People USA — August 21, 2017

M

AND INSPIRING OTHERS BY

SHARING HER LOVE OF COSMETICS

ByPATRICK GOMEZ

INSTAGRAM’S

ASHLEY

ROSALES

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From

Soldier

to Beauty

Sensation

Ashley Rosales wasn’t a natural-born makeup

artist. “I was about 15 when my parents let me

start wearing makeup. I wasn’t great at it,” says

the beauty blogger. But by age 18, the Cincinnati

native had fallen in love with the art of cosmet-

ics, though she chose a different route after high

school. “My dad was in the Marines before I was

born, and he always talked about it,” says Rosales,

now 30. “He was so honored that he served. I

wanted to make him proud.” For 2½ years she

was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas working

as a military mechanic. “I was getting dirty and

turning wrenches, which was really different for

me,” she says. “People were, like, ‘Really? You’re

so girlie!’ But it was rewarding.” Still, being a sol-

dier wasn’t her first love—so when she suffered

a foot injury during training and was medically

discharged, she turned to beauty as a second

career. “I was pretty upset. I could barely walk,”

she says. “But I didn’t want to waste time being

sad. I wanted to inspire people to express them-

selves through makeup.”

Encouraged by her husband, Ivan, a sergeant

she met at Fort Riley in 2012 and wed six months

later, Rosales started watching makeup tutorials

online to perfect her craft. Less than five months

after posting her first tutorial in 2016, Rosales—

whose Instagram account @mua_ashley_ now

has more than half a million followers—was being

approached to promote products like Kylie Jen-

ner’s lip kits and collaborate with brands like

Smolder Cosmetics ( below). “It didn’t happen

overnight,” says Rosales. “But I just kept posting

and getting comments like, ‘You inspire me so

much. If you can do it, I can do it.’”

Now based out of El Paso while Ivan, 26, is

stationed at Fort Bliss, Rosales has dreams of

moving to Los Angeles to pursue her career. But

for now she’s content sharing her art online. “I

want to help people look good,” says Rosales,

who is known for the skin tag on her upper lip.

“But I also want to show them that everyone is

beautiful—flaws and all.”•

R les in 2012

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Watch at

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Looking Good

“I’ve always

been artistic,”

says Rosales

(on YouTube).

“And putting on

makeup is a way

of expressing

myself.”

Rosale

73 August 21, 2017 PEOPLE

TOP: COURTESY ASHLEY ROSALES(2)