On the day of the Homecoming dance, while most girls are scrambling to paint their nails, finish their makeup and fix their hair, senior Hillary Lai is doing other girls’ makeup for them.

According to Lai, she has always had an interest in makeup. After several years of doing makeup for her friends and family, she is now running her own makeup company called Beauty Lais.

“I always played around with [makeup],” Lai said. “It’s always been something I’ve been naturally good at.”

According to Hillary’s mom, Lilian Lai, Hillary has shown an interest in makeup as early as the sixth grade.

“I’m into makeup as well, so she started experimenting with [makeup],” Lilian said. “As time went on, she became very interested in it and I could see that it was a natural talent of hers.”

Hillary recalled doing her sister’s high school graduation makeup as a freshman. After that event, she began doing her friends’ makeup for various occasions such as school dances and graduations. One such friend is senior Bailey Moynihan.

“She’s just always been really good at makeup, and she started to see that maybe she could do something more with this,” Moynihan said.

According to Hillary, it wasn’t until this summer that she decided to get certified as a makeup artist. She took a week-long class at Media Makeup Academy, a school located in Chicago that offers classes to teach the skills necessary to become a professional makeup artist.

“Each day was a different theme,” Hillary said. “The first day was just basics, like a 101 class. It got progressively more complicated towards the end […] At the end of the week there was a professional photo shoot. We did a model’s makeup…and [there was] a professional photographer.”

Senior Sophie Gomez explained how the quality of Hillary’s work is half the price but just as good as a professional. Gomez has gotten her makeup done by Hillary twice, once for Homecoming and once for senior pictures. She added that Hillary provided all of the makeup with the exception of foundation and mascara, for sanitary purposes.

Moynihan added, “[I got my makeup done] at her house. […] She had all of her makeup there and she asked what I wanted, but I didn’t really know so she kind of got to play around with whatever she wanted to do, and it turned out looking great.”

However, as pleased with her work as her friends and customers are, Hillary explained the depth of what she is taking away from this experience too.

“This has taught me [how to] interact and meet people who I normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to [meet],” Hillary said. “Obviously with something as public as this comes judgment, and you just have to learn to look past that fear.”

Hillary added that the deeper meaning of her business is about learning to value people and things beyond their physical appearance.

“Everyone comes to me with a bare face so having the confidence to go out without makeup and not having to layer tons of makeup on your face is the first step to feeling good about yourself,” Hillary said.

However despite being certified, she explained that makeup is not something she is considering pursuing in the future.

“It’s just a hobby,” Hillary said. “I think if I actually turned it into a career it would take the love out of it and it would just be something that I would have to do every single day.”