BEHIND THE BRAND

Hello! 

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My name is Katie Riddle and I am the owner and CEO of Beauty by Katie LLC. I have been in the beauty industry for 9 years now and went full time with my business after the first 2 years into it. I'm a mother to my two beautiful sons, Joey and Mason. My boys are my entire world and I love every second of being a boy mom! I enjoy spending time with my family, riding horses, cooking and of course, my job!

 

I first got started with makeup about 6 years ago when I recently had been engaged. I had previously had my makeup done by two different makeup artists in Louisville for prom two years in a row and went home crying BOTH TIMES! I hated it so much I went straight home and took it off. When I was trying to think of who could do my makeup for my wedding, I just felt I couldn't trust anyone. So I decided to take it upon myself and learn how to do it! Coming from a girl who was very much a tomboy, grew up on a farm my whole life and was not much of a girly girl what-so-ever, I had a long ways to go. I started watching youtube videos on how to do makeup and finally over the course of an entire year, I had gotten it exactly how I wanted it and had tried and found the most durable makeup products for my big day. I would quite literally buy a product that someone would recommend from a YouTube video, try it several days in a row to test the durability and longevity of that product and if I felt like after several tries it wasn't great, I would return it and try something else until I built the perfect makeup kit for my big day. After that, people started noticing my talent and friends and family became curious and pushed me to pursue something out of it. I was first asked by my very  best friend to do her makeup for her wedding. She trusted me on one of the most important days in someone's life! The experience is what made me fall in love with doing makeup on other people. The feeling of making someone feel beautiful is truly such an amazing feeling and I knew after that, I wanted to do more! After I did her wedding, I had gotten bookings just from quests at her wedding to do theirs. After I had done my very first wedding (outside of my best friends wedding) I absolutely fell in love with the idea of doing this as a career! I remember coming home that day filled with butterflies in my stomach from how much fun I had and to think I had more weddings after that!

 

I later built my kit on my own.  A lot of people told me "Just buy cheap makeup for your kit" and I just couldn't accept that. I knew that If I wanted to gain peoples trust I had to only buy the most reliable makeup on the market just as I wanted for myself on my big day! It's not just about the before and after picture, for something as important as your wedding, you want it to last all day long! I wanted people to know that not only would they love how they looked, they also knew they could trust me as their professional makeup artist to only use the most trusted products out there!

 

I started booking several weddings, photo shoots, and more. Once I started branching out and getting more and more bookings, I took the time to invest in my skill and expand my knowledge and art of makeup and got my certificate at Vanity Makeup School as as well The Master Class. These were two separate courses both held in Los Angles California. Vanity Makeup school was taught by youtuber, Ani G. and involves a 4 day intensive course covering all of her techniques and more. The master class was taught by celebrity makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic, who is primarily known for being Kim Kardashian's makeup artist and many more highly recognized celebrities. This was a 9 hour course of him showing some of his most top secret techniques for flawless, long- lasting makeup and so much more. During this course, I was also instructed by Anastasia Soare (Owner of Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics) with an exclusive look at how to create the perfect brows. I learned so much from both of these courses that I truly believe it sets me apart from any other local makeup artist. It means so much to me that every single one of my clients leaves my chair feeling happy and beautiful and I knew that expanding my skill would be 100% worth it. 

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It didn't stop there, I knew I wanted to add more services! I take my business and job very seriously and I know that my client base I had built up knew it just as much as I did. I wanted to continue branching out into the beauty industry by adding more services. I really wanted to start spray tanning and I knew I could start this service up easily with my current license as well as training at the salon where I rent my studio in. I just couldn't find a formula I was 100% happy with. As much as I wanted to add spray tans to my service list sooner, I wanted to only offer the best of the best quality, service, products and more to my clients in each aspect of each service that I offer. I want people to feel that they can trust me with everything I have to offer, not just one of my services. I had always seen people coming out of getting a spray tan looking so orange from other businesses! I knew that I only wanted to offer this if I could truly back up the formula and be able to rave about it! I finally found the perfect solution, Dolce Glow!! It comes with different shades that adheres better with different skin tones and is SO NATURAL LOOKING! My Clients are always so shocked at how natural the tan looks, the fact that this formula also doesn't leave you stinky or sticky afterwards, and how beautifully it just fades off over time instead of coming off in patches like most other spray tans do. I eventually added almost all of their retail products as well which are available for purchase at my studio.

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I hope this gives you at least a small glimpse of a little about me and how I started this business. I hope to service you soon!

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Love, 

Katie Riddle