Meet Laura Schakosky | Celebrity Makeup Artist/Soull Therapy Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laura Schakosky and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laura, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
After the first 5 years of my career, I had built a career in Dallas overnight, but I longed to work with successful people in the big league. I wanted to see what I was capable of, make a name for myself and to see what made celebrities tick. I wanted to see what set them apart from everyone else and I needed to determine that up close and personal. I decided to take a risk – to move to Los Angeles with 3000 in the bank and a big dream. After making 100 marketing calls per week for three years and a do or die attitude to make things happen as a makeup artist in the entertainment industry it finally paid off, When the doors opened, they all opened at once, which lead me to work with all kinds of role models – from models in major magazines to Supermodels, Rockstars to actors in movies, commericals and sitcoms, to becoming known for creating a famous look with the blue eyed “Mimi Bombeck” on the Drew Carey Show, doing the Olympics in Japan to my biggest goal which was working on the President of the United States. If I played it safe instead of going for it in a big way I would have never experienced the success that I ended up having.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In Hollywood the cost of living is expensive and the opportunities are all huge so that drove me to take as many jobs as I could that came my way. That meant working 18 hours days non stop which was exhausting and lead to burnout. I realized at one point that I needed to balance the scales, because getting a massage and spending time in nature wasn’t enough. I started questioning if I was on the right path because I had accomplished my original intention, which was to come to Hollywood to see what celebrities were like and what characteristics they had that separated them from everyday people. I started questioning what it was that I was supposed to do next. This lead to going on a spiritual quest, which caused me to draw different well-being and spiritual mentors into my life. These sacred teachings helped me get back into balance and shifted the course of my life. I found that to maintain success ongingly you have to go as deep inwardly as you are putting energy externally. These practices helped me live a life of more meaning and purpose, they removed my blocks, transformed my life and connected me to my soul. As a result, it transformed my career, which impacted my view of beauty and my life. Along the way I felt more creative which lead me to write a book about bringing consciousness a beauty experience and transformative experiences that can alter your view of life. My goal was to share the original reason why ancient people wore makeup and to modernize those ideas so that we can that we can utilize those tools to empower us today. 15 years into my career, I decided to leave Hollywood to finish my book, go back home to Texas (which is where I am from). I took 8 years of transformational leadership training to help get me grounded in the teachings and became certified in many of the healing practices that I studied in Hollywood, so I could create experiences for others.

Today, I continue to take select jobs doing makeup for television and for personal clients and I’m building a membership based on beauty and wellness rituals that can be incorporated into a persons everyday life. These rituals are all based on my experiences in my spiritual journey and in my career as a makeup artist.

I also have a Soul Therapy coaching practice as well that helps others to remove their stress on all levels. In this private practice, I create journeys in a bottle – incorporating aromatherapy and soul healing to create a blend for people with a sacred intention to help them have a breakthrough in an area of their life. In the coaching session and throughout the month the blend is used as a tool to clear energy and to attract what a person wants in their life. In the coaching session, I practice a modality called Rapid Eye Technology which is a form of soul retrieval. It’s similar to EMDR, but on steroids. It helps to call back a persons spirit, release trauma, stress and anxiety in the neuro-pathways and deep down on a cellular level. What I love about it, is that it is gentle and you don’t have to relive the trauma to release it. It’s a complete rebirthing process that gently guides people to love and embrace every part of themselves. It inspires creativity, rejuvenation and helps people get complete with the past so that they feel more present to the power of who they have become by having the experiences in their life that they have had. When I went through this process myself, it helped me to release the past so I could be freed up to elevate my career.

I also guide groups online through my year-long program to reinvent themselves. This is a journey like no other, which includes a guided journey to support a transition into the next stage of your life. It is for already successful people who are looking to take what they have done to the next level or to shift onto a new path. It incorporates creating a Hollywood Success Story and living into it. Along the way, I guide my clients through different healing journeys each month with my chakra blends to heighten specific senses. In this journey, the storyline is broken up into segments, just like they do in a movie and they are guided through experiences that reveal their blindspots and that’s when an awakening occurs. Along the way, there’s change which inspires beauty to be expressed. I incorporate a subtle beauty change every month to practice embracing that part and what it means, so that the change is gradually seen externally to match the inner changes that are occurring. In the end, they don’t even feel like the same person because they have grown, changed and in the end their look all comes together to reveal how everything that they have experienced is connected. As they do the work on themselves internally the embodiment of the new role and inspirations around it sticks, it’s not like buying a new wardrobe and it superficially feels like change. This is an embodiment of who they are inside and out and it sets them on a new pathway to becoming an inspiration for others for example through writing books, taking on a new life path and bringing out gifts that they didn’t even know were there before.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Monday we would go to Plano to The Bloom Lounge for breakfast and shopping at North Park Mall all day and eat lunch there. Then at night we would go to Uchi and get the chefs special which is amazing.
Tuesday we would have a day trip to go the Lavender Ridge Farms and cafe in Gainesville where we would pick lavender from the fields and eat lavender ice cream and buy plants take home with us.
Wednesday we would go to Rockwall on a boat ride on Sail with Scott and eat Carmel and chocolate dipped apples. After that and walk along the water until it was time to go on a helicopter ride over the city and then eat steak at the small airport.
Thursday we would eat at China Blue in Plano and have one of their famous dry pots and afterwards have an amazing Asian dessert at Meet Fresh, then we would spend all day at Kings Spa.
Saturday we would have a glamorous day, going to the Mansion at Turtle Creek and then to the Arboretum to see the flowers, followed by going to the Joule for high noon tea and then go to a modern art museum downtown followed by going to Klyde Warren Park.
Friday we would spend the day at Grandscape to play put putt at a place called Puttery which is super artsy, followed by riding a Farris wheel, go cart driving at Andrettis indoor go cart driving and gaming. We would play virtual games and we would eat at Tande Thai. We would go to Cosm to end the day relaxing in the dome theater.
Saturday we would have a glamorous day, going to the Mansion at Turtle Creek and then to the Arboretum to see the flowers, then go to the art museums downtown followed by going to the Joule for high noon tea and then relaxing in their glass pool.
Sunday we would go to the Kadampa Meditation Center for a meditation session, followed by going to the Crow Museum, to watch the monks chant as they create a sand painting and then releasing the art in the water – teaching us to create but not be attached to what we have created. For lunch we would go over to the test kitchens and at night we’d go to the top of reunion tower and eat at the top of it in the ball and if we were lucky and it was during the 4th of July we would see fireworks go off outside of the ball.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to thank Catherine Hatcher for mentoring me, encouraging me, and teaching me the ropes of how to do makeup in the media industry and what I needed to do to get my career off the ground. Without her, I would not have been able to accomplish what I have today. She taught me during a time in Dallas when there were no schools teaching makeup in the media business. If I didn’t have her as a mentor, I would have had to pay thousands of dollars to a school in LA or NY. In the media world, it’s a highly competitive industry where there are a lot of tight-lipped people unwilling to share because they don’t want to train themselves out of a job. Catherine was the very opposite and was generous with her time, energy, and knowledge and shared it generously.

Website: Heartfeltjourneys.com, Lauraschakosky.com

Instagram: Lauraschakosky

Youtube: Lauraschakosky

Image Credits
All of the photos are taken from my phone.