Welcome! I’m Edwin

Hi! Thank you for visiting my blog for Somatic Alignment. In this blog post i'd like to introduce myself and talk a little bit about my life and work journey that lead to the birth of Somatic Alignment.

In high school I was an art kid that was into expressing myself creatively through clothing and fashion. I was advised by my art and computer design teacher to apply to take pre-college fashion design classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where I learned how to sew and make basic garments. When it was time to apply for college I knew that I wanted a creative career. At the time I was also into jewlery making and applied to FIT as a jewlery design major and was accepted into the program! However, upon entering my first semester I quickly realized I had to start working full time as I was not able to pay for materials required for my classes. It then became very difficult for me to manage both going to school and working full time at the age of 18 while also dealing with undiagnosed general anxiety and being on a journey of self-discovery in terms of my queer identity.

To go along with my joy of fashion I was also into make up as a tool for creative expression. I really wanted a creative career and felt that becoming a makeup artist was the next best thing to becoming a fashion/jewlery designer that at the time didn't require a lot of schooling. I saved up money from my minimum wage job, enrolled in a makeup certification program, and landed my first job at Mac Cosmetics shortly after. Wow! what an amazing experience this was. The brand slogan was "All Ages. All Races. All Genders." This brand at the time truly made my feel at home. I was surrounded by a diverse group of beautifully creative people that really inspired me and made me re-imagine what my own personal world could like like within this larger more complex world. The space was inclusive and celebrated everyones unique individuality (two things that I think still inspire me to this day.)

Fast forward a bit and I decided I want to take my career as a makeup artist to the next level. I made the decision to enroll into an Esthetics Licensing program. What I envisioned at the time was that I would be able to do things like eyebrow waxing along with makeup and potentially integrate some other things into my work as a makeup artist since some jobs at the time started to look for makeup artists that could also do brows as well. I enrolled into the esthetics program without ever receiving a facial! (isn't that funny!) I was introduced to the spa world through this program and fell in love with the the art of facials and the art of providing restorative spa services. I then expanded work as a makeup artist to include facials and skincare.

Slowly overtime my ideas and philosophy on "beauty" started to change. I felt that it was an armor that came at a cost. For some of us make-up and fashion can become about changing our sense of self to fit into a mold in order to feel powerful and accepted within our society. However, it was undeniable that every time I would get ready it was a ceremonial act where magic happened. I realized that the essence and source of this magic was having a self-care ritual. This wellness aspect of self-care rituals is what Somatic Alignment is rooted in. The philosophy of Somatic Alignment is genuinely my philosophy on beauty as the brand founder. At Somatic Alignment beauty is an expression. An expression that radiates a sense of balance, satisfaction, and joy in your own unique morphological appearance that reflects your beautifully unique ancestry and lived experience.

If you made it to the end of this blog post I would like to say thank you for your time! I hope that you join me on this wellness journey of re-defining beauty and building our own self-care rituals that inspire us and allow us to relax, restore, and renew.

Thank You!