My Journey

My Journey

Where do I start? Why not the beginning?

I think everyone who’s ever had a dream come true talks about how they’ve always wanted to achieve it – and yet, I’m not quite sure that was always the case. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved makeup: those primary school memories of saving up dollars and cents just to (secretly) buy those cheap-cheap products from Watsons and Guardian. I would even leave home much earlier to apply makeup in public toilets before meeting up with my friends!

And yet, despite all the scrimping and saving, all the moments stolen away to doll myself up, never did I consider making a career out of my little private hobby. But life has its own ways to surprise.

University years

As time passed, little Sabby grew up to become a little taller and a little wiser – but I was still never quite sure what to do with my life. What did I want to do as a career? How will I provide for my family?

Eventually, I decided to study Business Management. It was a general course, so I was sure that it would be a safe option.

But life had a plan for me and at the end of my first year I was offered a chance to learn makeup and hairstyling from professional makeup artists (MUAs) in Malaysia. At the time, all I had planned to do was to learn how to get better at my everyday makeup routine (+ my mother said that I was wasting so much money on makeup, I might as well get proper training for it 😂) – and yet, one of the MUAs there immediately noticed my talent and encouraged me to start my own side account to share my works.

The start of something beautiful

I remember how I felt then – sure, I was nervous and reluctant (I did not have the intention to do makeup on others at the time) but in that nervousness was a sense of… excitement? Coming home from the course, I called my siblings and all my cousins and experimented a bit with them. And of course, I shared all my works on my side account.

And strangely enough… DMs started coming in! Other people who liked my style and wanted to pay me to do their makeup for events! Wow, what a concept!

You might think that’s the end of the story but… well, I still had other responsibilities. I was about to start my second year of Uni and I didn’t have as much time as I thought I would. My hobby-turned-side-hustle started competing with school work, but I made as much time as I could on the weekends. And as my side-hustle grew, so did the stress and difficulty of maintaining two heavy responsibilities. Still, I managed to cope, and fell into this routine for the remainder of my Uni years.

Graduation!

But then, I graduated! It was a mixed feeling – I was excited to have finished school, but now I was confronted with so many choices. Do I start looking for a full-time job? Do I commit to my makeup business? Again, I didn’t want to choose one over the other so I decided to pursue both at the same time.

For a job, I looked for 2 things: gathering professional experience and a strict weekday work week (so I could have the weekend for my MUA gigs). For a while, I was happy – I managed to get the professional experience I was looking for and also pursue my passion. But all good things come to an end, and the fatigue really started getting to me in that first year. I might have been happy at first, but it’s very hard to stay happy when you’re constantly getting worn down, you know? Worse, the double life was taking time away from my family and friends…

And so, after throwing around the idea for awhile I made the leap of faith.

Leap of Faith

I think, the biggest decision-making factor for my pivot was probably my family – I had just gotten married and I had to also juggle my responsibilities of being a new wife, daughter-in-law and home owner. Adding to that, my MUA business started taking up almost every weekend and started spilling over into the weekdays as well.

At this point, I started asking myself what truly matters to me? What makes me happy and allows me to have a healthy work-life balance?

This was in 2020 and COVID was in full gear. Did I really want to commit to my business in a time when events were uncertain? I could have stayed in my HR role – they were going to convert me from a contract role to a fulltime employee.

But I knew then, as I know now, where my heart really lies – and I became a full-time MUA!

Last thoughts

I think it’s easy to look back and think, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

For most of my life, I was in love with makeup – those childhood memories, little moments of little Sabby and her first stick of lip gloss. And yet, I never let myself truly consider this as a career. I think it’s a bit pointless to be stuck in the “what-if” mentality, because every day is a new opportunity. I’m just glad I was brave enough (and had the support of everyone around me) to pursue my passion.

If my story helps to encourage any of you, then that’s great! Drop me a DM, it’d be nice to hear your stories 😊