Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 6, 1 June 2009 — Blush, fabulous! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Blush, fabulous!
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Nolan's parents divorced years ago, and Cheryl, Nolan and his sister, Charisse, moved to California in 1990 when he was a sophomore at McKinley High School. "I moved and took the two ehildren," says Cheryl. "He went to school in California. He taught everybody how to eat Spam musubi. The white people were like, 'What is that?' "
in ivtay, tne tamity was togetner tor tne first time in 1 1 years when the three visited Honolulu and helped Frank celebrate his 61 st birthday with a big party in Papakōlea. "Mel Cabang performed for about an hour. He was amazing," says Charisse, who describes their family as "very tight knit." The three live near to eaeh other in Orange County, and she says, "A day doesn't go by where we don't talk to one another or see one another." For the weeklong trip home in the Islands, it was play, play, play and sun, sun, sun. There were no scheduled appearances at schools, like he did on his last trip home in January. "My No. 1 thing is spending time with my family . . . and to enjoy myself and relax," Nolan says, sitting in the lobby of the Princess Ka'iulani Hotel in Waikīkī, where
friends, family and his partner of 14 years, Gary Roush, gathered nearby at a shady table near the pool. And who ean blame Nolan for seeking some rest and relaxation? In L.A., he is busy setting up buyers and sponsors for his in-production makeup hne and creating a make-up tips DVD — soon to be available via the Internet. Through all of this, he's a workout maehine: when he's not working out or doing weight training, he teaches turbo kickboxing and hip-hop hustle at the 24-Hour Fitness in Orange County. He's also creating
a workout technique for video for at-home instruction. Meanwhile, he's aspiring to make another dream eome true: being a contestant on the TV show Dancing with the Stars. "Wouldn't that be amazing?" he asks. "That's the fun thing I want to do." His dad, Frank, says that even now Nolan "ean stand in front of the mirror all day long and just dance." After his vacation, Nolan was heading to Atlanta, Phoenix and Dallas, where as part of Max Factor's 100th anniversary, he's helping to choose the next 'face'
of the cities that represent the company's four largest markets. (Houston is also among them.) "I loved being a judge for a change. It was fun," he says, describing his judging style as anything butharsh. "I was like the Paula Abdul." What struck his judge's eye was a woman's confidence, he says. "I think that's what a makeup artist tries to achieve is to bring out that confidence in everyone. And that's the rewarding part of a makeup artists' job. It's a transformation in giving them confidence. . . . "It's like finding that perfect dress that makes you feel sexy. Makeup doesn't have to be a dark shadow. It just has to be that certain color that gives you that feeling, that 'pop,' whether it's a lip gloss, it doesn't matter," he says with a laugh. For women in the summer, he says, moisturizing "is
always the No. 1 beauty tip." "But bronzer, I'm telling you, bronzer is my favorite. You have to have that. And cream blushes - find that color, it's like a bronzy coral. They ean put (the cream blush) on their eye, put it on their lips, put some mascara on, and they're good to go." A total look ean be complete in 10 minutes, he says. On second thought, "Less than 10 minutes!" Nolan, who spent about seven months in New York City trying to make it on Broadway, found his way to
makeup artistry through acting. Between auditions, he freelanced as a makeup artist. Even in California, when he was dancing for Lion King at Disneyland or playing the role of the villainous Spanish Lt. Cortez in the musical The Heart ofthe Sun, he would find himself marrying his performance talents with cosmetology, applying makeup for himself and others. "I really fell in love with applying makeup," he says. "That definitely was the beginning of that." After settling back in L.A., he worked at MAC Cosmetics but left the company in January 2008, after nine years. "I decided to move my career forward and take a ehanee," says Nolan, who is 33. "I left my job, my relationship with MAC. I did all these free projects, photos shoots, music videos (look for him as a backup dancer in Madonna's video Beautiful Stranger). I did it all for
peanuts, no money basically, just to build my portfolio. And somehow I made a lot of connections through networking. I got a eall from Lifetime in the summer of 2008 at 9 in the morning, 'We were referred to you. Can you eome in tomorrow for an audition for this show called ' BhtshT I was like, sure. I didn't know anything about it. I went in and auditioned, one out of 10,000 people. I guess it was just fate that I left the company that kind of held me down for nine years. It's just been really exciting since summer." Nolan is using his $100,000 winnings to start a Nolan Robert makeup line, whieh he wants to have a hand in creating. He dislikes the idea of putting his name and logo on something pre-made. "That's one of my biggest goals right now is to open my makeup line . . . so I'm just trying to find sponsors, chemists. It's all in production," he says, describing the concept as affordable, with lipsticks priced at around $12, and made for everyday women as well as makeup artists with an eye toward high-definition photography and fihning. His line will also include a men's line, whieh he hopes will help men get to a point where they're as comfortable buying make up over-the-counter as women are. "I had a lot of straight clients that eame and purchased things from MAC," he says. "Everyone wants to look their best. It's just how you package it. So I have my ideas, but they're secret." Cheryl, his niom, was a former makeup artist and modeling instructor. She passed some of her skills to her son, and says, "I kept emphasizing blending, but he went one step further in being precise. He's extremely innnaculate in his work." As for his Hawaiian roots, Frank, his dad, says Nolan's humbleness helped him succeed on Blush and helped him to get where he is today. "He's not a person that is stuck up or conceited," Frank says. "No, he makes sure everybody's doing good around him as well as himself. That's the Hawaiian side." Nolan says he didn't realize how special it was to be Hawaiian and be from Hawai'i because as a youth he always wanted to live in L.A. Now, he says, he understands its meaning. "I'm so proud to be Hawaiian," he says. That background and upbringing affects "the way I make friends, socialize, everything - the way my niom and sister do too," he adds. "Coming from Hawai'i and being Hawaiian, I think it's our nature to give and to be humble and to be grounded. Everybody (here) is just so niee and giving and constantly giving hugs," including the waitresses, he says, laughing. "You don't get that in California, or in the mainland, period. So I think that kept me grounded on the (reality) show because you're more patient, you're a little more understanding. You mean business, but you mind your own business. Being from Hawai'i definitely allows you to be friends with everyone." ■
www.oha.org/kawaiola KA WAI OLA | ĪHE LIVING WATER 0F OHA
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SPECIAL Ē PULL-OUĪ S SECTI0N CQ
Nolan Mūkūūūwūūwa is \ using the winnings from ū reolity show fo stort his \ own makeup line. His mom, Cheryl, describes his arfisfry as "exfremely immaculafe," ūs seen in fhese phofos of his work, ūf fop and on facing page. - Photos: Courtesy of Nolon Robert ^
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