RIYA VASHIST: A TALE OF COLOURS TO FLYING COLOURS!

Makeup brushes are her tools, face is her canvas and with a palette as colourful as her personality, she has been ruling the beauty industry for 13 good old years! She calls all these years as, the ‘Years of magical makeup transformation’, but when I looked into her life, almost seven years ago when I spoke to her for the first time, I found a journey that was inspired by the looks of Bollywood’s phenomenal actors and rose to stardom despite the copious challenges on her way to success.

A trained professional makeup artist of international repute, Riya Vashist, founder director, RVMUA International Makeup Academy Pvt. Ltd. is a graduate in SFX prosthetic makeup from Los Angeles, the United States of America. Starting from actors Shah Rukh Khan, Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Suman, Rohit Roy and Mona Singh; cricketers makeup for commercials such as Kapil Dev, Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir; anchor makeup for Cannon, Castrol and Nerolac; commercials for TV and print such as Panasonic, Surf Excel 2014, Horlicks 2014 and Kingfisher IPL 2010 and 2013 to projects such as Miss Uttarakhand 2012, Jabong Online Fashion Week 2014 among others, Riya has wooed the hearts of some of the best models and celebrities from the industry by her makeup artistry. Along with, her participation in various fashion shows and makeup events has made her a recognised name in the beauty industry.

As a child growing up wanting to be a doctor, engineer or an IT professional, Riya took the unconventional path. A career into beauty was her childhood fantasy and within time the passion shaped into a full grown profession. “While growing up, I was really inspired by the beautiful and versatile looks of Bollywood actors, especially Madhuri Dixit. I would always wonder how these actors managed to look so different in their movies and projects. Thus, started the journey of getting attracted to makeup products and creating different looks”, shared the young makeup artist.

STRAIGHT FROM RIYA’S MAKEUP PALETTE:

-A colour close to my heart – Red 
-A colour without which my makeup is incomplete – Brown
-A celebrity you would want to do makeup for – Madhuri Dixit 
-5 beauty products that completes a woman’s everyday makeup – Face serum (as primers are passé), blush on, kajal pencil or coloured eyeliner and lip gloss

Creating a flawless face is as important as choosing the right outfit for a party. For Riya, face became her canvas and with time, she developed unique makeup style of her own. It was in 2006, when she started her stint with TV Today channel and ever since then, there has been no looking back. She brings forth a considerable amount of experience with her for she specialises in airbrush or engagement makeup, reception, wedding, regular makeup and makeup for theatre too. Riya knows how to enhance the features rather than just adding a layer of colour on the face.

Though Riya’s palette is now full of colours but there is a grey lining to her colourful tale for she had to go through the grind in the initial days of her career. She shared, “It was a male dominated industry, way back then, and the timings were such that the projects demanded working late night. It used to be an uneasy feeling. Secondly, there were projects, at times, which demanded working at length. In order to deliver my 100 per cent to the tasks at hand, I became non-serious about my eating habits. With no fixed routine, my health started to worsen. But, things have changed for the better of it today and now there is much professionalism.”

DO’s AND DON’TS BY MAKEUP ARTIST RIYA VASHIST:

• Remain patient with the clients because patience is the key that will help you stay strong in the industry. 
• Make sure you listen to what your client wants. 
• You could be armed with lot of out-of-the-box ideas but nothing works if your client is unhappy or dissatisfied in the end.

Ask the makeup maestro her most loved project and she shared, “For me, as an artist, my every project is equally important. However, my best project, so far, was to work with Shovana Narayan for her documentary film, Avartan. Ever since my childhood days, she has been my role model and I had learnt a lot from her. Overall, it was an amazing experience. Alongside, I feel lucky enough to have worked with a number of leading celebrities and other professionals. It’s their satisfaction that matters to me the most. In fact, I consider their appreciation as my biggest achievement.”

Having worked for diverse clientele, Riya feels every project requires utmost passion, commitment and compassion. As a piece of advice for the budding makeup artists, Riya mentioned, “Besides being creative, the makeup industry demands being passionate and 100 per cent committed to work. These two basic ingredients can help you flourish.”

Marching forward to monumental victories and with innumerable plans in the pipeline, we wish Riya all the luck for her future endeavors! 

TO BOOK YOUR SESSION NOW, CONTACT: 
Riya Vashist 
Founder Director
RVMUA International Makeup Academy Pvt. Ltd.    
Call – 9911020415 
Email – enquiry.makeup@gmail.com 
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/rheaavashist
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/makeupartist.riyavashist/?hl=en
Website – https://www.riyavashist.com