Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Patricia Solis with me. Hi, Patricia. How are you?
Patricia Solis: I’m great. How are you?
Toni: I am great on this really yucky day outside. It’s for ducks today. Maybe not even ducks!
Patricia: Too rainy.
Toni: It is too rainy. Patricia, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Patricia: I am a licensed esthetician and makeup artist. I am new to the Berks County area. I’ve actually only been living here since June, but I’ve been working in Berks County for the past two years.
Toni: Okay, where did you come from?
Patricia: Lancaster. I lived in Lancaster for 19 years.
Toni: What is the name of your company?
Patricia: It’s under my name, Patricia Solis. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me on my website, which is www.patriciasolis.com, or www.elegantexpressions.net.
Toni: Elegant Expressions – I like that! Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Patricia: When I think of inspiration, it’s anything that I can draw from. It could be color. It could be textures. It could be people. A lot of people ask me, “Do you like to do your makeup?” I do like to do my makeup, but I really enjoy doing other people’s makeup, because I feel that every person is a new canvas for me. Everybody inspires me a different way. It might be their cheeks; it might be their eyes, their lips, their skin. You get to know them a little bit. I find inspiration from a lot of things. Right now it’s fall, and there’s the leaves. Even today it’s wet, but I felt like, “It’s kind of ugly outside, so I’m going to go ahead and make myself pretty!”
Toni: I like that. It helps make somebody else’s day really nice, too. That’s awesome. You are inspired by people that you see in the industry that you’re in. I love the way you said it could be somebody’s eyes or their cheekbones, and that inspires you to do what? What happens?
Patricia: I love my mature clients, because the first thing that they do when they walk in is say, “Oh, I don’t know what you’re going to do with my face today!” I love that, because you get to know them a little bit. They’re like a blank canvas for me. I say, “We’re going to work on …” I try to find out a little bit about them, a little bit about their style, so it gives me an idea of what I want to work with. Does that make sense?
Toni: It does.
Patricia: For example, if they don’t wear makeup on a daily basis, then I know I need to have a lighter hand with them, and I need to find out what they like. Do they like eyeliner? Is their thing lipstick?
Sometimes they don’t even realize things until you bring them up. I’ll say, “You have really nice, beautiful lips.” They’ll say, “I never thought of that.”
Toni: It’s interesting, because what inspires you is when you’re looking at people and it almost must look like a blank canvas to you.
Patricia: Yes.
Toni: How you put that into practice here in Berks County is to be able to help people bring that blank canvas to light.
Patricia: Yes.
Toni: That’s what I’m hearing. You do that through the art of makeup, but what I’m also hearing is that you do that through complimenting them or letting them know what their best features are. Is that true?
Patricia: Yes, because I think especially us as women, we tend to always find something. We’ll point out ten ugly things and then forget about anything else. I think it’s normal. It’s probably because there’s so much media out there.
I’m a visual artist also. I get inspiration by that, too, but I see that there is so much pressure on what you should look like or what people think that you should look like. I think we forget when we look at these things that they’re not always real. How many times have we seen Kim Kardashian? “I want to look natural,” and they show you a Kim Kardashian picture. That is not natural.
Toni: That’s amazing, too. I can only imagine how inspired you must feel when your clients are inspired by how they look after they see you.
Patricia: Yes. That is the most rewarding thing. I had a client this week that came in. She takes care of her grandkids. They live with her. She can't remember the last time that she was able to go out and celebrate her anniversary, because she’s been taking care of her grandkids. They have special needs, so she can't really leave them with anybody most of the time. That gets a little hectic. She just felt so pretty.
It was the first time that I met her, and she hugged me, then she went to my Facebook and posted a really nice compliment. That makes me feel good. I feel like I have not only a client, but now I have a friend, too.
Toni: Yes, and that goes so much further than just doing someone’s makeup, doesn’t it?
Patricia: Yes.
Toni: You’re inspired, they’re inspired, and they’re going home inspired.
Patricia: And they’re happy. She was very grateful, which was nice.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Patricia: A lot of people. I have to say that Berks County has been very welcoming for me. My first person that I met in Berks County that really encouraged me is Tania. She’s with Ama Photography.
Toni: One of the best.
Patricia: Yes. She was really nice. It’s funny how I met her, because I met her through Facebook. I saw her work on Facebook. I thought, “I like that photographer’s work. It’s nice; it’s elegant; it’s my style.” I remember emailing her and she became friends with me and whatnot, but we didn’t get to meet until a year later. Through her, I’ve met a lot of people. These networking groups that are available here for women are great, and they’re very supportive of small businesses. I’ve met Sabrina from Ecofriendly Cleaning, and all these people. Annarose [Ingarra-Milch] – she is very inspiring.
All these people motivate me because they believe in me; they support me, and when I need to run something by a friend – I call them coworkers too, because we’re always working together – it’s nice to have that. It’s nice to be able to have that support system. They inspire me to do better and to stay motivated.
Toni: I think that’s really wonderful, and I am hoping that that is heard, because you are not originally from Berks County. You’ve been here a short time, and yet who inspires you are other women in Berks County who are helping other women, and that’s what it’s all about.
Patricia: Yes.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Patricia: The one thing that I have a hard time with, and I think a lot of women do, is that we don’t give enough props to ourselves. If I can influence one person, I’m happy with that. That’s one of the reasons why I want to eventually educate. I didn’t have that in the area that I was in, and I went a lot to New York to take courses and meet other artists to get inspired and to get motivated, because otherwise I feel to me that was important. I would go and take a class and come out all motivated, and I was ready to do something funky or something fun. I just want to continue educating myself, and like I said, if I can help someone, I’m happy with that.
Toni: Fantastic. Thank you so very much, Patricia, for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Patricia: Thank you.
