Talking with Monique Pimentel

Monique Pimentel is a certified makeup artist based in Los Angeles, California, and is the CEO of Monique’s Lashes, which she founded and launched on May 22, 2020. Back in October of 2020, Monique won Bella Beauty NYC’s Halloween look competition. To learn more about the woman behind the makeup brush, we sat down to interview her. We spoke with Monique about her earliest memories of discovering her passion for makeup through her goals for the years to come. Pimentel also shared insight into inspiring young women during her high school time and growing a social media audience for her small business.

The first time Pimentel began to explore the makeup industry was during high school. Graduating high school with a 4.0 GPA was one of her most outstanding achievements. During her final semester of high school, Monique shared that it was incredibly hard, and there were times where she wanted to give up. Through posting her makeup looks on social media platforms, Monique realized that students and classmates from her high school began to follow her work, recreating and crediting her ideas. This bolstered her efforts within the beauty community and pushed Monique to commit to producing more great makeup looks. Pimentel is proud of herself for persevering and choosing to go to college. Monique studied cosmetic application and was certified in August of 2020; becoming certified has validated Monique’s artistic career. Taking the risk of following her heart has allowed her to pursue makeup as a profession. It has given her a new sense of confidence.

Monique gained a following throughout her social media accounts (Instagram: @makeupby.monique_ and @moniques.lashes) by first having her family members become her clients. She is the oldest daughter in her family and the youngest of her cousins. Monique shared that her cousins’ dedication to the makeup world encouraged her to follow in their footsteps. Monique remembers watching her first MUA Youtuber, Nikkie De Jager (better known on social media platforms as @NikkieTutorials), who inspired her to follow makeup tutorial videos. Like De Jager, false lashes are a part of Pimentel’s daily makeup routine. In September 2020, four months after Pimentel debuted her lash line, she began selling makeup. Pimentel is looking towards being sponsored and partnering with small businesses. Her future goals are to work for a company such as NYX, Morphe, or Benefit. Monique is developing opportunities to form her own company through her lash line, build her team of co-collaborators and influencers, and seek outreach resources to grow her audience as a small start-up business. At the core of her dedication to makeup, Monique would like to continue to help those entering the makeup world and teach them easy-to-remember steps and tools to use to ease them into this inclusive, artistic, and emboldening community and industry.