Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hello,
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me, the podcast that believes choosing
Speaker 1: yourself is the quiet revolution of looking in the mirror,
Speaker 1: really looking, and saying I'm here and I'm worth showing
Speaker 1: up for. If you're like me, you look in the mirror,
Speaker 1: you notice that your face has changed, which is not
Speaker 1: a bad thing. Do we need to update our makeup
Speaker 1: routine to match these hard earned changes? Though? Erica Taylor
Speaker 1: says yes. She is a thirty year veteran of the
Speaker 1: beauty industry. Her new book, The Magic of Makeup, Your
Speaker 1: Handbook for a Youthful, Radiant Look, is a practical guide
Speaker 1: to unlearning the makeup tricks of your youth and deaging
Speaker 1: your face with every swipe of a brush. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for this. Please welcome my friend Erica Taylor. A. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we just met. This is crazy. We just met
Speaker 1: when we were both a part of the It Cosmetics
Speaker 1: campaign for their bomb that has changed my everyday routine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, insane?
Speaker 1: The do it all tinted face bomb? Am I saying
Speaker 1: it right?
Speaker 2: Cheer tin facebomb?
Speaker 1: Cheer tint I always forget that part?
Speaker 2: Well, you know it's buildable.
Speaker 1: It is buildable. I wear it every day. I love
Speaker 1: that stuff. Are you wearing it right now?
Speaker 2: Look at that glow show you look glowychloey flashing, but
Speaker 2: that that helps.
Speaker 1: With the glow. Congrats on your new book.
Speaker 2: What I thank you?
Speaker 1: So happy for you and you. Yes, I had a
Speaker 1: book out the week before your book came out.
Speaker 2: I think I think you were at Were you at
Speaker 2: Bookends too?
Speaker 1: I believe I was.
Speaker 2: I was just there too.
Speaker 1: I was that in New Jersey. Yes, Yeah, they do
Speaker 1: a good job there.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: It was amazing A husband and wife duo.
Speaker 2: They're so cool.
Speaker 1: Well, congrats on the release of the Magic of Makeup.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm so excited. I knew or thought i'd
Speaker 2: be an author.
Speaker 1: I know, well you did it. Is this your first book?
Speaker 2: Yeah? To me, it's like a it's like a chooser
Speaker 2: Which Way book of makeup? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: It's like the ADHD Guide to Makeup.
Speaker 1: Okay, how long have you been doing makeup?
Speaker 2: Thirty years?
Speaker 1: Thirty years? And you started as a professional makeup artist
Speaker 1: in the industry or.
Speaker 2: I started as a college student in art Okay, and
Speaker 2: I was getting punished for not having a job, and
Speaker 2: I always did my friend's makeup. So I went to
Speaker 2: a makeup counter and they hired me. An amaze at
Speaker 2: nineteen years old. No experience, no none, just doing my
Speaker 2: friends and being an art student. So I did. I
Speaker 2: specialized in portraiture, so I'm like, if I could do
Speaker 2: a flat canvas, I can certainly do a face.
Speaker 1: There you go. I love that. You're like, sure I
Speaker 1: can do that.
Speaker 2: I got this.
Speaker 1: That's one thing I learned from Johan London. She said,
Speaker 1: if anybody ever offers you a position or gives you
Speaker 1: an opportunity, to say yes and then figure it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ask for what? Does it ask for? Forgiveness not permission?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like that too. Hopefully you won't
Speaker 1: have to ask for forgiveness.
Speaker 2: I mean, it depends, depends. It was a learning curve,
Speaker 2: you say.
Speaker 1: I remember the exact day I looked in the mirror
Speaker 1: and thought, hi, mom, it caught me off guard. Aging
Speaker 1: is a privilege. Can you describe that moment for me,
Speaker 1: because I've had that moment too.
Speaker 2: I just remember waking up one day and you know,
Speaker 2: I've lost my mom about seven years ago. Sorry, oh
Speaker 2: thank you, And I just remember looking one day and
Speaker 2: just saying, oh, there she is and I was like, hi, mom,
Speaker 2: and it was like, yeah, awesome to see her, but
Speaker 2: also like shocking. And I have this like mirror next
Speaker 2: to my bed that every now and I just wake
Speaker 2: up and I look at it and I'm like, what
Speaker 2: is that? And it's just like the face that you
Speaker 2: know is not the face that you see. And it's
Speaker 2: a really weird thing.
Speaker 1: It is weird, but it is just what it is.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I always say it's not a good or
Speaker 2: bad thing, but it's a thing.
Speaker 1: It's a thing. Let's all take a moment for the thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that we go through it and
Speaker 2: we're all told like, well, just accept it, and it's like,
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously we have to accept it, but we
Speaker 2: are allowed to feel a kind of way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're allowed to have your feelings around.
Speaker 2: It, for sure. So I'm always like when that happens,
Speaker 2: tell them Eric is at high and I got you.
Speaker 1: But also, you know, you don't have to just accept
Speaker 1: it because you are the master of changing things with makeup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and that's the magic of makeup, right.
Speaker 2: So it's and it's not you know, people say it's
Speaker 2: a catfish. Well, it's wearing a nice dress. A catfish
Speaker 2: is wearing a nice fitted suit a catfish. Now we're
Speaker 2: we're putting ourselves together and our best foot forward. Right.
Speaker 2: But if I always thought to myself, if I can
Speaker 2: manipulate a face from a flat surface from a canvas
Speaker 2: and give that dimension, why can't I manipulate our faces
Speaker 2: into a dimension that we want.
Speaker 1: You have so many masterful like tips and tricks, which
Speaker 1: I love so good. I was just looking at your
Speaker 1: Instagram thinking I need a lot more time on my
Speaker 1: hand so I can learn everything you're talking about here.
Speaker 2: I think it's like in a nutshell. And even when
Speaker 2: I say like dimension, I mean like volume, right, meaning
Speaker 2: like you know, artistically, like manipulating light. Right. So it's
Speaker 2: like if you just do whatever you're doing, just pick
Speaker 2: everything up like a half inch.
Speaker 1: That is a good way. I think that should be
Speaker 1: the name of your next book.
Speaker 2: Picking up my half inch for so many things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh god, you and I, whenever we're getting together,
Speaker 1: we're trouble. I knew that from the first time.
Speaker 2: Now I know it again fresh.
Speaker 1: Yes, but you you also talk a lot about on
Speaker 1: your Instagram about great drug store options for makeup and skincare.
Speaker 1: But it's so confusing. Oh my god, there's so many choices.
Speaker 1: What we need you to really help us know which
Speaker 1: ones to choose. So give us some of your favorite
Speaker 1: drug store things that are not only good for our skin,
Speaker 1: but well, you know, give us the look of like.
Speaker 2: High end yes. And it's hard because there are so
Speaker 2: many options, and I think drug store really struggles with
Speaker 2: foundations for us. I will say that's probably the most
Speaker 2: challenging is concealers and foundations. I will say one of
Speaker 2: my favorite drug stores is the Loreal Loomy Laglow tint Okay.
Speaker 2: She's like a cross between a tinted moisturizer and a
Speaker 2: foundation with loomy GLOTIONI mixed in. So that's definitely one
Speaker 2: of my favorite which approved vibes that it gives coverage,
Speaker 2: get rid of the roseation of the redness with a
Speaker 2: little bit of glow. And I also to say another
Speaker 2: Loreal og fave of mine is the eye serum. People
Speaker 2: forget about the eye serum, like you gotta protect the
Speaker 2: eyelid top end bottom, top hand bottom top three sixty
Speaker 2: sixty half.
Speaker 1: Orbital three hundred and sixty degree orbital.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because Alla worried about this, but this is a
Speaker 2: whole other situation.
Speaker 1: As you meets love too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the shadows will look creepy, things will look
Speaker 2: dusty if we're not handling like a little love there too,
Speaker 2: the old new situations.
Speaker 1: It's so fun. But you know what Loreal comes through.
Speaker 2: You know, for since in high school, for me, it
Speaker 2: was always like kind of like you don't have your eyeliner,
Speaker 2: grab Loreal, so you know, and I feel like Lorielle
Speaker 2: kind of focuses on the ladies of a certain age
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: You say in your book that you weren't afraid to
Speaker 1: on the moms, and you know.
Speaker 2: What, so many makeup artists were. I remember explain that
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Why, Okay, mom's doesn't mean you're you just had your
Speaker 1: first kid. It means like you're old or older and
Speaker 1: your kids are grown up?
Speaker 2: Is that mom? Forty plus?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Like that kind of mom. So here's the thing. There
Speaker 2: is a different textual situation to the skin. And I'm
Speaker 2: going to say it like really candid. The first time
Speaker 2: I touched mature eyelid, I was like, why is it moving?
Speaker 2: It was like the shadow wouldn't stick. I was like
Speaker 2: I would lift the I would like lift it, do
Speaker 2: the shadow drop it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, you know you're
Speaker 1: getting older when the makeup artist has to lift your
Speaker 1: lid to put your eyeliner on, or when you have
Speaker 1: to do it, yeah, because you can't. You can't get
Speaker 1: the line because it's like it's like drags, it flaps,
Speaker 1: it drags and it moves.
Speaker 2: My daughter was like, why does it wiggle when you
Speaker 2: touch it? So I remember being like, okay, first of all,
Speaker 2: it's dryer, the shadow won't stick, it's dusting off, and
Speaker 2: it was a different texture. But as an artist and
Speaker 2: a troubleshooter, I was like, all right, we got this.
Speaker 2: But I also learned that mom had the money to spend.
Speaker 2: So if you made mom happy, she also bought for
Speaker 2: herself and the daughter. This is true or son whoever
Speaker 2: was there, Right, Mom.
Speaker 1: Buys, Mom always buys.
Speaker 2: Got the card. Everyone buys.
Speaker 1: So what did you learn as far as like how
Speaker 1: to take care of the moms in a better way
Speaker 1: other than lifting her flapper up hydration?
Speaker 2: She'd lift her flapper hydration and it was about, okay,
Speaker 2: so if your lid's here, I pick it up. I
Speaker 2: do the shadow. Then I drop it it falls. So
Speaker 2: that's why I discovered the over the river through the hood.
Speaker 1: Okay, what over the river? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, over the river through the wood.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: My song with my ADHD brain like over the river
Speaker 2: through the hood. So to lift it eyes we go,
Speaker 2: oh my god. It was like let it resting, beeface
Speaker 2: and compensate by going higher like a sunrise. So I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, we can still do the same thing,
Speaker 2: but we just have to get on the same like
Speaker 2: playing field.
Speaker 1: So make sure you're going over the overhang.
Speaker 2: Over the hang hang with the eyeshot, yes, and you
Speaker 2: have to go a little darker on the hang to
Speaker 2: kind of like make it look less hangy.
Speaker 1: These are all very technical terms, you guys, so right, I.
Speaker 2: Speak the common vernacular of people's.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So you share Yeah, you've shared that
Speaker 1: story in your book about your daughter. She said, why
Speaker 1: does your eyeshot? Why does your eyelid move like that?
Speaker 1: I can remember when I was younger and I would
Speaker 1: go like this to my Grandma's hand and it would
Speaker 1: like stay up and then it would take a really
Speaker 1: long time when I let it go to like go
Speaker 1: back down.
Speaker 2: But ours do it now and also the back of
Speaker 2: the hands that you say that when we're testing like
Speaker 2: concealer and foundation, that's the closest thing to this.
Speaker 1: This the skin on the back of our hands is
Speaker 1: the closest skin to our under our eyes.
Speaker 2: Doesn't have sabaceous glands. Neither does our under eye area.
Speaker 2: So when you test concealer, people will say test it
Speaker 2: here on your lines, but no, for us, test it here.
Speaker 2: If it looks dry on this guess where it's gonna
Speaker 2: look dry.
Speaker 1: Right here, Eric, everything's gonna look dry on these hands.
Speaker 2: Okay, if it looks hydrating on this hand, it's a winner.
Speaker 2: I bet you the acosmetic shirtin face bomb will look better.
Speaker 2: Will look hydrating on this hand better?
Speaker 1: It really does. Okay, that makes sense. So now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put the bomb on my hands. Not a problem
Speaker 1: at all. You've a test.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's see, she got a little sheen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When you were working on the Moms though, I'm curious,
Speaker 1: did that kind of change your perspective or you're sort
Speaker 1: of like connect between self care and you know, seeing
Speaker 1: women not choosing themselves, Like, did it change kind of
Speaker 1: like how you speak to them or guide them?
Speaker 2: Seeing the moment, the mom felt beautiful again, and she
Speaker 2: got a light back in her eye and she could
Speaker 2: get emotional, and it was almost like, and that's why
Speaker 2: I say, we don't have to handle our pretty down.
Speaker 2: I remember the moms being like, no, it's her turn.
Speaker 2: It's about her now. It's not about me anymore.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 2: Right, But was like, why can't it be about both
Speaker 2: of you? So what I would do the moms, and
Speaker 2: the moms felt luminous and pretty again. I remember someone
Speaker 2: would cry. They would I would just cover an under
Speaker 2: eye that they hadn't seen for a while and teach
Speaker 2: them a trick, and they were like, I look so good.
Speaker 2: And it was really like I had to cry and
Speaker 2: hug me, and it was just such an emotional moment.
Speaker 2: And I realized that it was a point that you
Speaker 2: start caring for your family and you stop remembering you.
Speaker 1: That's so true. I can remember myself remember when my
Speaker 1: girls like started to become like really like pretty teenage girls,
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, okay, well it's it's fair time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm good. I'll just stand back here and let
Speaker 1: them shine and be so happy for them. I don't
Speaker 1: need it, Yeah, I don't need to feel good or
Speaker 1: need the attention or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like society made us feel like
Speaker 2: we have to hand it down, like you have to
Speaker 2: hand it, almost like passing the crown, where men were
Speaker 2: getting like debonair and we were handing it down and
Speaker 2: then we get replaced for newer models. Oh, it's a
Speaker 2: crazy thing. It's a crazy, crazy society thing. And I
Speaker 2: just feel like that's how we're all trained. And the
Speaker 2: moment watching her eyes light up, when she was like, wow,
Speaker 2: I look so beautiful. I feel good again. I had
Speaker 2: allowed myself to feel that and that was an AHA
Speaker 2: moment until it happened, you know, And now I know
Speaker 2: because I've been there too.
Speaker 1: There's such that fear of of women for women as
Speaker 1: we age, the fear of becoming invisible or disappear.
Speaker 2: We disappear, and it's a real thing. And I think
Speaker 2: we're made to feel like almost we should feel guilty,
Speaker 2: to feel a kind of way or almost we feel
Speaker 2: guilty when we want to still be glamorous. But you know,
Speaker 2: and I think times are a change.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are. Thank goodness, so happy it is happening
Speaker 1: in my lifetime.
Speaker 2: Get to watch it, We get to be a part
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: That's right. For a woman that's reading your book or
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast who feels like she is lost
Speaker 1: in the cycle of work and kids and responsibilities, what
Speaker 1: is the single most important mental shift she can make
Speaker 1: today to start choosing herself again. As far as how
Speaker 1: you see.
Speaker 2: It, I mean, we're still allowed to play dress up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: We're still allowed to have cheap parties. We're still allowed
Speaker 2: to be girls. You know. I just think remember that
Speaker 2: was a part of dressing up and going out with
Speaker 2: your friends in your twenties. What was the best part
Speaker 2: getting ready.
Speaker 1: To get ready?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the best part, being your friend's house,
Speaker 2: drinking glass wine, getting ready, and that was like before
Speaker 2: a wedding, what's the best part doing your makeup with
Speaker 2: your bridesmaids or you know, all of that glamour part. Like,
Speaker 2: we're still allowed to do that, And I think I
Speaker 2: want to make makeup fun again. I want to make
Speaker 2: getting ready and dressing up fun again and not lose
Speaker 2: that magic that it once was. And it became scary
Speaker 2: and it became intimidating because the things we were doing
Speaker 2: on our face weren't working anymore. M h.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that like, uh, you don't remember that. Look. I
Speaker 1: used towear it in the late eighties maybe even the nineties,
Speaker 1: like eyeliner all the way around, the eyeball.
Speaker 2: Whole thing, whole thing, and then remember the shadow. We
Speaker 2: all did it, the light, the dark, the light, the
Speaker 2: windshield wiper, the wiper.
Speaker 1: Yes, we all did it.
Speaker 2: And I taught it to you in the nineties. You
Speaker 2: know what I mean. I was there at a mac
Speaker 2: counter like, yes, a harder V do it?
Speaker 1: What's the difference now? When you put on your eyeshadow, I.
Speaker 2: Would think of it like I would say, think of
Speaker 2: it like a sunrise, like a gradual just like dark
Speaker 2: fading up to light or even sometimes like the one
Speaker 2: shadow express. But I think it's like and I have
Speaker 2: it on, it's just kind of like fading it up,
Speaker 2: no harsh edges, just like up and out to accentuate
Speaker 2: and lift.
Speaker 1: It is really hard when you're putting your own makeup
Speaker 1: on to not get that harsh edge at the end
Speaker 1: of like your dark eyeshadow that you're trying.
Speaker 2: To muscle memory. Yeah, you want to do it, huh uh,
Speaker 2: you want to do it so bad, But when you
Speaker 2: kind of go up and out if you cut. If
Speaker 2: you do that dark edge, you can kind of stop
Speaker 2: your eye right there. But if you go up and out,
Speaker 2: it's accentuating things in an outward direction.
Speaker 1: But important note for that is the blending brush.
Speaker 2: Oh, blending brush a soft rush and just the tip.
Speaker 1: Why not the whole brush?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I've seen clients over the years digging
Speaker 2: their whole brush in like uh too, which looks like this.
Speaker 2: It's too much, and then you go to put the
Speaker 2: shadow on and it's everywhere, and now you can't clean
Speaker 2: that up. So it's better to end. And the reason
Speaker 2: I say just the tip is a of course it's funny,
Speaker 2: I'm gen X, but I really mean it because if
Speaker 2: you're using just the tip of your products, you'll never
Speaker 2: have too much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's better to build than to have to start
Speaker 1: over or take away. Taking away is really yeah.
Speaker 2: Watch city, there's no nothing is good when you start
Speaker 2: to take away.
Speaker 1: Yes, have you felt that though? I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I look at you and I think you're
Speaker 1: younger than me. I don't even know. I think you
Speaker 1: might be few years younger. I'm fifty four, well a
Speaker 1: few years so I'll be fifty this year.
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh, Okay, I'm jumping in.
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited for you. It's the best ever.
Speaker 1: It's like your twenties all over again.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to be a crazy old cat lady and
Speaker 2: just yell at people on my lawn. I'm ready.
Speaker 1: You don't have to do that just because you turn fifty.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, oh, you know what, I don't understand
Speaker 2: it now because now that I'm turning fifty, I feel
Speaker 2: like I care less about what other people think. And
Speaker 2: I remember, I know how you can become an eighty
Speaker 2: year old and like get off my loan, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: care what people think anymore. And it's kind of super liberating.
Speaker 1: It really is, it really is. But there's a balance still.
Speaker 1: I think, like we have to we have to care
Speaker 1: a little bit about what people think, as it pertains
Speaker 1: to like how we're self sort of regulating how we
Speaker 1: show up, you know what I mean. Like it's not
Speaker 1: an opportunity to just go falls to the wall and
Speaker 1: bee like say whatever comes to your mind, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you have.
Speaker 2: To have empathy and I think, you know, care for others.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wish that would go I wish that could
Speaker 1: go as too. You could just literally say whatever comes
Speaker 1: to your mind.
Speaker 2: Do you know what? I always say that empathy is
Speaker 2: my biggest strength but also my biggest weakness. But because
Speaker 2: I feel like I have an open, bleeding heart and
Speaker 2: I can definitely get taken advantage of easily. But I
Speaker 2: also love that about me because if someone does take advantage,
Speaker 2: maybe it's their karma and not mine. But you know,
Speaker 2: kindness can be taken for weakness.
Speaker 1: Yes, but that's not the case with you.
Speaker 2: I'm going to hope not. But there are there are,
Speaker 2: there are some.
Speaker 1: Here pretty strong. I feel strong.
Speaker 2: I can definitely be. I can definitely, I can definitely.
Speaker 2: I got a bleeding heart. Yeah, I got a bleeding heart.
Speaker 1: You want to help everybody? Would you say a bleeding
Speaker 1: heart is different than a people pleaser?
Speaker 2: Yes, because I'm not a people pleaser at all. But
Speaker 2: if you come at me and you pull at my
Speaker 2: heart strings, You'll get me. Oh man, Yeah, you'll get me.
Speaker 2: If you're like I need this and I need that,
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1: But can you tell when someone is intentionally playing with you,
Speaker 1: like pulling at your heart strings to get something cool?
Speaker 1: Maybe that maybe in your fifties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and my kids are even like MA, tell tell.
Speaker 1: Everybody where you where you live, Tell everybody where you
Speaker 1: come from.
Speaker 2: Like, Ma, that person just wants your money. I'm like,
Speaker 2: but maybe they don't. Maybe they just eat Hell.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're from New York. What what area?
Speaker 2: I'm Queen's originally?
Speaker 1: Okay, we talked about that. I think we talked about
Speaker 1: that because I spent a lot of time in Queens.
Speaker 2: Yes, we did talk about that, Yes, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that Queen's is different now than it used to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. I mean there's still elements that totally changed.
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, you never Yeah, it's got to be both
Speaker 1: both ways. I think you've served in the industry. I
Speaker 1: say served because you've served women over thirty years now,
Speaker 1: and you know, often they're women are our women are stretched,
Speaker 1: they're exhausted, they're dead, lacks on their own.
Speaker 2: To do list, sometimes angry.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're angry because of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was I would just disarm them with niceness,
Speaker 2: with being kind, Like I feel like they're so ready,
Speaker 2: they were always so ready to fight. And not everyone
Speaker 2: some lovely, some are scared to ask for help. Some
Speaker 2: because they never put themselves first, they're embarrassed. It's almost
Speaker 2: like if you don't know how to do makeup. You
Speaker 2: weren't you know, given your woman card, right, And then
Speaker 2: there's others that are like, just hurry up. And then
Speaker 2: when you disarm, they're just like, oh, okay, I can
Speaker 2: just relax and not everyone wants to fight with me.
Speaker 1: Right, Nobody's gonna argue with me about this? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. Do you have you reached a point like
Speaker 1: a burnout point, or a conversation, or just a moment
Speaker 1: where you realize that you had been doing the same thing,
Speaker 1: like putting everybody else before your own knees, putting yourself last.
Speaker 2: I think it was when I really struggled when I
Speaker 2: had my kids were really young, and I executive and cosmetics,
Speaker 2: and I always showed up. And I had three young
Speaker 2: kids and I would always show up, and I would
Speaker 2: feel like it was more like my teams that worked
Speaker 2: for me and with me, I was like, why am
Speaker 2: I always showing up? And I make sure you have
Speaker 2: your days off and I make sure you have everything
Speaker 2: you need. I make sure, But when I need someone,
Speaker 2: no one's showing up for me. And I remember driving
Speaker 2: somewhere I thought I had the day off. It was
Speaker 2: like Black Friday. You know, which was always like dun, dun,
Speaker 2: dun retail. And I remember just driving to a store
Speaker 2: in Vermont crying because the person that was supposed to go,
Speaker 2: I don't know, they probably had like diarrhea or something
Speaker 2: like just handle it, take an emmodium. And I was
Speaker 2: like leaving my family and my toddlers to just go
Speaker 2: cover this shift. And I just remember it was six
Speaker 2: in the morning and just driving and crying, and I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm always showing up for all of you,
Speaker 2: and I have three toddlers, and all you have to
Speaker 2: do is just put your underwear on and get out
Speaker 2: of the house, and you can't. And that was always
Speaker 2: That's what kind of broke me. It wasn't the public.
Speaker 2: It was I felt like I was carrying everybody in
Speaker 2: my job too, and I was so tired. You're tired, tired.
Speaker 2: I was so tired. I remember just my and I
Speaker 2: miss my mom and I'm so tired and might have
Speaker 2: to leave my kids. And I think I was just
Speaker 2: retail spent.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think being forward facing with the customer can
Speaker 1: do that to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And it wasn't even them. I love I miss peopling.
Speaker 2: It was more that I felt like the teams that
Speaker 2: worked with me didn't have my back all the time,
Speaker 2: and I always felt like I had theirs, And I
Speaker 2: was like, I was like, I don't wear a cape,
Speaker 2: I'm not a superwoman. I keep showing up, but I
Speaker 2: need help, and I just felt like I didn't have
Speaker 2: the help I need it.
Speaker 1: So you just decided to do it on your own.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, If the only one you can rely on
Speaker 2: is you, then let's go.
Speaker 1: So amazing, amazing. Well. You could find Erica Taylor's fun
Speaker 1: and informative makeup posts at Erica Taylor two three four
Speaker 1: seven and her book is The Magic of Makeup, Your
Speaker 1: Handbook for a Youthful, Radiant Look. But before I let
Speaker 1: you go, Erica Taylor, what was your last I Choose
Speaker 1: Me moment?
Speaker 2: It was, I would say when I left. My biggest
Speaker 2: I Choose Me moment was leaving that that retail that
Speaker 2: I had kind of done for twenty seven years and
Speaker 2: taking a leap of faith. And I was so scared
Speaker 2: because I was like institutionalized, you know, I had done
Speaker 2: the same thing, the same Hams from the wheel for
Speaker 2: twenty seven years. I worked my way from a counter
Speaker 2: to a regional director and I was so proud, and
Speaker 2: I was so scared to leave that, but I took
Speaker 2: a chance, and here we are, and now I'm talking
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: Never we're talking on this line.
Speaker 2: I've never imagined as my teenage self watching you nine
Speaker 2: o two one zero, obsessed, and you still look so
Speaker 2: freaking good. I mean, gosh, thank you running in person too,
Speaker 2: by the way, I say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we saw right across from one there.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I chose I chose me.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: Take a chance.
Speaker 1: That's what we gotta do. We can't wait around for
Speaker 1: other people to make things happen for ourselves.
Speaker 2: No, we can't, because no one's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: We gotta put on our own superhero capes and go.
Speaker 1: Put on your big girl panties.
Speaker 2: I used to say that you put on the big
Speaker 2: girl panties. Let's go.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're the best. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being here.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here with you.