New York City-based makeup artist and entrepreneur Jenna Flug left a high-stakes corporate career to launch Powder Room Beauty, a hands-on makeup class and bonding experience designed to remove intimidation and add joy back into the ritual of getting ready. Her passion for teaching the art – and the pure joy it brings her – is palpable. We had the chance to ask her all of our burning questions.
BNNYC: When did you first get into makeup, and how did it become a passion for you?
JF: I’ve been obsessed with makeup since I was 9 or 10. I grew up on Youtube in the mid 2000s to 2010 – that was my form of social media. (Jenna refers, here, to the era of Michelle Phan, Jaclyn Hill, Tati Westbrook – a kind of golden age for long-form creators on the platform).
I’ve always had a real love for portraiture, and I’ve always been obsessed with faces. You can feel the history and energy behind someone’s face. I didn’t connect that to makeup until now – it’s so clearly a connection.
BNNYC: Let’s talk about your transition from economic analyst to makeup artist. What did that trajectory look like?
JF: Living in the city, I had a lot of pressure to get a corporate job. After college, I worked at Goldman Sachs on the trading floor. I had always had an entrepreneurial edge. I got into a program at a tech company where I was Chief of Staff to the co-founder, and I saw his passion for what he was doing. I thought, ‘I want to feel excited to be in my industry.’ So I went to business school at Columbia in 2022. There, all these things fell into place – we had speakers from Estée Lauder, I was in the beauty club. Beauty is an innovative, incredible industry – diverse, full of creativity and intellect.
As the youngest of three girls, I’ve always wanted to work with women. During business school, women were coming up to me – all different backgrounds and ages, men too – asking me to teach them how to do their makeup. I started to think, we are flooded with beauty rituals. The consumer knows so much about ingredients. Everyone is buying, but it’s not translating to actually feeling better when you look in the mirror.
After business school, Jenna realized she wasn’t feeling passionate about working for one single brand.
I love researching, trying products across brands. The idea that I would work for one brand – it didn’t feel fully authentic. There’s so much out there; why does everything have to be brand-specific?
It was so fun to dig into other people’s makeup bags. I started to realize that doing your makeup together is a bonding ritual. I talk about it as a shared language – it’s democratizing, fun, and makes you feel giddy and young again. I was like, how do I capture that joy?
Jenna graduated with her MBA in 2024, then went to makeup school right after, falling instantly in love with the art form.
BNNYC: When was Powder Room born?
JF: The idea came from the paint and sip model, where you have your own art station and follow an instructor, following step-by-step, all on the same painting. I thought, ‘Makeup is art; why can’t I apply that model to beauty?’
Jenna’s first unofficial Powder Room session was for her sister-in-law and her friends, who were going to prom. Using the paint-and-sip model (demonstrating on her own face), Jenna guided the young women and was amazed by the end result. It looked, she says, as though she had professionally applied all of their makeup. Since then, Jenna has taught almost 1,000 individuals using her signature model.
BNNYC: Aside from a face of beautifully applied makeup, what is one thing you hope participants take with them from a Powder Room session?
JF: When it comes to makeup, a lot of women feel like they ‘should know this by now.’ It can be a source of shame. But I’ve heard every single question.
I want every person to leave feeling empowered – and to feel like they have the tools, not just a list of products, to recreate the look. I want them to walk away feeling like they saw their beauty in a new light.
BNNYC: How has your own relationship to makeup changed over the years?
JF: It’s changed a lot. I think that’s part of growing up, our relationships with ourselves and our bodies. As a kid, I was told it was vapid, but as an artistic and creative kid, I loved it. In college, it definitely became a thing to help with insecurity. I always felt like I had to have it on. It’s great to have tools to make you feel more confident, but I didn’t feel like myself unless I had it on. Now, it’s so interesting because I’m showing myself to the world in a way that would have terrified me in college. At this point, doing Powder Room and connecting with so many people has made me feel so empowered. Taking off your makeup in front of someone is a very vulnerable experience – it’s a bonding moment.
BNNYC: What do you love most about your job?
JF: I love showing people a side of themselves they didn’t know was there. Every time someone sits down in my chair, it’s a new canvas. Makeup doesn’t have to be scary – it’s just pigment and product.
I love being able to curate the space for the session – I want people to feel like they’re walking into their friend’s apartment. It should feel like a girls’ night. Beauty can be such a joyful thing, and makeup is an outlet. Powder Room creates a special ritual of doing our makeup together. I want people to leave feeling more connected to themselves, but not feel like anything is being pushed on them.
For Jenna, the true magic of makeup is in the way it makes us feel, the transformation it can incite on our confidence levels.
If we all feel comfortable in our own skin, the world is better.
Powder Room currently offers an array of ways to participate in the magic. From classic private parties to corporate sessions, Jenna has an option for every lifestyle and schedule. She also offers one-on-one makeup lessons and professional makeup artistry, as well as an event touch-up bar that can be rented for a corporate gathering, launch party, or intimate celebration.
In addition to her services, Jenna sells a variety of gorgeously-branded items on her website, powderroom-beauty.com, including the Perfect Brush Set and Brush Book. As a lover of makeup history, she enjoys restoring vintage makeup compacts, which will soon be available for purchase as well.
Stay connected with Jenna on Instagram @powder.room.beauty & @makeupbyjenna_nyc
