30 Under 30: Cassidy Watt’s makeup business is blooming with a squad of artists and stylists

Credit:

Sincerely Celia Studio

Cassidy Watt, 25

Founder, Cassidy Watt Artistry Collective

Life Story: Cassidy Watt always wanted to work in hair and makeup, but she didn’t think it would be a real job for a long time.”Asa teenager, I’d always say I wanted to do makeup for people and I’d get laughed at,” she says. “Like, Oh, you can do that for fun, but what’s going to be your real job?”

Watt, who grew up on a farm just outside of Kamloops, went to university for a couple of years before deciding to try and pursue a career in makeup. “My family wasn’t happy,” she recalls. “Everyone was like, You’re crazy, that’s never going to work. I just always  knew that being an entrepreneur was for me.”

She got a job at makeup giant MAC Cosmetics as a manager and started taking on a few weddings and clients on her own. In 2019, she officially launched Cassidy Watt Artistry Collective. It started small, with just Watt handling all the emails and social media and growing her business mostly through word of mouth. One of her first jobs was with a designer who went on to be featured in Vogue. Watt did the hair and makeup for that shoot.

“There was a lot of networking and a lot of focus on social media,” she says. As she expanded, there was “some pushback. People said they just wanted Cassidy. But now I’ve been able to make sure my brand is over- arching. They’ll say, Okay, I can’t have Cassidy, but I can have Cam, she’s trained her, I’ve seen her on the social media. Then they’ll book with us.”

Bottom Line: Today, Watt has a team of around 20 that does weddings, graduations, events and photoshoots. The company has also branched into education—the first edition of its training academy graduated 18 students earlier this year. The academy is in the middle of its second intake and Watt is on the lookout for a new space. “We’re bursting at the seams,” she says.