She arrives quietly for her Image Journey Makeup Experience in Atlanta, the way many women do when they are ready for something inside themselves to shift. Heartbreak has a way of slowing a person’s entrance, and so does the uncertainty of stepping into something new. Women come in not knowing exactly what will happen, only that something inside them is asking to be acknowledged. Something whispers that they cannot keep moving through the world feeling disconnected from their own reflection.
Sometimes it is the woman who has survived cancer and is learning to make peace with the new landscape of her face and body. Sometimes it is the 30-something who never saw the end of her relationship coming and is still stunned by how quickly her life shifted. Sometimes it is the woman who has lost someone she loves and is gently rearranging her inner world, discovering that what once mattered now feels different.
Sometimes it is the mother who has spent years tending and giving, realizing she has not paused for herself in longer than she can remember. And sometimes it is the woman in her 70s who stepped away from the mirror and her reflection because she absorbed the lie that beauty has an age limit. She arrives with a quiet hope that maybe she can feel like herself again in a way she has not felt for a long time.
All of them walk into Authentic Beauty Makeup Salon and Brow Studio in Atlanta carrying private stories of tenderness, transition, or longing. Each one is met with the same invitation. A Bridget Jones call to action. Come just as you are, and leave with the sparkle you thought you had set aside. And if you want to recreate that sparkle every day at home, we guarantee you will leave knowing exactly how.
She sits in the chair. Something inside her releases. It feels safe to breathe here.
Her guide is Alyson Hoag, award winning makeup artist, brow expert, and founder of Authentic Beauty. Alyson has spent more than thirty years helping women reconnect with themselves through the language of makeup, color, shape, and light. She does not begin with products. She begins with presence. (Read more about her work in this feature article in the Atlanta Jewish Times here.)
The woman opens her collage or Pinterest board, the fun, guided homework created for her before the appointment. These images emerged when she allowed herself to imagine what beauty might feel like again and play. A color that energizes her. A quality she has been missing. A sense of confidence or ease she wants to welcome back. She did not choose these images for trend. She chose them because they felt honest.
She hands the board to Alyson, who studies it with the curiosity of an artist and the attentiveness of a mentor. This is where the true journey begins.
The Image Journey Experience: Excavating the Authentic Self Through Makeup
There comes a moment in a woman’s life when the reflection in the mirror no longer matches her inner landscape. Her features are familiar, but the reflection no longer feels like her. The Image Journey Makeup Experience begins in that quiet disconnect. It is not a makeover. It is a guided return to a reflection you love and to loving what you see when you look in the mirror.
Alyson knows this intimately. Years ago, even as a working makeup artist, she realized her reflection no longer represented the woman she was becoming. Her turning point began with the book Something More, written by Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of Simple Abundance and now a mentor to Alyson. Through Sarah’s guidance, Alyson embarked on a process of self-exploration, collaging, journaling, and discovering the woman she was growing into. Cutting her long red hair, becoming a blonde, and changing her makeup routine was not about changing herself. It was about aligning her outer expression with her inner, authentic truth. That journey became the foundation for what is now the Image Journey Makeup Experience in Atlanta.
A Process That Reveals Without Replacing
The Image Journey is a two hour, one-of-a-kind self discovery makeup experience for women of every age and season. It begins with guided homework, an intuitive, playful adventure that becomes a map of recognition and clarity. In the studio, Alyson interprets the board like a painter interpreting a story, translating emotion into a makeup look a woman loves and can confidently recreate.
Clients bring their own makeup bags. Together, they assess what supports her now, what no longer does, and what can evolve. Alyson teaches makeup looks that reflect the woman’s current truth rather than a template someone else created.
Every Image Journey concludes with a personalized face chart, a step-by-step guide that ensures she can recreate the look at home. A free half hour follow up session reinforces the learning so she leaves grounded, confident, and seeing herself with renewed connection.
Why It Matters
The Image Journey Makeup Experience in Atlanta stands in contrast to a beauty industry that often tells women what they should look like or strive for. Instead of dictating a standard, Alyson helps women explore and express who they already are authentically through makeup. This is beauty as authorship. Beauty as clarity. Beauty as reclamation.
Women come as they are. They leave seeing themselves in a way they have not in a long time.
This Giving Tuesday: The Best Experience Gift for Women in Atlanta
Some experiences are pleasant. Some are helpful. The Image Journey is unforgettable. It is the moment a woman looks in the mirror and says, there I am.
For one day only, this Giving Tuesday, the two hour Image Journey is $100 off. Whether this gift is for someone navigating transition, healing, rebuilding, or renewal, or whether it is finally time to give it to yourself, this is the gift that lasts.
To book the Image Journey Makeup Experience this Giving Tuesday, call 404.849.0443. Appointments require a two week advance notice, and you will receive the fun, guided homework created for you before your session.
This is the gift she will never forget.
Authentic Beauty Makeup Salon and Brow Studio is located at 4674 Roswell Rd. Atlanta, GA 30342.
404-849-0443
