Welcome to ambi artistry
photo courtesy of mary bowser photography
The art of transforming people's faces through makeup has captured my heart for the better part of the last decade. My love for makeup artistry was sparked by a budding interest in architecture; the mathematics and precision behind creating blueprints for buildings led me down the path of sketching and sculpting in high school. When makeup tutorials took the YouTube space by storm in the early 2010s, my interest aligned with current trends, evolving into what is now a dream career for me. Following a Michelle Phan tutorial led to doing makeup for my girlfriends in the grad alcove at my high school, then their prom and graduation makeups. Before I knew it, I was shipping myself off to Canada’s premier makeup artistry school in Vancouver, BC.
Since graduating from the Blanche Macdonald Centre’s Global Makeup Artistry program in 2017, my skills have been sharpened through my experiences in cosmetic retail and sales. There, I learned the necessary skills to run a business. I attribute my organizational abilities in administrative work to my experiences in various management roles. The way I adjust my cadence to provide comfort for people comes from my developed customer service skills (and eldest daughter tendencies). My ability to diagnose the needs of clients and customize their experience stems from learning to observe first and then pitch ideas effectively. Climbing the corporate ladder consumed a significant portion of my career, and I collected experiences and connections as if they were butterflies in a net.
photos courtesy of socials by delia mary bowser photography
An experience with a brand I managed changed everything for me. I had the opportunity to provide makeup services for a professional sports league’s All Star Game at an red-carpet event, and I found myself realizing, “This is where I belong.” Comforting or hyping people up before an event, the buzz of a backstage lineup, and everyone around you all there for the same reason—it was magical. What I loved about cosmetic retail wasn’t the thrill of a sale or climbing the ladder; it was helping people with the services and products I had and being a peaceful space for someone before an event. Finally, I left cosmetic retail management in late 2023 to pursue my creative ventures and artistic dreams.
Throughout my life, I dreamed of becoming an architect, an author, or an artist of sorts. My dream was to reshape the world around me, whether that meant my city’s infrastructure or through my art or words. Makeup artistry captured me when my love for helping others met my admiration for linework and sculpting. Curiosity became an interest, which became a hobby, and now a passion-fueled career. The rediscovery of fulfillment from being able to reshape someone’s mood by boosting their confidence and meeting their vision was all I needed to continue using this medium as my artistic contribution to the world and fulfill that childhood dream.
If you’ll allow me the honour, I’d love to connect with you and help you look and feel as beautiful as you deserve for your occasion. I look forward to being a small part of your own venture in reshaping the world, one look at a time.
Cheers,
Kimberly
the ambi artistry experience
Why AMBI? I could go down the list of things that inspired me to really lean into this concept of duality in life on a personal level. For example, I am a dual- citizen, bilingual, and a walking “what if-?” and “how about this angle-?”; yet when an idea plants itself, it’s not uprooting from my mind. More intimately, I’ve always been in awe at how advanced we are as a species, yet how our primal instincts silently guide us in each action. I admire the way patterns are placed and laced into daily life but also crave the energizing way change feels.
This concept bled into my professional space as a way to marry multiple ideas and create a truly customized experience for clients.