This is how we do it on Easter in the Gomez-Duplessis family. Since they were babies it’s been our family tradition to have a Easter egg hunt in the yard. Now that everyone is of age and this year is our last Easter together in our Connecticut home we decided to add a little libation to this egg hunt. This year concoction was made by my son, I saw Svedka Vodka, and Finlandia Vodka but I’m not sure of his mixture. It was actually DE-LISH!
After the egg hunt we sit at the table, we eat and drink while enjoying each others company.
Then watch a few movies outside. Usually the kids will pick a movie and hubby and I pick one movie. I don’t usually make it for the bonus one. Either I have fallen asleep 😴 💤 or I’m cleaning my kitchen. And it goes a little something like this….
Do you have any fun family traditions on Easter Sunday?
Hawaii Makeup Artist Brandy Gomez-Duplessis has 22 years of experience in the Beauty & Entertainment industry. Brandy is located on Oahu island in Ewa Beach but you can find her working doing makeup in Kapolei. Being a top influencer & blogger don’t be surprised to see her writing beauty articles and taking selfies for her 60K followers on Instagram on the beautiful beaches in Honolulu…and YES, there are black people living in Hawaii.
“Bless You Boys” I remember the night when the New Orleans Saints received their Super Bowl ring. I wanna wish them luck today in the dome, bring us home another win Choppa Style!
Do You Like Who You’re BECOMING? Chapter 2019, I want to continue to elevate myself to becoming a Global Makeup Beauty Guru. My 22 years in the Beauty & Entertainment industry, I feel like I have so much to share especially to aspiring beauty artists (Hair & Makeup).
I’m not stopping at just doing makeup and having a makeup line, Entitled Beauty Cosmetics. I feel like I have so much more to bring to the table. Makeup for boogie down brown women, mature women, healthy makeup, creating makeup and makeup looks for women who’s going back into the work force.
I also want to bring awareness to my health challenges; LUPUS, LYME, RA, and ASTHMA. I need for our community to understand what invisible illness look like and what chronic pain can do to a person. We get chemo, we deal with hair loss, we need care takers and we need the right meds. So, my goal is to continue to speak on this issue in 2019.
She Ready! Who are you BECOMING?
New Orleans Makeup Artist Brandy Gomez-Duplessis has 22 years of experience in the Beauty & Entertainment industry. Gomez-Duplessis is a wife and a mother of 2 adult kids living in Connecticut. In 2014, Brandy was diagnosed with Lupus, Lyme & RA.
New Orleans Makeup Artist at Sundance Film Festival
A lot of people in the Beauty Industry told me if I keep sharing on social media that I have Lupus that I would lose a lot of work. But how can I hide what I’m battling everyday. It’s my life, it’s what I’m going through everyday. So why should I hide it because it makes my peers uncomfortable and with many not really understand what Lupus is I have to educate and help bring awareness. For so long, I kept it hidden and I finally decided that I want to speak out, that I should use my platform to help bring awareness to Lupus. So I selected to share my story with Caribbean Posh magazine readers and hopefully my story can help someone who’s battling some form of an auto-immune disease.
In 2000-2005, I knew something was going on with my body. All of my doctors kept telling me that I was just stressed because of my career, working with celebrities and traveling around the world. So, I believed them because what did I know, I’m just a makeup artist. But in August 2005, as I stepped inside the elevator at New Orleans City Hall. I received a call from my new doctor and she said, “I need to see you right away because your numbers were elevated and I’m very concerned”. I’m never going to forget that day and that call. I went in to see my doctor, she told me she wanted to do more testing on me but she was afraid that I had Lupus. I knew what it was because my mother twin sister died from Lupus complications very fast after being diagnosed. Fast forward, Hurricane Katrina happen, that I put that news far far away. I didn’t have time to deal with that. So, I went through life in extreme pain and was always exhausted as I rebuild my life. In 2014, I’m now living in Connecticut and I couldn’t tolerate what was going on with me anymore. This superwoman couldn’t bare being miserable so I went to see a doctor. After the first blood work came back she immediately said you have Lupus and I’m going to refer you to a Rheumatologist.
Fast forward again, I learned that moving up North to an extreme cold climate it trigger a flare up that refuse to go away. I’ve had so many scary challenges from an enlarged heart, kidney problems, blood clotting, stomach problems due to the prednisone, blurry vision, lost my sense of smell and taste and now pulmonary challenges that I’m relocating back to New Orleans for a few months during the winter so that my lungs can heal and so I don’t have to use my breathing machine 2x’s a day.
In 2019, I plan to work hard at bringing awareness to Lupus. Yeah, a lot of beauty brands and companies have released me from working with them but they can’t stop me from doing makeup. I’m going to always be a talented makeup artist and they can’t take that away. No, I don’t look sick but know that living with Lupus is a lonely disease and it’s a disease that you have to be a fighter because it’s a horrible disease. The things your body goes through is hard and doctors give us meds that’s not the right meds, it’s something to help with a similar symptoms.
I launched a makeup line in 2017 called Entitled Beauty Cosmetics that keeps me busy along with loyal clients and production companies. Ladies, if you feel that something is going on with your body, something is. Fight until you find a doctor that will listen to you. If you have to lose, family, friends and co-workers it’s ok, don’t let them tell you that nothing is wrong with you. Cuz if your body is going through something you need to be stress free, so take a break from people who bring stress to your life. Cuz it’s the last thing you need.
As a makeup artist living with lupus, I often turn to mineral makeup. My must-have items include color correctors to help with discoloration and hyper-pigmentation; a primer with a brightener to bring radiance to my dull skin; mineral mascara, which is good for sensitive eyes; and foundation and moisturizer that’s loaded with SPF. My focus is always finding great skin-care products that will not cause inflammation of the skin.
Here are 8 beauty items that as a Lupus Warrior I can wear on my skin and it doesn’t trigger anything.
New Orleans Makeup Artist Brandy Gomez-Duplessis has 22 years of experience in the Beauty & Entertainment industry. Gomez-Duplessis is a wife and a mother of 2 adult kids living in Connecticut. In 2014, Brandy was diagnosed with Lupus, Lyme & RA.
New Orleans Makeup Artist Brandy Gomez-Duplessis has 22 years of experience in the Beauty & Entertainment industry. Gomez-Duplessis is a wife and a mother of 2 adult kids living in Connecticut. In 2014 Brandy was diagnosed with Lupus, Lyme & RA.
Happy Thanksgiving To My Social Media Family! I hope everyone had a fabulous day with your loved ones. I was blessed to have everyone home, mama got her wish and was able to love on them all day.
I started cooking at 10am and by 3pm dinner was served. This year I did something a little different. I figure the kids were old enough to now learn the recipes. I invited them into my kitchen to assist me with preparing the dishes for Thanksgiving.
After dinner and sitting around the table enjoying each other we always get into great conversation about everything. We go deep, I really should tape us for a podcast or something.
So what was your highlight for Thanksgiving? Was it the family time, the food, the mini concerts.
New Orleans Makeup Artist Brandy Gomez-Duplessis has 22 years of experience in the Beauty & Entertainment industry. Gomez-Duplessis is a wife and a mother of 2 adult kids. She also has a home in Candlewood Lake in Connecticut. In 2014, Brandy was diagnosed with Lupus, Lyme & RA. She uses her platform to help bring awareness about her health.
Bloggers, if I can share with you anything it’s push yourself everyday if you want to your blog to be successful. I’ve been there with abandoning my blog because of everyday life just took precedence. When I was named “15 Awesome People To Follow During The Golden Globe” by AOL that really got me going. When I changed over to WordPress in 2015 I lost my followers and how to do my SEO that has been so discouraging. But at yesterday HGTV Magazine Block Party the panel got me fired up in a good way. I’m on the right track with my blog because it’s authentic, my blog is about me my life as a Celebrity Makeup Artist and Beauty Expert. The tips and advice that was given by the panel really helped a lot. I just have to have someone look at my SEO because I didn’t correctly do it so I’m losing money and not getting the bookings that I should be.
Ilse and I met up at Grand Central before taking a cab over. It was a rainy day but we didn’t want to miss this event for anything so we both commuted and this rain storm because we wanted to get some blogging feeding. On our way over we talked about the great lineup and who we looked forward to hearing their stories. Can I just say, we were not disappointed.
At 12:50 PM Sarah Patterson, the Editor In Chief of HGTV Magazine welcomed the invited guest.
1:00 PM The Interior of Influence: Powering Your Design Business with LIKEtoKNOW.it, Influencer panel including TB-FAB, Gold a la Mode, Nesting with Grace moderated by Sarah Bertness, Global Content Strategy, LIKEtoKNOW.it
2:00 PM The Everygirl, Branding with a Mission – And How to Stick to It!
3:00 PM West Elm x LIKEtoKNOW.it Brand Collaboration Conversation, featuring Jess Ann Kirby
4:00 PM Shea from Studio McGee, Studio to StoreFront: Behind the Build of Our Blog and Business
5:00 PM Justina Blakeney of JUNGALOW, Cultivating Creativity and the Social Media Scene
6:00 PM Reception (presented by Tito’s Handmade Vodka)
8:00 PM Event concludes
Looking through West Elm catalog to get some ideas for my dressing room at home.
Being a makeup artist, I love colors so looking through Sherwin-Williams Colormix Forecast Wall was inspiring. Always looking for new colors for Entitled Beauty.
Alright Guys! Let the after party begin. Thanks to Tito’s Handmade Vodka everyone was able to enjoy a quality and delicious vodka.
That’s A WRAP! Goodnight HGTV & New York, it’s time to head back to Connecticut.
CALLING ALL MODELS to Danbury Fashion Week Model Casting! Bring your best runway walk today, June 30th to 261 Main St from 12-5pm! They are looking for models of all ages, shapes, and sizes to cast in the Runway Show on July 28th.
Go to www.danburyfashionweek.com/models to print out the model release form. Fill out the information on the form to bring with you on the day of the casting along with a full body photo.
Models that will be selected to be in the show will need to be available for the following dates:
7/16 Meet & Greet // Orientation
7/23 Dress Rehearsal
7/28 Fashion Show
Contact Meagan or Joseph if you have any questions on their website. Follow Danbury Fashion Week on social media.
Happy Anniversary Connecticut Bloggers Collective!!!! On Monday night, 20 plus Connecticut Blogger Babes was invited to celebrate with the Founder, Nonee Ngazimbi at the first year anniversary celebration in Hartford. Nonee recognized that Connecticut was missing a blogging community and she did something about it. Now the Connecticut Bloggers Collective has around 2000 followers on Instagram and 275 members on Facebook.
Like many when I moved to Connecticut, I searched for a bloggers group and found Connecticut Bloggers. I joined that group and only managed to attend 2-3 of their events. Then as time passed Connecticut Bloggers Collective popped up and cousin (Ilse with Live Learn & Luxe It Blog) and I jumped on that joining the group right away. What Nonee has done is brought together a diverse group of girls that was hungry and passionate for this community, The Blogging Lifestyle.
It’s always nice to get together and chat in person with the girls and support each other. Women Supporting Women is something that Nonee has managed to make sure we all stand by, Intergity is very important and I must say we have a great group of women and at the party you can see that we all really follow that way of living.
As usual Nonee did a great job at getting fantastic sponsors for the 1yr Anniversary Celebration. Let me tell you who all was there;
Brandy Gomez-Duplessis & Johnny Luoma, Co-Founders of Entitled Beauty Cosmetics
Such a beautiful day it was yesterday here in Danbury, Connecticut that Johnny and I decided to meet up at Terra Of Danbury for what you asked, Happy Hour, of course! Got a chance to talk with one of my girls at Hotel Zero Degrees about some upcoming things we’re working on. So once I got business out the way let the drinking begin!
Both Hotel Zero Degrees and Terra of Danbury restaurant are two of my favorites spots here in Danbury. Normally, I only enjoy my time in New York but these two spots are stylish, it’s bright and very glam without being gaudy…so ME!
Both Johnny and I needed to get some ME TIME in because we never really have time together to just let our hair down. It’s always WORK Work Work Work Work Work. We have been really good at keeping everything separate, Friendship, Business and Mentor-ship. So today it was nice to just enjoy each other company. Randy met us after he wrapped up at work so he also managed to make it before Happy Hour was over.
My drink during Happy Hour was the Lavender Spa Lemonade until the bartender said they were out of the Lavender so we ended up getting a bottle of red wine. Of course, their Truffle Fries was going to be order followed by their Certified Angus beef carpaccio. We go hard for those two dishes, it’s always going to be ordered.
What a way to end a great evening in Danbury, Connecticut… Terra Of Danbury
Happy Thanksgiving To My Social Media Family! I hope everyone had a fabulous day with your loved ones. I was blessed to have everyone home, mama got her wish and was able to love on them all day.
Bloggers, if I can share with you anything it’s push yourself everyday if you want to your blog to be successful. I’ve been there with abandoning my blog because of everyday life just took precedence. When I was named 
Happy Anniversary 
