Erika La' Pearl recreated the rapper's iconic 2019 GRAMMYs makeup look and shared how she also does Cardi's makeup while she's asleep.
Cardi B and her makeup artist, Erika La' Pearl, have an unbreakable bond.
The Puerto Rican makeup artist stopped by ET for a special edition of "Glam Guide," where she not only gave us the step-by-step tutorial of how she created Cardi's glamorous GRAMMYs look, but also dished on their close working relationship, and how she even does the rapper's makeup while sleeping!
"I love working with her because I don't like doing just basic makeup all the time, I get bored," Erika told ET's Courtney Tezeno. "[Cardi allows] me to do something creative. It's fun! I like to inspire other people. When I did this GRAMMYs look, a lot of people were tagging me in their recreations. I love to see that. It motivates me even more to create new stuff."
"I get inspired by either her outfit or her hair," she continued, adding, "Sometimes I don't know the hair or the outfit and I do my thing, and for some reason it always comes together, which is dope!"
Erika's relationship with Cardi began over three years ago when the rapper's publicist contacted the beauty expert with hopes of working on a cosmetics line together. Instead, Erika asked to do Cardi's makeup, and they have been working together ever since.
"Cardi is my only client right now because she keeps me booked and busy," Erika said. "So whenever I have time on my hands I'm just relaxing. But a lot of people, I get a lot of calls. I get so many big-name people following me [on social media] and want to work with me. But Cardi comes first. She's so loyal to me."
And Erika is equally as loyal to Cardi. Their relationship may even be a bit unique, with Erika revealing that she does Cardi's make up while she's asleep in her bed!
"She trusts me," she expressed. "Sometime when I do her makeup, she's asleep. So I do my thing and she wakes up and she's like, 'Oh, you did blue eye shadow this time."
"I have to like climb in bed with her, because I want her to rest because she's so booked and busy," Erika explained. "So if I allow her to sleep, it makes me feel good because [she] gets that good rest and she'll be energized. She be knocked out, mouth open, it's just funny to me though. But yeah, it's crazy. Now I'm a pro at doing makeup while you're knocked out… Concealer and all, even if she's sleeping, I lift and just go right in because her eyes are so small. So it's easy for me to do it."
Erika and Cardi have been on an incredible artistic journey together, experimenting with looks and just having fun. Even after giving birth, Erika said that Cardi's makeup routine is "still the same." "Cardi's makeup hasn't changed since having Kulture. We still do full coverage. We still do bright colors… The only I'd say is when we first began working with each other, we did more neutral colors but now we've been going over the top, because she's the Lady Gaga of rap!"
As for Erika's own personal journey, she hails from Miami and is constantly "moving pretty much everywhere to see where it takes me."
"I went to New York and for some reason I wasn't getting anything [there] and had to move back home," she recalled. "Then I was like, 'Let me see Atlanta,' because I follow a lot of people in Atlanta and they're so successful. So, that's where I kind of got started. I started working on set of Love and Hip Hop and Real Housewives of Atlanta. I used to do Kandi [Burruss'] makeup a lot for her confessionals. She was one of my first [big clients] and Tammy Rivera was one of my first clients too, who is so sweet."
For now, she's locked down and committed to solely being by the rap star's side whenever she needs her. "[Cardi's] so amazing and fun to work with," Erika marveled.
See more of Erika, and her step-by-step tutorial, in the video above.
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