At the age of 20 Ester Beukes is the youngest of three siblings, a vibrant, easygoing and passionate young lady making her mark as a make-up artist and fashion enthusiast.
Born in the capital city, Ester grew up in the Khomasdal suburb before her family relocated to Hochland Park around the same time she started with her schooling. Ester was enrolled at Emma Hoogenhout and finished her Grade 7 there and confessed during this time she was tom boy, she competed with the boys and started playing soccer and hockey. “Growing up I was energetic and would climb on everything I could. At one stage I wanted to become a gymnasts but this faded away in primary school.”
Ester went on to Concordia College where she schooled up to Grade 10 before joining the Combartium College. Ester played upfront and on the wing for her hockey teams. She started at Emma Hougenhout Primary School before moving on to Concordia College and joined the University of Namibia (Unam) Hockey club at the same time. Ester stills plays for Unam female Hockey team and has gone to represent her country on several occasions. “I did not really fit in well but in my Grade 10 year things started getting better, and I found my feet on the social scene and making friends.”
Ester most memorable tournament is when she represented Namibia at the Youth Olympics Qualifiers, where upon arrival the country’s female team was ranked last and at the end of the tournament their rankings were improved to second. ‘The male team did not enjoy as much success”, she jokes.
After high school Ester wanted to travel the world and had the opportunity through AUPAIR but her parents bluntly refused and she enrolled at Unam where she studied arts in 2012. Ester did not know what to study and as a result explored her creative side. She soon found out it was not her cup of tea and switched her programme to Public Relations this year.
Ester started doing make up in 2010 at a friend (DQ Blaze) video shoot, where it was shot by Mad Boy Genius Production (MBG), the production company was impressed with her work and started calling her back for more and more work. Ester has worked on many and different productions from fashion shows, photo shoots and television production house.“Being a make-up artist was not really my passion, it was always fun and I enjoyed the behind the scene build and once I started, I just got more and more jobs to do. When I started I had my own make-up set which is very expensive, I used my own products and some people would falter on our agreed rates at the end of the day it was hard.”
Ester, being fashion enthusiast, and coming from a home where her mother is a designer and owns her own boutique in town, has opened her own blog called “dontyouwanttogimmethat.blogspot.com” where she writes on and uploads photos on her opinion on fashion. The blog is not specific to a specific trend as Ester constantly surfs the net and looks for inspiration or interesting pieces from different designers, where she critic them and just has fun.
Since the blog started in June, Ester’s viewers on the blog has almost tripled from 800 to about 2000 in just three months. This has given Ester a brilliant idea, where she is currently working towards turning her blog into a website, and turning it into an online vintage fashion store. Ester soon hopes to use these figures to invite local designers and boutiques to advertise on her blog/website, and with sell fashion items from her blog. “I have also started a closet exchange where I get a number of girls to bring along six items of clothing and over some wine, snacks and music can then choose other six pieces of clothing you fancy. The ladies contribute a fee to part take and all the left over cloths are donated to charities with Daughters of the King charity foundation the last beneficiaries.”
“I have gotten so much support from friends, family and the public but it is not everyone that would want to wear someone else’s cloths as there is still a lot of skepticism around the idea, and some just donate their old cloths but the number of girls have been on the increase and I would hopefully hold the next one this coming Sunday.”
Ester advises anyone with a dream to “never give , don’t stop trying. The key is networking, put yourself out there and let the people know what you are about”.
By Kevin Kamati