Land Your Dream Job in the Beauty Industry by Joining This Digital Beauty Expert Platform

Kristina Kalabacas, Assistant Marketing Manager of KOSE America, Inc. leveraged her role as a Beauty Expert with Beautytap to land a coveted job in the beauty industry. Here’s how you can do it too.

Kristina Kalabacas is a sharp and empowered beauty professional armed with the task of managing marketing for Sekkisei for KOSE America, Inc. Having previously worked for Sephora, Shiseido, and makeup artist Morgan Wells, she has carved her own niche in digital marketing from her humble beginnings as a YouTuber to being a mover and shaker in the corporate world.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Kristina to learn about her career trek and how she utilized her experience at Beautytap to level up her success in the beauty industry.

B: How did you get your start in the beauty industry?

Kristina Kalabacas: I started my interest in beauty as a teenager. I had a YouTube channel where I would review products and do makeup transformations for beauty, special effects, and face painting. Then I took to Instagram where I would post more photos of my work and tag the brands that I was using. That's how I started doing more brand collaborations because the brands would see my tagged posts or hashtags, and they would direct message me to send me more products to continue working with them.product/ingredient

B: What type of beauty education did you receive and what were some of your first jobs?

KK: I also went to Sephora University. That's how I got certified as a makeup artist. Then I was a beauty advisor for a couple of years. I was also a freelance makeup artist for a few years. I was fortunate to be mentored by Morgan Well. She is a professional beauty, special effects, and body paint, makeup artist. She catapulted me into the professional world of makeup artistry, And I had my first really big clients doing makeup for extras at Heidi Klum’s Halloween parties.

B: How did you find out about Beautytap and how long have you been part of the Beauty Expert Program?

KK: I was scouted for Beautytap on LinkedIn by one of your recruiters. I reached out via messaging about this program because I was already in the mindset of being a content creator and I wanted to further that. I was interviewed by Jonni Renfroe, the head of education, and we shared our Sephora experiences because everyone who worked at Sephora. It has now been a year and four months since I joined Beautytap.”

B: Before your current role what did you do in the beauty industry?

KK: Before my current job at KOSE, I was an account executive for Shiseido through a creative agency. I dealt with the account management for all of the visual assets that you see in store and online.

B: How did you leverage your experience as a Beauty Expert with Beautytap?

KK: Beautytap has helped my career thanks to the wide variety of brands they work with and the free education they offer – this helped expand my portfolio and brand and product knowledge even further. Beautytap gave me the opportunity to work with not only big-name brands, but also popular indie brands and small business owners.

Having much more knowledge thanks to Beautytap’s free master classes they offer, along with honing in on the educational aspect of beauty made me very marketable when I was applying for jobs. Employers liked that I not only knew how to create content, but that I could actually speak to brand ethos and product / ingredient knowledge and give really good recommendations thanks to all of the professional reviews I wrote for Beautytap.

B: What do you think of the Beautytap Beauty Expert Program?

KK: I think Beautytap is a very unique program. I haven't seen anything like it in my years of experience in the beauty industry. And I really enjoy Jonni Renfroe. He makes the master classes so fun, and he's such a great person to interact with given he’s a leader in education and so enthusiastic.

I love creating content in the form of SEO-driven product reviews for Beautytap and being able to write from my own point of view. It's not like a regular product review that you would see on Amazon such as: “This is great. I love it.” Instead, Beautytap’s reviews are very detailed and thoughtful and come from a diverse community of beauty professionals who share their deep product knowledge. You’re able to see that there are voices given to beauty experts in the industry who share their reviews and that’s just more valuable.

And if consumers really want to know if a product is going to perform, why not hear it from someone who is actually using the products on their clients or themselves from a professional standpoint, and who have received master class education from the brands? This is what you get with Beautytap’s Beauty Expert Program and through the product reviews that we share. I don't see this anywhere else in the industry.

B: What other aspects of Beautytap do you enjoy?

KK: I read the editorials and follow the Instagram Lives. I also really like the website upgrade and redesign. Everything is super easy to navigate, and I like the layout too.

B: Any last words for our readers, the company and community?

KK: I thank you for the wonderful opportunity. I really enjoy being a part of this program.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Beautytap partners with brands for detailed, SEO-driven product reviews please click here.

If you’re a beauty professional who’s interested in learning more about Beautytap's Beauty Expert Program please click here.