Today we’d like to introduce you to Kavya Nadella.
Kavya, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As someone who is A multi-passionate person and I felt that I was always creatively inclined from anything to do with arts and crafts to sewing, and jewelry-making and in my most recent years makeup.
Growing up but I never had thought that there would come a day where I would be diagnosed with an extremely rare immune deficiency resulting in receiving a bone marrow transplant in 2016 at the age of 16! A bone marrow transplant is essentially a blood transfusion that in hopes to have a new and recovering immune system. This involves a few days of chemotherapy resulting in being extremely immune-compromised. During my recovery over the next one year; my junior year of high school was spent at home in complete isolation similar to what we all went through with Covid. During this time I found myself very unmotivated in my day-to-day life and picking up a makeup brush one day and never putting it back took me out of a mental rut. I started to practice makeup on myself moving to friends and family soon after! And something so small to get my creative juices flowing turned into a passion! Now I am a licensed freelancing makeup artist here in the greater Houston area! My goals and aspirations for the future include bringing more BIPOC individuals behind the scenes and on the screens by showcasing my work as well as the individuals that I work with.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey has definitely not been a smooth road! From years of research and making mistakes, I am someone that is still learning so much from the makeup industry as well as the skincare industry! From figuring out what works on certain clients versus others to working with different skin tones and eye shapes I truly have found a passion from taking what I’ve learned and teaching that to individuals and clients. And especially giving back to the community that helped me during my recovery period after my transplant; I teach eyebrow application classes at MDAnderson for individuals who have gone through chemo and lost her eyebrows similar to the way I did. Being able to give back to a community that supported me, while doing something I love has taught me the importance of balance and taking my experience and not to victimizing it but using that as fuel to give hope in courage to others!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a licensed freelancing makeup artist, and working events like homecomings, proms and weddings, has truly been such an incredible experience that I have learned to specialize in bringing inner beauty out! I am known for educating my clients and teaching them a little bit part of my passion during the application process! I believe that something that sets me apart from other makeup artists is that I have a history of various skin care problems and I have taken my own experience from going through chemotherapy and the side effects it has on the skin. And from that experience I’ve been able to speak with and teach other individuals that are going through the same or similar thing!
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I think something important that I learned during Covid was that, with the majority of face-to-face interaction stopping, my passing for teaching makeup didn’t also have to stop with Covid.
I took my love for teaching makeup and I started virtual classes and giving back via zoom classes and educational seminars to various organizations and I was still able to pursue a part of my passion even though it felt like the whole world was on pause. This taught me a very valuable lesson of redirection. And the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset and how we can take rejection, redirect it and make it grow into an idea!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kavsmetics?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014696807737
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR1YFqDq/
