Laura Parra, the young woman from Albox who gave up law for make-up and dreams of horror films
Laura Parra, from Albox, gave up law for make-up: she is studying Characterisation with top marks and dreams of special effects in horror films.
Automatic translation: this article was translated with artificial intelligence from the original in Spanish. Read the original
She was six or seven years old, and her mother’s and grandmother’s lipsticks were close at hand. With a single lipstick, Laura Parra went as far as making up her entire face. That childhood game is now a vocation: this young woman from Albox is studying for a higher vocational qualification in Characterisation and Professional Make-up and dreams of working in special effects for horror films, as she told La Voz de Almería.
“I was a very nervous child,” she recalls. In make-up she found a way of bringing out what she had inside: “Everything I feel inside, which I don’t know how to put into words or which makes me feel self-conscious, comes out in the form of art.” So much so that her work changes with her mood: darker on bad days and brighter on good ones.
From law to behind a bar, and from there to where she belongs
The path was not a straight one. Laura started studying law in Almería, but she did not feel at home in the classroom. Then came the failed exams, “me, who’s always been a straight-A student”, and she dropped out. She spent several years working behind a bar before enrolling on the Characterisation course at the IES Alhadra secondary school.
There, everything fell into place from day one: “The first moment I sat down and my teacher started talking about make-up, I felt that was where I belonged.” She is already in her second year, finished the first with an average mark above nine and has set herself two goals: to finish with top honours and then do a master’s degree.
Mermaids, Van Gogh and ten hours of work
Her make-up looks, which she shares on her Instagram account (@_lpa21), range from a dark mermaid to Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’, by way of a dark clown representing negative emotions or a tribute to ‘Adventure Time’ that took her about ten hours. She creates them with mid-range or budget cosmetics and, once she gets going, she loses track of time: “I go into a trance” is how she sums it up.
That talent pushed her to take a step that gave her vertigo: entering Los Juegos del Makeup, a national competition in an online reality-show format promoted by Nuria Adraos, her great role model. She did not win, but her introduction video reached 126,000 views and Adraos herself started following her on social media. “I spent two days crying with happiness,” she admits. For her, the real prize was daring to do it and standing up to her fears.
“At some point, my moment will come”
Laura has no intention of stopping. If it was not to be this time, she will try again next time, convinced that “at some point, my moment will come”. And in the face of criticism, she is in no doubt: “This makes me happy, and I’m not going to let anyone tell me how far I can go.”
In an Almanzora Valley where many young people have to leave to train in what they are passionate about, her story is a reminder that vocations sometimes emerge where you least expect them: in the lipsticks at home. Her advice, for anyone unsure about taking the plunge, fits into a single sentence: “Do what makes you happy.”
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