Today we’d like to introduce you to Precious Thomas.
Hi Precious, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well for starters I’m originally from a small town in Mississippi called Florence! To give you a better idea of how small it is lets just say we had one grocery store, about 5 gas stations (directly beside one another) & the famous bridges quickie haha. Maybe a few other small stores but when you ride through the town that’s what sticks out. Growing up in Mississippi it’s like people were accustomed to fitting in, settling, just enjoying the slower-paced life. In school, I loved the bright hair colors & crazy hot pink and blue eyeshadow. I loved the big colorful bangle bracelets that I’d pair with the 3D glasses and pop the lenses out. Well, people didn’t take too well to my style haha. I was a target for so many and I never understood why until now. Being my personality was so bright and outgoing people weren’t used to that. They were used to fitting in & being “normal”. So, I muted some of my creativity just to please others and to attempt to stop the bullying. Well, that only made things worse for me mentally. So, I started to draw& play around with makeup at home. I would see an image and try to recreate it! Growing up with a father that’s also an artist I learned the basic concepts of shading. From there I began to sit in the mirror and body paint myself. Wow! This is such a vibe and it made me feel so happy. People from all over telling me how nice my work was and “you belong in Hollywood “. Those words still stick to me to this day. When I would go back to school, I’m back being this person people just enjoyed poking at. So, each time the bell rang I was so excited to get home and try out a new look. My art started picking up some traffic and people would come to school and say it was cool or dang I didn’t know you could draw. One day one of my gore looks went viral, within 3 hours I was asked to do gigs all over and to even do make-up for a domestic violence campaign! In that moment I knew I wasn’t meant to be in such a small town. I just didn’t know what I needed to do to leave. Being I loved Art and I had such a love for bright colors I decided once I graduated high school, I’d go to school for Fashion Design. Believing that was my true calling, I enrolled and started my first class. During the semester we were told to get our makeup done at a counter for an assignment. After having mine complete and I turned around to see I looked like a grapefruit I learned two things, 1st That I loved the overall process of makeup & I’d love to learn. 2nd that fashion design wasn’t my passion and it was truly makeup. I started off by doing some of my dorm girls’ makeup and a few girls for class. After I realized how excited it made me, I decided to leave the fashion design program to focus on makeup. I left and began my career in beauty! I started doing small tasks like makeup for people on a night out, birthday glams, proms, etc. I then started to go to graduations, weddings & photoshoot makeup! I loved every minute of it but it wasn’t picking up as fast as I’d like. In 2018, I got into a motorcycle crash while trying to make a “fake motorcycle crash “video for April fool’s day. I planned to do a gore look that I knew would do some numbers! Well with my luck I had a real one and luckily, I suffered Road rash and just a long gash that I had to have surgery on to remove all the gravel. After this happened my boyfriend got into one literally one month later with more severe injuries. With us both in pain and not being able to work as much I just said forget it. I was tired and ready for a new environment. Everything just seemed like it was stalled and nothing would get better. So, we spoke and decided to just get up and move to TEXAS! Oh, what a beautiful but hard decision to make. All of our family were in Mississippi and we’d be going on our own. No help just us and our hustles. When I relocated to TEXAS, I started taking makeup clients immediately! Things were great people showed me so much love in 2 months than I ever received my whole life in Mississippi! It was like they wanted to see you win and I couldn’t get enough of it. I began back painting myself like in high school and people fell in love with it. I began getting asked to paint for photoshoots and I was nervous but I took the leap. I set up a mortal kombat themed shoot and it went awesome! So many people inquired and wanted me to service them. I felt so loved and full of joy knowing I finally found my calling. I found what I was searching for since a young kid. That was being accepted for who I am and people embracing my art in the way I saw it. I then started my business “The smuvee Effect LLC “. I wanted to create a space where I can speak joy and self-love into women/men. A place where I show you the beauty, I may see that you tend to forget you carry. I wanted to show no matter how bold or unique the look maybe you can own it! Speaking affirmations in each client I meet so they won’t doubt that they are meant to be here and surrounded by love. No matter if it was our first-time meeting, I treat everyone like we’ve met before because it brings a sense of trust and makes you feel welcomed. That’s what the smuvee effect is all about
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Overcoming obstacles were definitely a part of being me. My parents did the best they could. Growing up with 3 brothers and 1 sister it was always on the harder side. Not being able to have everything you’d see the people around you have you just learn to accept it or try and hustle. I would go to school with too little clothes or shoes with holes in the toe. I remember walking to lunch and people would chant things out about my clothing or that my shoes were talking. I finally got some new ones and they would say “Haha she got the fat ugly and uncomfortable on”, aka fubu. Back then I caused me to do think of unimaginable things. The bullying just continued to grow and finally, we moved from Tennessee to Mississippi. Ohhh how I thought I loved the country life! Lord I never knew how bad it was until I got there. We moved into my great grandads’ home which was built by my grandad. He had passed away so it was sitting for a while. We all got there thinking it was about to be fun until we walked in. The ceilings were missing, it had no A/C and an old wood furnace. Wasp nests in every corner and so much more. We had to adjust to this and we all were over it. My first day of school a kid runs up to me and said get out of here your n-word. I was so shook and I was surprised. Like wow, this is stuff I read in the history books and they are still like this out here? I just knew from there it would only get worse. During my time in Mississippi, I suffered from one of my biggest losses and that was losing my 17 cousin who was like my little sister. I just knew that town was full of misery and I wanted a way out
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So, I’m a Traveling Makeup-Artist/Body painter. But I consider myself the jack of all trades because I offer so many services including graphic design, custom art commissions, hair services, and more. Makeup and body paint are my main business but the others are what I like to do on the side.
I believe what makes me different from other artists is I want to create something that will leave an imprint. I want to give you a memory you can take with you forever. Yes, it’s fun to do makeup and get you all dolled up but it’s what you take from our interactions that means the most. I’ve always worked so hard and I learn new traits just so I will never have an excuse for failure. I’m so versatile just for that reason alone. I want to be able to go above and beyond for my clients.
I’m most proud of my son and my ability to overcome so many obstacles I’ve been dealt. When I look at it now, I can honestly say wow you were so brave.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Never ever ever let anyone discourage you out of your passion. Don’t look so much into social media and compare yourself to what you see. It will break you and have you believing you aren’t good enough! You are good enough and you are perfect just the way you are!
Contact Info:
- Email: Thesmuveeeffect@gmail.com
- Website: https://pocketsuite.io/link/thesmuveeeffect
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smuvee._
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/107590597286521/posts/555332212512355/?d=n
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCbO1G6bROJR6lMPT2fz6WLg
