Samuel Jeremias Ocasia has been a professional make-up artist and hairstylist for over 10 years. His passion for make-up started when he was a child. “I remember as a child I would go through the photo albums and use my sharpies to add a bit of colour to the dull portraits of my relatives. I would also practise on my sister’s dolls,” he shared. He recently completed his masters in Psychology — a seemingly unrelated field — and will pursue his PhD in August of this year. “Once I started doing make-up I realised the impact it had on women’s self-esteem. This aspect of my field really fascinated me and I decided to study why appearance has such a profound impact on women. What better way than to pursue a degree in psychology?” he shared.

Now with the L’Oreal team, he is one of six make-up artistes in his home country of Puerto Rico who travel the Caribbean and Latin America promoting the L’Oreal brand. “Working with L’Oreal has been my greatest accomplishment thus far. I was selected from over 150 make-up artistes and I am one of the six who were selected. Our current project involves working directly with the clients, press and using our products in make-up and fashion shows,” explained Ocasio.

He credits the L’Oreal team for opening many doors for him. “I have worked on television shows such as Capadocia on HBO Latino. I must confess that it was very exciting to work with professional actors. I have also done work on the Latin Grammy with clients such as singer Kany Garcia and Julia Migenes. You may not know them but they are quite popular in my culture.”

Samuel’s take on the L’Oreal True Match Foundation

“It is always a privilege to work with ladies in Jamaica. We want to reassure Jamaican women who are concerned about finding the right foundation shade that our new line — L’Oreal True Match Foundation — will have a shade that matches your skin perfectly. In fact, I can confidently declare that the line has different shades for every woman in Jamaica. The line is ideal for Caribbean women because it can also act as a sunscreen and it is oil-free — which is very important because of the humidity in the Caribbean. Though it is liquid, it is very light. It can provide moderate to full coverage. Plus, it is good for your skin, almost like a treatment for your skin.”