PHOENIX — Cassandra Moon’s social media handle is a bit of an alter ego for the 28-year-old makeup artist.
“I'm literally the 'FaceGod'. And so that night, I changed my name on Instagram."
Her artistry is reflective of her unique handle. Moon’s Instagram Profile grid will force you to stop scrolling and zoom in on her work.
"I wanted things to be really graphic and have a lot of movement and be really bold, whether it was neutral or not,” Moon says.
Whether it’s blush, eyeshadow, or lipstick, the pops of color on her clients stem from her Hispanic heritage.
"I've always had a passion for makeup,” Moon smiles. “My mom, growing up like in a Mexican household, it was always like smokey eye, red lip. I was always allowed to wear makeup as a kid. It was never considered like taboo or anything."
At 17 years old, Moon followed her passion by walking into a Macy’s department store.
“I literally found like the craziest looking makeup counter at the time, which was Urban Decay,” Moon remembers. “It was the only counter that was purple, and I walked up to them, and I was like, ‘Are y'all hiring?’ And they were like, ‘We are actually!’"
From there, Moon went on to MAC Pro in San Francisco then moved to Arizona where she landed a major campaign.
"We did Barbie Schwarzkopf this year,” Moon beams. “And that was really fun."
She continues, "I got to key all the looks. It was my first time keying looks and I got to have an assistant."
From Barbie to bridal, to Avant Garde, Moon says it’s empowering to wear many hats in her art.
"One thing that is a really big part of my brand is that I'm a queer, Mexican woman."
And as her artistry inspires the next generation, Moon’s hope is that:
"People will start to see more and more success stories from Brown, queer women and that is extremely important to me that other people, as they're growing up and figuring out who they are, and what they want to identify as, and who they want to be, whenever they become you know, notable in the world, that they have reference points that are easy to access. And I want to be one of those easy access points."
