Free prom makeovers for Uniondale High students
Make Me Over Beauty Truck brought its professional beauty services to Uniondale High School, offering free prom makeovers to students the morning of the senior prom.
“It falls in line with helping people feel good on the inside and outside,” Natasha Morales, co-owner of Make Me Over, said.
Make Me Over Beauty Truck, also co-owned by Morales’ sister, Candita Panayotti, was parked in the high school’s parking lot on June 25, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free makeovers were advertised through school emails, and students were encouraged to make appointments in advance.
The free beauty services offered included makeup, lashes and hair. Students were grateful for the opportunity for to get pampered for free. Prom makeovers can be expensive, costing easily over $100-150, and students said many makeup services have been booked up for some time or require a steep deposit.
“I feel really good (about the makeup) because it’s a good opportunity for me,” Taisha Olivier, a student getting her prom makeup done, said. “I’d been looking to book somewhere, but once I heard about this, I knew I was definitely coming here.”
“They’re really amazing,” Gigi Salomon, another student, added.
To provide this opportunity for students, Make Me Over partnered with TT Torrez, vice president of Artist and Label Relations, music director of HOT 97 radio station and founder of the Dream Chasers Foundation.
Torrez’s foundation works to empower Black and brown girls and instill confidence in them. She has run other events in the past to inspire young women, such as a Dreams and Beyond Young Women Empowerment Dinner, providing 20 young women with dresses, makeovers and an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner spread. This beauty truck collaboration with Uniondale High is her first event in Uniondale.
“(We thought about) where can we tap into those market spaces where we can serve the community that we want to empower, and Uniondale just felt like the right fit,” Torrez said.
She said she wanted to run an event, specifically for prom, because she knows how costs can add up fast, especially for girls.
“I understand the cost of prom and what it takes to get ready, from the dress to the hair to the makeup, and I thought this would be a good way to take some of the expenses off families,” she said.
Make Me Over was happy to partner with Torrez and Uniondale High School to provide these pre-prom beauty services.
“We’ve been trying to do an event with TT for a while, and this is one that was supporting her foundation, so we decided that we wanted to absolutely be a part of it,” Panayotti said.
Morales and Panayotti are natives of Queens, which is where Make Me Over was originally based. But after the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on their storefront, they decided to take their skills on the road, traveling throughout the boroughs and onto Long Island with a crew of three-to-five makeup artists.
Makeup is a side gig the sisters do alongside their main careers. Morales works as a licensed psychotherapist with 15 years’ experience and her own practice, and Panayotti is a photographer in the entertainment industry with an extensive creative background.
They started their makeup business when they noticed the lack of beauty services their community in Queens had to offer.
“It started with a vision that I had, and I had to go ahead and bring my sister along with it,” Morales said. “We just felt like we wanted to do something in the community.”
Ayanna Williams, a makeup artist who helped out at the event, has her own makeup company, Viva La Doll, based in New Jersey. Through her own company, she goes to schools and women’s shelters to provide free services. She was happy to team up with Make Me Over and Torrez to contribute to the Uniondale community, she said.
“I love giving back,” Williams added.
