ADMIRED makeup artist (MUA) Renee Chester of Bromeliad Inc., along with Guyanese designers Quinton Pearson, Nadia Thomas-Winters, and Andy Anthony Cummings were among those named as winners at the 2019 Caribbean Style and Culture Awards and Fashion Show, which will be held this June in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Guyanese model Jasoda Ramlagan, is also among five Caribbean models currently vying for the 2019 People’s Choice Award

For Renee, who is the Make-Up and Aesthetics 2019 Award winner, this is her first award since beginning as a make-up artist some 10 years ago. One of Guyana’s most sought after MUA, Chester said it’s nice to be recognised for her work.

The Caribbean Style & Culture Awards and Fashion Show is the brainchild of Karib Nation,

Inc. a non-profit organization, which began in Washington, DC in 1992. The organisation promotes social and economic prosperity while encouraging the cultural enrichment of the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking Caribbean community in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area.

Other Guyanese, who’ve also been bestowed with awards by the organisation, include designers Sidney Francois, Ryan Berkeley and Michele Cole of ColeFacts.
Guyanese models, Nikita Barker and Natasha Harper, were also are among models who’ve been awarded.

It was earlier this month that Chester found out about being selected for the award, which, she said, was a little bit of a surprise, but nonetheless felt a worthy conferring.
“I felt good about it, quite elated, and not to toot my own horn but I did feel deserving of the award,” Chester shared with The Buzz.
“I’m so excited that my career took such a good turning point, especially at the beginning of the year, to give me something to go with for the rest of the year and years to come.”
She’s looking forward to travelling to the US in June, to meet with the organisation and receive her award.

“I’m nervous and I’m excited at the same time. What am I going to say? What are they going to ask me? But I’m so excited,” she said.

Chester is all the more excited because her business Bromeliad Inc. is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. To commemorate the celebration she will hosting the second edition of “50 Shades of MUA”.

First held in 2017, ’50 Shades of MUA’ was created with the aim of providing a platform for makeup artists to network, and to encourage makeup artists to infuse a more fashion-conscious outlook into their everyday operations. The event was attended by some 200 local makeup artists from across the country.

While it was hoped that the event would become an annual event, Renee said the decision was taken not to host one last year, since she wanted to do extensive work on the 2019 edition, in honour of the 10th anniversary.

Renee says like any industry, the MUA business has been changing but she does her most to ensure that she keeps abreast and keeps her business relevant.

“It has definitely become a little more challenging because techniques are changing all the time, so the request of clients and students and so on are more, so in order to cater to the service accurately to these people I have to always stay on top of my game. I have to customise a lot of personal time, and compromise down time in order to keep in tune with what’s going on. There’s books to read, research to be do, practice to be done. So that’s where, to me, the challenge is, in just trying to stay relevant and stay humble in what you do,” she said.