-An intriguing
story of a young Makeup Artist
 |
| Akosua Benewaa |
While her
colleagues confined their pencils and crayons to tracing alphabets in 'My First
Copy' books and colouring cartoons, Akosua Benewaa would stand before a glittering mirror to paint her face with hers.
Ask her
mother, Mrs Juliana Opoku Agyeman, how her powder mysteriously got finished in the house
within a few days of purchase and you will know that Akosua used it
all on her face.
Akosua’s
father, Mr. Prince Charles Darkwah had a problem with her 'behaviour'. The sight of
his daughter painting her eyebrows and lips sent him crazy.
“Akosua,
don’t take after those bad girls. Your mother never did this,” Mr. Darkwah would
fume.
But... this did not deter the young girl. She was perhaps a stubborn girl with an
innate passion that would not be sacrificed on the altar of threats or scorn. After
all, she never became a bad girl as her father feared.
This
childhood account, Akosua tells me spans over twenty years.
“The truth
is that most of us in our childhood days had something we were so much attached
to so that nothing could separate us from it. But frankly, I never knew about who a make-up artist was,” she
said.
Akosua
Benewaa, born Darkwah Benewaa Lucy, is a professionally trained teacher. For four years
now, she has been pinning chalk to the blackboard and marking her pupils’ homeworks and class exercises.
She says
seeing the beam of smiles on her pupils’ faces each morning, and guiding and
guarding them climb the ladder of life makes teaching such a noble
profession.
Madly in
love with teaching, she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English at
the Valley View University. She does not merely wish to teach at the university
someday but become a teacher with enormous control over the subject she loves.
Interesting
enough, aside holding onto teaching tightly as she would have a relay baton, her
childhood fantasy of facial colouring and powdering has not been put to rest. It has put her on another pedestal
today.
If Akosua
deems teaching important, seeing the touch of beauty she leaves on the faces of
her bridal clients equally makes her appreciate being a make-up artist, too.
She says she will combine the two.
I asked
her how she was able to sustain her childhood dream; the dream she herself
never understood as a child.
“Realising
the thing [making up] was still an interest to me, I learnt it as a trade from
someone. After a number of years of learning it, I told my mistress I would
want to go set up my own brand which she agreed,” she said.
‘Ever21
Make-up’ became the name of that brand. When asked why Ever21, Akosua said, “no
matter how old you are, when I touch you with my pencils and brushes, you get
the looks of a twenty one year old lady.”
Akosua plies her trade
primarily in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. She says almost
every week or two, she has a client to attend to either in Kumasi or Sunyani.
But how
much does she charge a client? Would she disclose that to us?
She says
her services are affordable. “If the bride books for both ‘engagement’ and
wedding, she pays only 500ghc; 50ghc per a bride’s maid. Aside the brides,
others come to be made up for funerals, weddings and photoshoots. For such, I
charge 50ghc per client.”
Determined
as a young make-up artist, she does not only make people up. She trains others
as well to be like her, too.
Akosua
says her trainees pay "something small" as school
fees.
“Depending
on the number of days one would like to learn, one week goes for 150ghc, three
weeks 300ghc and three months 1000ghc respectively,” she said.
She says
she hardly touches her salary. She makes a living out of her childhood hobby.
So, what are her parents’ reactions now to their daughter’s humble success?
“I
remember a client paid her booking fee to my mother. She was like ‘Ei! I didn’t
know there is cash in your thing [referring to makeup],’” Akosua recounted.
She said
she could not help but laugh.
What about
her father?
“My father
would now tell me that I honour him with what I do. He is just happy for me.”
Akosua got
married on August 22, 2015 and you won’t believe she made herself up. Yes, she
did!
Her story
teaches us many things as parents, would-be parents and even caretakers; we must do
well to safeguard our children’s childhood dreams.
In Africa,
precisely Ghana, we often do not pay attention to the things children are fond
of. We are only concerned about putting them into schools for them to pass
examinations from the basic through to the senior high level. Then, at the
tertiary level we impose on them our choice of courses.
We want
them to become what we dreamt of but could not achieve ourselves. In another
breath, we want them to choose professions such as teaching and nursing. Why? Such professions have
existing job opportunities. We fear our children joining the long winding
queues of unemployment. But the truth is that smooth seas do not make skillful
sailors.
As it
stands, Akosua is out with her first book on make-up artistry dubbed “Ever
Twenty One Outlook.” In a few years to come, she wants all roads in search of
beauty lead to the Ever21 offices (which will dot all the capital cities of
Ghana).
At such
offices, you don’t just come for makeup but have the opportunity to buy
everything associated with beauty.
Is that
not wonderful? What is your dream? What do you fancy most and what are you
doing about it? Are you just going to leave it rot in your imaginations?
Aside
journalism, do not be surprised to hear Mensah Farms winning the next best
farmer in Ghana.
I would
want to own a farm of both crops and livestock; produce palm oil from my palm
tree plantation and others and export processed products in large scale.
Don’t kill
that dream, live it for it is not too late. Give your dream a touch of Ever21.
By Solomon Mensah
The writer is a young Ghanaian journalist.
Twitter: @Aniwaba
