Fay­ola K J Fras­er

Jo­han­na Jor­dan is a 25-year-old moth­er and busi­ness own­er who has over­come nu­mer­ous chal­lenges in her jour­ney to be­com­ing a suc­cess­ful make-up artist and en­tre­pre­neur. Born in Trinidad and raised in To­ba­go, Jor­dan grew up with her moth­er and fa­ther in a com­mu­ni­ty that played an es­sen­tial role in shap­ing her val­ues and per­son­hood.

Al­though her child­hood was dif­fi­cult, in­clud­ing ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sex­u­al abuse, Jor­dan used her pas­sion for make-up as a cop­ing mech­a­nism that helped her nav­i­gate the chal­lenges she faced. Lit­tle did she know, this love would soon evolve in­to a thriv­ing ca­reer that would not on­ly change her life but al­so in­spire oth­ers to pur­sue their pas­sions.

In 2016, af­ter com­plet­ing her CXC ex­ams, Jor­dan re­turned to Trinidad from To­ba­go to fur­ther her ed­u­ca­tion. She pur­sued a cer­tifi­cate in Tech­ni­cal The­atre at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), where she be­gan to hone and ex­plore the var­i­ous facets of her cre­ative skills. Al­though she had al­ways been drawn to make-up, Jor­dan didn’t ini­tial­ly re­alise how far it could take her.

Grow­ing up, she of­ten used make-up pri­mar­i­ly as a mask to hide the emo­tion­al pain she had en­dured. “It was my way of cop­ing,” Jor­dan says, “I didn’t know how to deal with the af­ter­ef­fects of the trau­ma, so I hid be­hind the make-up.”

Dur­ing this time, her fa­ther, who held a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on beau­ty, would of­ten tell her that she “didn’t need make-up” be­cause she was al­ready beau­ti­ful. He, along with oth­ers around her, couldn’t ful­ly un­der­stand that make-up was more than just a cos­met­ic choice; it was her way of shield­ing her­self from the pain she had car­ried for so long.

Liv­ing with her fa­ther in Trinidad was a trans­for­ma­tive ex­pe­ri­ence for Jor­dan, al­low­ing her to un­der­stand her­self bet­ter and re­alise why she had turned to make-up as a cop­ing mech­a­nism.

The chal­lenges

Jor­dan’s pas­sion for make-up con­tin­ued to grow, and in 2018, she took the plunge and be­gan of­fer­ing make-up ser­vices. She start­ed out do­ing make-up for just 50 dol­lars in a small space in Mal­oney.

Armed with skills learnt from YouTube tu­to­ri­als, she quick­ly de­vel­oped her craft and gained con­fi­dence. Her first of­fi­cial spot was a small space in Mal­oney, but as her skills im­proved, she felt greater con­fi­dence to raise her prices to a lev­el com­men­su­rate with her ser­vices. By 2019, she moved to a sec­ond lo­ca­tion in Curepe, where she charged $150 for her make-up ser­vices.

How­ev­er, Jor­dan’s jour­ney wasn’t with­out its chal­lenges. At one point, she be­came dis­cour­aged and start­ed com­par­ing her­self to oth­er make-up artists, lead­ing her to ques­tion her worth and whether she was tru­ly on the right path.

“I gave up on the craft for a while. I was so caught up in com­par­ing my­self to oth­ers. But then I re­alised that every­one has their own time, their own pace.” This epiphany helped Jor­dan spir­i­tu­al­ly ground her­self, lead­ing to a stronger re­la­tion­ship with God and a re­newed sense of pur­pose. Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, Jor­dan’s ca­reer took an un­ex­pect­ed turn.

She be­gan to teach make-up, of­fer­ing two-day class­es that al­lowed stu­dents to learn make-up tech­niques both on them­selves and on oth­ers. This op­por­tu­ni­ty marked her peak as a beau­ty ed­u­ca­tor and helped so­lid­i­fy her po­si­tion in the in­dus­try. The class­es al­lowed her to share her knowl­edge with as­pir­ing make-up artists and so­lid­i­fied her be­lief that make-up was not just a craft but a means to em­pow­er oth­ers.

In 2021, Jor­dan’s life took an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant turn when she gave birth to her son. She ex­pe­ri­enced a peak in her ca­reer right be­fore moth­er­hood, as her skills and con­fi­dence grew through con­tin­u­ous prac­tice and ad­di­tion­al cours­es. Her jour­ney al­so in­clud­ed work­ing with pop­u­lar artistes such as Patrice Roberts and Ri­car­do Drue for their mu­sic videos.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, she ven­tured in­to spe­cial ef­fects make-up, which fur­ther ex­pand­ed her reper­toire.

A dream re­alised

Car­ni­val 2025 marks the launch of “Jour the Glam House,” a project Jor­dan had been work­ing on for years, which she de­scribes as a “pre-pump for the road” for Car­ni­val. The con­cept was born from her de­sire to of­fer hair, make-up, break­fast, and drinks in a fun, all-in­clu­sive en­vi­ron­ment for her clients, help­ing them to feel ready and con­fi­dent for the road. The suc­cess of this ven­ture in the lead-up to Car­ni­val al­so serves as a re­minder of the in­cred­i­ble sup­port sys­tem Jor­dan has, in­clud­ing her son’s fa­ther, her boyfriend, and her ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to Jor­dan, “They’ve been in­stru­men­tal in help­ing me bal­ance busi­ness with my per­son­al life, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the busy Christ­mas and Car­ni­val sea­sons.” Jor­dan’s de­ci­sion to leave her job as a so­cial me­dia agent for Sprint and T-Mo­bile in 2021 to pur­sue her dream as a make-up artist was a piv­otal mo­ment in her life.

“Women wear make-up all the time,” she ex­plains, “It’s a trade you can eas­i­ly align with cor­po­rate clients, par­ties, and events. I’m so grate­ful that I can pay my rent eas­i­ly do­ing what I love.” Her tran­si­tion to full-time make-up artistry was not on­ly a per­son­al choice but a strate­gic one, as the beau­ty in­dus­try is one that con­tin­ues to thrive re­gard­less of the cir­cum­stances.

Make-up, she be­lieves, is an es­sen­tial part of a woman’s con­fi­dence and per­son­al­i­ty, and it will nev­er go out of style. Jor­dan em­pha­sis­es that make-up is not about chang­ing who you are but en­hanc­ing your nat­ur­al fea­tures. She be­lieves that make-up should make women feel good, help­ing them look and be­have more con­fi­dent­ly. “It doesn’t change how I look; it just en­hances my fea­tures.

Make-up helps boost con­fi­dence, and when you feel good, it shows,” she says. This phi­los­o­phy has be­come a cor­ner­stone of her brand and ap­proach to beau­ty. As a busi­ness own­er for over ten years, Jor­dan has learnt valu­able lessons about re­silience, pa­tience, and con­sis­ten­cy. One of the most im­por­tant pieces of ad­vice she of­fers is to make sure that you have a true pas­sion for the craft be­fore div­ing in.

“If you don’t have the pas­sion, your re­silience will be low,” she said. “Be­lieve in your­self, and trust that every­one moves at their own pace.” She al­so em­pha­sis­es the im­por­tance of pa­tience, es­pe­cial­ly in a sat­u­rat­ed mar­ket.

“Even if there are 100 oth­ers, your gift is unique­ly yours,” she says, en­cour­ag­ing oth­ers to trust in God’s tim­ing and not com­pare them­selves to oth­ers. Jor­dan’s en­tre­pre­neur­ial jour­ney has not been with­out its chal­lenges. There were times when she thought she could han­dle every­thing alone, but she quick­ly learnt the im­por­tance of hav­ing a team.

Build­ing “Jour the Glam House” was a one-woman show at first, but Jor­dan re­alised that sup­port from oth­ers was es­sen­tial to her suc­cess. “There’s no re­al down­time in this busi­ness,” she ex­plains. “You have to keep go­ing, even when things aren’t as busy.”

Dur­ing her preg­nan­cy, Jor­dan had to re­ly on her fam­i­ly to keep her busi­ness afloat. She cred­its cus­tomer ser­vice and speak­ing well with clients as key fac­tors that helped her main­tain re­la­tion­ships dur­ing those chal­leng­ing times.

To­day, Jo­han­na Jor­dan is a thriv­ing busi­ness own­er, make-up artist, and ed­u­ca­tor.

She has not on­ly found suc­cess in her craft but has al­so cre­at­ed a sup­port­ive and em­pow­er­ing en­vi­ron­ment for oth­er as­pir­ing make-up artists. Her jour­ney is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of re­silience, faith, and pas­sion—qual­i­ties that have dri­ven her to where she is to­day. With an un­wa­ver­ing be­lief in her­self and her pur­pose, Jor­dan con­tin­ues to in­spire oth­ers to pur­sue their dreams and over­come ob­sta­cles along the way.