Lemi Tamang has worked backstage at Paris Fashion Week SS27 and New York Bridal Fashion Week while building her beauty brands, Pastel Beauty and Bisou by Pastel Beauty.
Nepali makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur Lemi Tamang has worked backstage at New York Bridal Fashion Week, adding another international assignment following her recent participation at Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027.
Sharing moments from her New York experience on Instagram, Tamang described the opportunity as another milestone in a career built around her passion for makeup. “So incredibly grateful to be living these dreams and doing what I love!” she wrote.
The latest assignment follows an emotional moment in Paris, where Tamang reflected on two ambitions she had carried for years: creating her own makeup brand and working backstage at Paris Fashion Week. After more than a decade of pursuing her career, she had achieved both.
Behind those milestones is a journey of leaving a comfortable working life in Nepal, starting over in unfamiliar cities and continuing to pursue the opportunities she once imagined.
A Dream She Had Carried for More Than a Decade
Speaking in an emotional Instagram reel, Tamang struggled to find the words to describe her arrival. “I’m in Paris. I’m here for Paris Fashion Week as a backstage makeup artist,” she said.
It was a sentence she had imagined saying since the beginning of her career. For more than a decade, the ambition had stayed with her through changes in her work and life.
She described two goals that had remained especially important: having a makeup brand of her own and standing backstage at Paris Fashion Week as a working makeup artist. “And somehow I’m living both of my dreams,” she said.
The moment mattered because it brought years of effort into focus. Before there were fashion week updates and international assignments, there had been decisions to leave familiar surroundings, rebuild her career and keep going without knowing how far those choices would take her.
Leaving Comfort Behind at 21
Tamang said she left her hometown at 21, even though she was comfortable and earning well. “I had everything back home, but I decided to get out of my comfort zone to see how far I can take myself, how far I can take my career,” she explained.
Leaving was a choice to explore what else she could achieve. It also meant giving up the security of an established working life and accepting the uncertainty of beginning again.
“I’ve struggled so much. I’ve worked really hard,” she said, recalling how she had started from scratch repeatedly.
Her professional journey eventually took her through Mumbai, Dubai, Milan and New York. Each move brought different collaborators, working environments and expectations. Through those changes, Paris Fashion Week remained a specific goal she continued to talk about and work towards.
From Bridal Clients to International Assignments
Born in Solukhumbu, Tamang developed an interest in art before building a career in makeup. Her fine arts background gave her another way to explore colour and creative expression.
Bridal clients helped establish her early work in Nepal. She rented a studio at 19 and later began teaching makeup, gradually expanding her professional life beyond individual appointments.
Mumbai became an important turning point. Arriving without industry connections, she faced rejection before a photographer helped her broaden her portfolio. Agency work followed, opening opportunities beyond the bridal work with which she had started.
Her career grew to include fashion, editorial and commercial assignments across different markets. That experience formed the foundation for the backstage opportunities she is now sharing with her audience.
Putting Product Plans on Hold for Paris
Getting to Paris also required Tamang to rearrange another part of her working life. In the reel, she explained that she had been preparing to launch new products in Nepal but paused those plans because she wanted to take the fashion week opportunity.
She also mentioned a New York plan from the previous year that had not worked out. She did not specify the assignment, but reflected on the disappointment with a different perspective now that she was in Paris. “God had better plans for me,” she said.
Ahead of the shows, she expected six intense days. Her focus was on being present, working with international designers and models, and experiencing the backstage environment she had imagined for years.
The message captured the balance between two parts of her career: managing a beauty business at home while continuing to pursue demanding makeup assignments abroad.
Little Sleep, Busy Backstage and a Dream Fulfilled
A later Instagram post showed what the Paris experience had felt like once the work was underway.
Sharing backstage images from Paris Fashion Week SS27, Tamang described barely sleeping for a week, hectic schedules and the chaos around her. Alongside the exhaustion, she expressed joy and gratitude at finally doing the work she had long hoped to do.
“What an incredible week. Best best time of my life,” she wrote.
Her posts offered two views of the same achievement: the emotion of arriving and the intensity of carrying out the work. The dream came with long days, limited rest and a busy backstage schedule.
Her subsequent New York Bridal Fashion Week update continued that story. She was once again behind the scenes, doing the makeup work at the centre of her professional ambitions.
Building Beauty Brands With Nepal in Mind
While Tamang’s assignments have taken her abroad, her business has kept a strong connection to Nepali consumers.
She founded Pastel Beauty in 2021 and later introduced its sister brand, Bisou by Pastel Beauty, in 2025.
Teaching helped shape her interest in creating products. Working with students made her aware of the difficult choices some faced between the makeup they wanted and what they could afford.
Her brand plans grew partly from that experience. Alongside the creative satisfaction of developing cosmetics, she wanted to make products more accessible to customers in Nepal.
Today, her work spans applying makeup, teaching and building product ranges. For Tamang, owning a brand is also the fulfilment of the other ambition she named in her Paris reel.
Pausing Before the Next Dream
Despite the new milestones, Tamang made clear that she still has more she wants to achieve. But she also wanted to acknowledge where she had arrived.
“Sometimes we get so busy in life chasing for the next dream that we forget to realize that we’re actually living the dream that we once prayed for,” she said.
She thanked the people who had watched her grow and supported her along the way. Sharing such a personal moment, she explained, had made the experience more meaningful.
From early bridal clients in Nepal to the backstage of Paris and New York fashion events, her career has developed through both artistry and the willingness to begin again. This time, before moving on to the next goal, she gave herself a moment to recognise the two dreams already taking shape around her.
