I'm a mortician and this is how I work it.

I'm going to take you through 24 hours of my beauty and wellness routine.

I've been a mortician for over 13 years and cared for thousands of loved ones.

I take bodies that are unreviewable and work my dark art into a viewable option for families to have at a funeral.

It's my goal to combine science and beauty To create a positive last memory for that family.

It's about 6:30 AM here and just getting my day going I spend each morning like this and what can I say?

I'm a dog lover.

I'm not your average mortician.

I'm also a licensed embalmer cremation ist desire Ecologist and postmortem reconstructive specialist.

Being an embalmer is definitely physically demanding.

It's mentally demanding, It's emotionally demanding, but for sure you gotta be in shape so I stretch.

I do yoga, you know, going over my positive affirmations, I make coffee every morning.

I have my death wish coffee, which I absolutely love because it's super strong.

I pre plan all my meals and packaged all my meals, usually the day before or that morning, depending on what I'm going to be doing from their head into the bathroom and start my daily routine.

I use retin a or trinity tonin on my skin to make sure that I'm able to battle these, you know, maybe breakouts or whatnot.

I love a mirage face wash and I will use that.

It really gets in there on top of the mirrored face wash.

I will use a derma logical micro scrub and it really does seem to get in there and remove any of those oils.

If I'm wearing makeup, I will bust open my makeup kit.

I am a matte girl, I'm a Mac pro, I was a makeup artist before, I was a mortician, I like to take care of the outside too, and I feel like when I look good, I can present that to families and then they can feel confident that I'm going to make their loved one look good.

I love this two faced bronzer and even though it is kind of thick, it smells really good, which I love, I'm in my forties now, so that means that I do have to use hair color and I absolutely love red kin hair color, I'd use a lot of emollient, I love biologic and I use that rehydrating mask, it's like a staple in my shower.

I've had this haircut for a few years now and living here in Arizona, it's been the best thing that I've ever done.

It's so cool in the summer and I love it because I can flip my hair over if I have to meet with the family and make it look professional or if I'm going to a concert on friday or saturday night, I can flip it the other way and just look really rocking as far as self care is concerned.

It's really important to me that I go see my chiropractor at least twice a week, especially because I'm traveling so much try to do regular massages, heat therapy at home.

I use a heating pad pretty regularly during the week, at least three or four times a week.

I'll have a heating pad on my neck or my back going and doing maintenance on my own Botox and um, you know, my own liquid facelift and Juvederm and all that.

That's really important to me.

It also keeps me in tune with what is on trend and in style within the beauty industry and that way I can take that back to the funeral home and apply those same techniques to the deceased, loved ones in my care since I do specialize in embalming, I'm in scrubs.

Most of the time, I usually have a bun in my hair and I have my scrubs and that's what I'm rocking at work.

I use a lab coat.

Sometimes if I'm working at home and I'm online and doing online consulting or coaching call, then it's a little more relaxed.

I'll typically wear my scrubs and I do all of my online coaching in my home office.

Hello, welcome to my prep room through my coaching company.

We offer opportunities, we have a scholarship for young women and transgender individuals and we offer opportunities for females that are in the funeral industry whether they're a manager, whether they're a student, it doesn't matter as long as they have a focus on preparing the body for families, I offer them these opportunities for scholarships.

There's always a stereotype that embalmers are not personable or that we don't like to have fun or hang out.

We are ordinary people with extraordinary gifts.

I like to call it a dark art.

I'm a follower of other dark artists who may be creating art on canvas or sculptures and the only difference between them and I is that I do it on the human body mentally.

This type of work is not for the weak.

So I definitely try to play some relaxing music and listen to positive affirmations about life and living.

I definitely deal with people that are distraught.

They're grieving heavily.

There's a lot of fear involved and let's be honest, like death is scary, it's scary for all of us and that's important to me to know how to how to conquer fear to have the tools, I need to conquer those fears that I face every single day.

My work schedule is really demanding funeral directors and embalmers were on call 365 days a year, much like doctors, I take call in the middle of the night, regularly, my phone is never off.

I do embalm on the graveyard shift quite a bit.

I'm here at the funeral home because this is when I begin my day, usually when everyone else is going home, I'm beginning my day, it's going to be a long night, so I don't put a lot of makeup on.

I dress for comfort.

I have my compression socks on and I'm getting ready to get my embalming kit and get in the prep room to take care of these recently deceased loved ones.

I might be embalming till two or 3:00 AM.

Those nights can be pretty rough because I'm on the road driving from the funeral home to funeral to funeral home but I don't know what it is.

I like it.

I like the serene quietness of the prep room when it's just me and that person's loved one.

It's about eight o'clock at night and I got a death call and so I am headed out to go and bomb.

I'm on my way to my next funeral home.

It's 10:30 PM, very difficult case but I feel satisfied with the results.

That type of schedule can become rigorous as a specialist.

I do travel a lot as well.

I'm a public speaker and I travel all over the country and some parts of the world.

I do host online events at least four or five times a month.

So my schedule is pretty busy, most of what I teach is technical based and it's art and science, but in reality I teach women how to overcome fear.

The types of services that I offer are highly innovative.

They mirror plastic surgery, Botox injections, Juvederm injections, real rejuvenation and this is something different that has never been done in my industry before doing makeup on the deceased is one of the most important aspects of my job as an embalmer.

I use all kinds of mortuary cosmetics.

Mac makeups.

It's like stage makeup, so it's really suited for what we do.

There is professional mortuary makeup like this one here that produces a non thermal genic effect and it's non thermal genic makeup.

It comes in all different colors and varieties for every skin type out.

Their mortuary makeup is non thermal genic and regular makeup is thermo genic.

So our bodies create heat and that's what chemists used to create the makeup.

They understand that our bodies create heat and that's how they're formulating the makeup.

As far as mortuary makeup is concerned, non thermal genic makeup is the way that we formulate makeup so that it's just completely different For many, many years.

And I'm talking like probably over 50 or 60 years.

We had a very limited supply and options for makeup and they were designed by men and chemists and a lot of them smell like paint or like craft products and I'm really happy to say that things are really changing.

And one of the products that I really like to use is a mortuary makeup product called Lola seven.

And what I love about the makeup is that it works amazing on embalmed and un embalmed skin, but it also smells amazing.

The women who created this makeup is also a funeral director and an entrepreneur and it's just, it's just proof that our industry is changing and women, all the women that are coming in our industry are helping to change that one step at a time.

I will use any kind of coconut oil for hair.

We use these really heavy massage creams to keep the face hydrated during the preservation process.

And if you don't remove that cream before you apply the makeup, it can look a little cakey.

So I always completely facial.

I do a full facial on each person before I even start to apply makeup.

As far as trying to make that person look like themselves.

I try to ask the family as many questions as I can and I have an intake sheet where I'm writing down all this information and I get really detailed to like what shape of nails did she wear if it's a young woman who passes away like I want to know exactly what brand of eyelashes she used.

I want to know exactly what brand of eyeliner she used.

I want to know everything about her skin care so that I can make her look like herself in death the way that she looked in life.

As far as clothing is concerned.

I always ask the family to bring in something that really represents that person's life.

Like what did they like?

Do they like to wear pajamas everyday, bring in Jammer days, Were they comfortable in a suit, then bring in a suit.

One little trick that I do to make clothing look nice, tailored and fitted on the deceased is I tailor them up the back so that they don't look bunched up on the front and it's also easier to put the clothing on when it comes to acne on deceased bodies.

I typically will not really go after the acne.

Like I would maybe if it was like a living person because a lot of times you can create a defect on the skin if you're aggressive with the skin, if a person has blackheads.

However, I'm getting that done, I will definitely give them a facial and I will definitely get in there and put a little pressure and remove those blackheads.

Um, absolutely.

I feel like it is that person's last big day and they got to be looking their best as far as teeth are concerned, as long as the mouth is disinfected, that's what I'm looking for flossing.

I won't floss teeth, but I'm definitely in there with the toothbrush and hose and water a lot of times I will hose and water that area.

A lot of that will come up after death.

So, absolutely, I'm going in there with the toothbrush and typically Listerine sometimes even so eyebrows are so important, There's such a huge thing right now and some of people are wearing the bushy eyebrows and you got to put the soap and make the eyebrows, you know, stand out.

So, so important.

I would say eyelashes and eyebrows right now, we can't mess that up.

As a mortician.

I have to get that right every single time.

Another thing too is that I don't put the eyelashes on top of the eyes because we're not used to seeing a person with their eyes closed.

I'll actually insert the eyelashes just underneath and glue those eyelashes just underneath the eyes and it looks absolutely way more natural.

That's one of my embalming tips.

Typically by the time I get home I am exhausted and really, really needing a glass of wine, I'm going to go to bed and sleep for a few hours and I'll get up and start bookkeeping.

So done with all the embalming for tonight, I'm gonna get some much needed rest.

I have a boyfriend now, but it's definitely been a challenge.

Dating is always uncomfortable I guess.

Like when I first meet someone and I tell them what I do, I get to reactions, I either get completely overwhelmed with questions or I get this look, a lot of times people get freaked out there, they think that death is contagious.

So they think that like somehow by dating me it's going to like rub off on them.

I don't know, it was, it's been a challenge for sure.

I want to encourage any woman who wants to get into this field do it if you've always had a dream to be a mortician.

If you have a curiosity about science and art and how we use those two fields to create this beautiful dark art for families and help families, now is the time.