Meet Christina Chen

We recently connected with Christina Chen and have shared our conversation below.

Christina, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from growing up in different countries and having to become flexible in all different environments. I lived between Australia and Taiwan till college then moved to the States by myself, and have been here the last 17 years. Moving around has helped me develop a flexibility to being able to face different and sometimes difficult situations. It was great that I was an adult when I moved to the US by myself to set up my own makeup business since it’s a job that will require you to face a lot of rejection. I believe that having lived in multiple countries, and having to assimilate to different cultures built my resilience to that aspect of this job. Freelancing means most days you are working with a new client, new crew in a new environment. It’s typically always a new face so that comes with its challenges, but I enjoy it. Overall, I’m grateful for my parents who showed me their resilience in immigrating to a new country where they have no roots, or even speak the language of. Their bravery continues to inspire me to be resilient to changes and adversities in business and in life.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’ve always loved painting, specifically portraits and getting to know people, so makeup artistry seemed like the perfect combination of my interests. Having worked in the circus, fashion, movie industry in Hollywood, I realized what I love most is making women feel radiant and beautiful when in my chair. Wedding makeup allows me to get to know my clients intimately and support them in one of their biggest moments.

After 15 years of doing makeup, I started to think about what else I could do with the knowledge I’ve learned over the years. I decided to start Menu Beauty, an AAPI owned beauty brand focused on bringing essentials without excess. The thought process behind our brand is to create products that make it easier for women to look and feel better in a pinch. One of the biggest concerns I’ve learned from women who come in for a makeup class is that they’re often overwhelmed by the number of products they own and don’t know what to use half the time. Our mission is to simplify the makeup process for women as they’re often busy with family and work.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities that helped me in my journey is to be trustworthy, flexible and confident. Running your own business means that your reputation precedes you. If you are known to be a trustworthy person beyond having artistic makeup skills, other people will be more likely to recommend and hire you. For people who are starting out, you will have to take many unpaid jobs in order to build your portfolio. This not only means you must be willing to work jobs that might not interest you, but also, you may have to take other part time jobs in order to pay the bills. Since each job is typically different, your schedule is often unpredictable. Making sure you’re flexible will go a long way with not only your client interactions, but for adjusting to this lifestyle as well. Lastly, you must be confident in your worth. If you aren’t confident in yourself, your client can sense it and it will often make them distrust you and your work. Being confident in yourself will also help you set boundaries when it comes to pricing your work. However, no one starts out confident, so the best advice I have is to continue honing your craft. With practice, you will become more confident, and know that it’s art, so everyone is always learning to be better. Learning never stops!

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

I would be living exactly the way I have been living! Ever since COVID, it has never been more clear how quickly normal life can end. It was the first time that I could not see my family in over a year. Since then, I have been consciously planning more bucket list trips, and spending more time abroad with my family. Life is short. Especially with how chaotic our political climate is, and the looming climate change crisis ahead, we must all recognize that we are not promised tomorrow.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Jasmine Lee photography
Vicki Grafton Photography
Jess Onesto Photography
Laura Tillinghast Photography

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