren't washed out by the lights. I think my mom just put a little mascara on my little girl lashes, some blush on my cheeks, and lipstick for my smile that I still hadn't quite mastered at the age of 5.

It would become an annual thing. Every summer when my dance recital rolled around, I would get to wear makeup.

In middle school, I experimented with eyeliner.

By high school, I was using Covergirl and Maybelline and the other big name makeup brands you find at grocery stores and drugstores. I used it for years. I've gone through countless numbers of tubes of the what seems like a hundred different "Lash Blast" Covergirl mascaras. I actually have a tube in my current collection of makeup.

It seemed that people assumed that I was a makeup master with my girly nature, style people have claimed to think I have, and how I would wear my makeup. But in the last couple years, I would admit, I actually wasn't that makeup saavy. What was highlighter and how do you even use it? I didn't know.

When I was preparing to compete in Miss Kansas USA, I thought I needed to step up my makeup game. My drugstore makeup probably wasn't going to cut it under the stage lights and around what I knew would be glamorous girls that were using brands such as Mac and Nars and such.

I spent hours at the MAC makeup counter at the mall getting schooled in makeup and what would be best for me. And then spent way too much money (but hey, I fundraised for it!). I do love the Mac products I bought and I am still finishing them out (over a year later, they still are going!), but I knew I couldn't be totally loyal to that brand because it wasn't exactly the best every day makeup for me and I still think it's a tad too pricey for my bank account.

When I first started practicing with my Mac products before competing in Miss Kansas USA

In April of 2015, I was contacted by Emily Flett, a Mary Kay consultant, and I decided to do a one-on-one facial with her. I went again for a color appointment and she taught me how to highlight and contour and I found makeup that fit well for me and what I wanted. I even got a couple skin care products, which was a big step for me!

Skin care is something I was told about and read about when I was in high school and battling those teenage pimples. But during college and after, I didn't have those teenage pimples and I was completely okay with just using my Clean & Clear cleanser and calling it day. But now I am starting to enter the age of being told that I should be taking good care of my skin now and it will be good for me in the long run.

So I started moisturizing for the first time in my life and I am not going back. Call it a life changer.

In my first meeting with Emily, she immediately told me I should do Mary Kay and that I would be good at it. She knew about my experience starting BUILD Beauty and my Miss Kansas USA journey and the like. I told her no.

And then she asked me I don't even know how many more times and I continued to say no and sometimes a "Ehhhh...I'll thhhiiinnnkk about it."

Then finally I gave in. I said yes. Signed the contract. And here I am.

The more I have reflected, pondered, and processed this decision, I feel more confident and happy I agreed to do this. I am finally at a point in my life that I am starting to settle into the Big Girl World and I found myself starting to ask, "So, this is it?"

As I have been getting things prepared for my Mary Kay adventure, I found my passion and energy for women empowerment in a dusty corner of my heart. I have been so focused on getting myself grounded in the Big Girl World, that I have put aside my passions.

I have already been wiping off the dust excitedly and anxiously and I am starting to feel those same eager, scared, and ecstatic feelings I had when starting BUILD Beauty. I think about the lives of women that I can touch and impact through this endeavor.

What I like about the idea of being a Mary Kay Consultant is that I am selling and teaching more than one concept. 

I will be able to help women learn and find the right makeup products for them so they can feel confident in that big job interview, glam during girls night, beautiful at work, and sexy on those date nights with a cute boy.

Makeup I did myself for a wedding I was recently in. Almost every product used was Mary Kay!

On the other side of Mary Kay, I will be able to teach women about skin care and taking good care of their face. That way they can feel beautiful and confident in their own skin when they want to go makeup free. Recently I went completely makeup free for a week straight. I feel like my Mary Kay skin products have improved my skin.

From the week I went totally makeup free!

I've gotten to that point of thinking I am quite beautiful without the makeup too. I want women to feel that.

So what happens?

Do you want me to be your beauty consultant?
Here are just some of the endless possibilities.

Book a one-on-one consultation with me | Have a party with your BFFs | Virtual party | For my long distance friends, we can have a Skype date! | Coffee date | Email me rachelnmsparkle@marykay.com | Ask me to join my closed Facebook Group: Rachel Marshall - Beauty Community | Text me | Browse & Buy from my website marykay.com/rachelnmsparkle

I am excited to talk about beauty and more with you! To me, me being a Mary Kay Consultant is not just me selling products. It's me being there for you to teach, show, answer questions, offer advice about skin care, makeup, style, and beyond. It doesn't just stop at the products. There is more to confidence than just products. And I want to help you with that!

Can't wait to hear from you and I would be thrilled to be your beauty consultant!

New Year, Better Me

Growing pains. And the year of short hair.

2015. Man, 2015 and I were close. We struggled a lot. And we also accomplished a lot. It's a year that will get that special distant smile from me whenever it's mentioned. 

At first, 2015 and I weren't getting along. Three months into it and I was about ready to chalk it up as the worst year yet. Let me try to paint the picture of what it was like with my words...

In January, I was completely unemployed. I had no source of income. I was now a full year into job searching. I was getting pissed. I had been a good kid that started to search even before graduating. Here I was, someone that graduated with honors and received a degree that is one of the most flexible ones you can get. Opportunities were supposed to be endless. I had worked harder outside of the classroom gaining real life experience while in college. Why the hell did I not have a job yet?

A couple weeks into the year, I experienced intense pain in my left breast where I had a cist. An abscess developed. I was put on antibiotics and was in bed in pain for a couple days trying to let it run its course. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. In the meantime, I also had to schedule a biopsy to be done on my other breast that had a lump in it that my doctor wanted me to check out ASAP. My lady parts didn't like 2015 either at first. 

February rolled around and I was still jobless. I got really sick and it eventually led me to the emergency room when the minute clinic was worried about my tonsils. I was told I had tonsillitis and was given my second subscription for antibiotics. A weekend in bed was spent. 

March showed up and it felt like my tonsillitis was trying to show up again. I went to a throat, nose, and ear doctor whom told me that my tonsillitis actually never fully left. I essentially had tonsillitis for about a month and was prescribed my third round of antibiotics for the year. 

By March, I had spent more time on antibiotics than not.

Oh, and I was still jobless. I had spent a few weeks back at the golf course part time and despised it. When I wasn't there, I was at Starbucks applying for jobs and writing as much as I could. It was when I was seeing my doctor about my abscess that I got the email that Elite Daily wanted me to be a contributing writer. During my time of unemployment and sickness, I also had my first article published on Thought Catalog. When I was bed ridden with tonsillitis that first weekend, I developed my website that would be dedicated to my writing for online publications and blog. 

I seem to never want to be stagnant. 

I had even tried to apply for unemployment and got denied. I had to defer my student loans another six months because I still didn't have a job and a way to start paying my loans every month. I started to feel my 23-year-old bright wide eyes that once was excited about opportunity and what I could do with my education and experience become dull. I started to question whether I had done enough in college. Did I not do well enough? Was I just not enough?

In March, I was asked to come and do an after school talk with the girls of the debate/forensics team at my old high school. They wanted me to talk about women empowerment, self-confidence, self-esteem, and the like. I was pretty much doing a BUILD Beauty gig. And here I was in one heck of a low time in my life. I was a recent college graduate and not much to show for it yet.

But I put together a presentation, I pulled out raw poetry I made for writing classes in college and I went in and I did it. I dove in and I opened myself and my life up to these girls to hopefully somehow empower and inspire their young hearts and minds. It was probably the best day of 2015 yet. I went in an insecure girl with an uncertain life and left that afternoon feeling a lot more reassured. It was as if those girls reminded me that maybe I kind of do have some of my stuff together.

Then eventually good things started to happen.

A weekend after that talk I gave, I, in the most random way, meet a guy from Iowa. At that time, I would have no idea how life changing that night would be. I didn't know how special he would come to be to me.

By the end of April, I got an email letting me know I landed a contract position at Black & Veatch as an Event Coordinator and I was going to help them with their 100 Year Anniversary Celebration. I cried in the bathroom of the golf course as I called my parents to tell them the news.

May 1, I stepped foot in Black & Veatch and got my first taste in the corporate world. I finally had my first big girl job almost a full year after graduating college. It was a mind blowing experience. I still am not over it.

Once that came, my life went 1,000mph. 

I moved out and got an apartment with Anna. With the move, I decided to buy new bedroom furniture on my own and design what would become my new space.

I bought a new car for the first time ever.

Anna and I adopted a kitty. #Liza

On a whim, I booked a trip to Colorado on my own to visit a friend and to spend time in the mountains.

And then I started a new relationship with that Iowa boy I mentioned earlier.

I even got a new job. I had no idea whether or not Black & Veatch would extend full employment to me when my contract was up at the end of the year, so I felt the pressure to find something and I wanted something more permanent. Now I had big girl bills to pay. I needed to find something solid. And I am so glad and thankful I did as an Event Coordinator at Jack Stack Barbecue.

I like to think I ended 2015 strong. As 2016 has greeted me, I have reflected on 2015 and what I want to accomplish and do in 2016. Jordan and I were talking about our goals for the year and he had thrown out the go-to phrase, "New Year, New You."

And I said, "Nah, I am thinking more 'New Year, Better Me.'"

When I think about last year, I feel like I exhausted the word, new. It was all about the new job, new apartment, new car, new cat, new job again, new boyfriend. It was all new, new, new. I am happy I was able to say it so much in 2015, but it's not going to be the theme so much in 2016. It's going to be better. Now that I have all these new things and have gotten to where I am today, I am at the point of, okay, now how the hell do I manage all this?!

My goals and desires for 2016 is to be and do better. I want to be better with money. Have a better diet. Learn how to be better at my job. Just be a better person. I've been working hard to establish myself and now I want to learn how to do all these big girl things better. And I already have some plans of action. ;)

As I wind down this post, I can't help but be overwhelmed with how crazy it is that my life has changed so much in a year. I am sitting at my desk in my room in my apartment I didn't have then and I have the lamp on. I had bought it for my cube when I worked at Black & Veatch in which I hadn't experienced yet a year ago. There is a picture of Jordan and I from my first Iowa State game. I still hadn't met him yet a year ago either. I have business cards from my current job next to that. All of this didn't exist a year ago. What a way to come in just a year.

Imagine what you can do. Don't give up. You might get pissed. You might not feel like enough. But you will eventually be happy. And you are enough. Even if sweet high school girls gently remind you one day. :) Just keep going. Please.

My 24-year-old eyes feel wide and sparkly again.