He couldn’t afford a fancy school. Now, this NJ Latina is a famous jet set artist. | | Kalavia-Robertson

In her circle of friends, and elsewhere, Nydia Figueroa Cabrera is a star. I met him years ago while working as a reporter in New York and have seen him thrive. (He is now a favorite in my new WhatsApp group, but more if you keep scrolling.) The 37-year-old famous artist, who was born in Newark to Puerto Rican parents, now spends most of his time. time to help A-listers shine.

He’s often on the red carpet involving celebrities (Think “The Real Housewives”, “The Real Housewives”, “The Bachelor” and “Love is Blind.”), behind the scenes at the MTV Video Music Awards pre-showing the singers. hit. stage, or interact with the beautiful Miss Universe, Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios, as they make dolls for her photo shoot. (I’m half Nicaraguan so for me this is big one!)

Nydia happily told me: “If you had told me when I was a little girl that I would grow up to do all these amazing things, I would not have believed it.” Her path to career success in the “highly competitive” cosmetics industry, she says, has been unconventional.

She tells me though that she grew up in a “very loving home,” in a neighborhood where there were bad people, and that her family didn’t have enough money to go to beauty school or go to college. She said: “When I was young, I couldn’t afford to go to beauty or cosmetology school and now I teach at a cosmetology school in Hoboken. “Sometimes life is fun like that.”

So, why not he said How did they get started and how did they get such a popular client list? Well, Nydia, a self-taught makeup artist, unknowingly lived by the “fake it until you make it” mantra. When she first became interested in makeup as a senior in high school, she visited the MAC counter at Nordstrom in Edison’s Menlo Park so customers soon began to think she worked there. Sometimes they even advise strangers on dirty colors and tones.

One day, during a casual conversation with a real employee, he was asked if he would like to work there. “They asked me if I had any experience and I said ‘yes!’ but of course, that was a lie,” he says with a laugh. “Then he asked me if I went to school, and I replied ‘yes!’ but I didn’t have it. I’m not a liar, or anything like that, but I keep saying ‘yes!’ …I really wanted that job.”

After several tests, two of the “nerve-racking” cosmetic tests, were employed. “And the rest is history,” he says. “That was my big break and the starting point for the best opportunity I’ve had, because MAC was, and still is, great, so it allowed me to learn, develop my skills, be. trained, meet new people, make important relationships, and grow as an artist. .

It is because of his beautiful work, he says, that he began to connect with many famous artists who he now counts as clients. He worked for the company in various locations in NJ for 13 years.

Since joining MAC in 2017, she has worked with one of her idols, Eve Pearl, a 5-year Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, opened her own makeup studio in Cedar Grove, NJ, and established herself as an executive director and makeup retailer. of LimeLife by Alcone, the cosmetics specialist. (Yes, they juggle all this and jet around the country to entertain celebrities!)

And yet, despite being so busy, Nydia, who last October married Panamanian fashion designer Gerardy Cabrera, tells me that somehow she still has time to spend with her husband and one of the passions they share: compassion. Several times a year, she does makeup for patients at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, organizes charity events in Newark for girls of color from low-income families (like this one I posted in 2022), and hosts holiday parties. for homeless people from various parts of NJ. Like I said, he’s a star.

“No,” he laughs. “I am someone who is trying to use the skills that God has given me to show other Latin people, young and old girls or adults, that no matter where you come from, you. he can make your own story,” he says.

“If you have faith and stay in the training, anything is possible… and as Latinas, it’s important for us to know that and good enough, and that we belong wherever we want to be, no matter how many times we’re told or made to feel otherwise. We are there and we can shine. ” And for that, and many other reasons, Nydia is right pride Latino.

WANT TO JOIN MY GROUP CHAT? Readers a My Group Letter found the first article on Nydia earlier this week. Each week’s newsletter highlights all the topics that we, the Millennial POC, care about. From news to pop culture and everything in between, nothing is off the table. Log in here. And now, more than 200 of us are chatting all day in WhatsApp. Come join us!