Interview with Christina Flach Celebrity Makeup Artist & CEO Pretty Girl Makeup

Hi, guys.

Happy Tuesday.

I'm going to jump right on it because I'm here with a very special guest.

I am so excited to talk to her.

I have 10 million questions as usual.

Her name is Christina Fleck.

She's the CEO of Pretty Girl Makeup.

So, yeah, we have to talk about makeup too because I'm a makeup whore and she's a very successful businesswoman.

And we have something in common that she just found out.

But first, let me say hi.

Hi, Christina.

Hi, how are you?

I'm great.

Thank you so much for being here and doing this.

Thank you for having me.

It's such a pleasure.

I really appreciate it.

And as I told you before we started, Cat on the Lose is always very organic.

I never edit what we say, so whatever comes out is what people listen to.

No, but you know what?

I appreciate you doing it so much because I think people miss, you know, just more of real things and less edited things because there's so much fake and phoniness out there on social media.

So I try to keep my conversations with my guests very real.

So I like to say thank you so much for being game and doing this.

Absolutely.

I'm looking forward to it.

All right.

So let's start.

I mean, I don't even know because you're super successful.

You created this makeup line.

But before we talk about the makeup line, we found out we have something in common.

I found out when I read your bio, and I think you just found out when we just started talking.

You lost your husband in 2018.

Yes, I did.

He was a very successful professional athlete, correct?

Yes, he was.

And I know your story is public, but if you don't want us to say his name, that's totally fine.

Oh, no, it's fine.

My husband goes 10 flak, and he was the number one tennis player in the world with his partner, Rob Seguso.

Amazing.

Yeah, they won a gold medal in Seoul and Wimbledon's, and they were on davis cup team and they were very very amazing incredible so and coincidentally i also lost my husband in 2018.

i am so sorry i'm like that blew me away right yeah and he was not an athlete but he was a very successful businessman and they died from different things but

Let's start since this is a dating and relationship podcast.

I want,

and

you have done a grief counseling, right?

I went to grief camp and yes, I have done,

yes, I've worked with different people to manage and learn how to deal with grief.

Yes, I started speaking about grieving in a positive way.

I think most people deal with grief in a very doom and gloom negative way.

And I feel that a great way to honor your loved ones is to be doing, you know, positive things.

It doesn't mean that I'm not sad or I don't miss my husband and I lost my son Bo as well.

Oh my God, I'm sorry to hear that.

Yes, I miss them both terribly, but I feel like a really great way to honor them.

I started an educational fund at the Northern Lights School in Oakland, California.

I created the Baby Bo Fund.

And then after Ken passed, I started the Ken Slack Educational Fund.

And so it's at a private school predominantly for minority children that are all there on, most of them there, 90% are on scholarship.

And so I wanted nutrition and education are incredibly important to me.

Oh, yeah.

And so I wanted to honor them both and, you know, remember them by helping other people.

And I feel that, you know, My son Ben, Bo's twin, there's a celebrity golf tournament every year and my husband played in it.

My husband was a big golfer after he retired from tennis.

um and my kids all golf uh my son bo

my son ben

played last month in the tournament and he raised thirty six thousand dollars that's amazing it's yeah and he's raised over a hundred thousand since he started doing this like five years ago i think that is super cool What's so extraordinary is that the $36,000 may not seem like a lot of money, but it's good to be able to

three kids to go to private school for an entire year.

Yeah, no, listen.

I think any contribution is just a phenomenal way, a great way to channel, like you said, all this sadness and this bad energy.

So, I have a question for you because I know we've been through it and it's extremely painful.

It's impossible to explain in words.

I didn't have kids, but I lost my mom, and then a year later, I lost my husband.

Yeah, and then my life collapsed.

And my catharsis was, I'm going to write a book about it.

But I also,

in my case, I decided maybe I should go and date.

And I'm going to get to my question in a second.

In my case, now looking back, I think I did that too soon because I was so fragile.

I got tangled up with a bunch of really bad men.

that would like make believe they wanted to help me and loved me and liked me, but they just made the situation so much worse.

And that's actually how I started the podcast.

I started the podcast venting about all this horrible dating and relationships after

not having a husband anymore.

So, my question to you is:

What would you say to women like girls out there that lost their partners?

Um, and they're not sure, should I go and date someone, try to find another partner right away, or is it a good idea to take a break and learn how to be on your own first?

What is your opinion on that?

I want you to know that,

you know, after you've been in a marriage and a happy marriage, that's your normal place, right?

And

when you went trying to date, you're just trying to get back to a place that feels normal and good and safe.

So don't judge yourself so harshly.

It's very normal to do that.

I think everyone's different.

There's no, you know, I went to this grief camp at Canyon Ranch and I don't think there's, they say that no one's grief is worse than anyone else's.

True.

I think that, you know,

we are so harsh on ourselves and we would never be this harsh on anyone else other than, you know, I would never, you would never treat me the way you're beating the hell out of yourself, right?

And

I think, you know, I just know that with the grief, like, I'm not going to tell you, no, don't date for a year.

Everyone's different.

You have to do it.

You may meet the perfect person who knows um

but it's just you know i i felt like after my husband well i already had experienced grief after my son had passed away and it was very very dark and difficult my first marriage ended um

you know and i started taking like

sleeping pills to just cope for like a month and then my friends were like okay you're not a pill popper like get your shit together and so yeah i started going back to drinking my green juice, going, you know, working out every day, going to yoga, meditating, hiking.

Um, because I knew that with my children and my business and everything else, I can't go off the deep end.

I just can't because then they're gonna go off the deep end.

And I'm gonna have that.

So, I knew that after Ken died, I had to really

not even go down that road.

I had to like go up a notch of my discipline, being so disciplined.

So I, you know, worked out like twice a day.

You know, I would go to yoga, Pilates, ride my horse, go hike.

I would do something twice a day to just keep my nerves calm.

I would make sure not to get too tired or too hungry or too thirsty because everything is magnified.

Oh my God.

So true.

You're tired or hungry or something.

So I really tried to manage what I could manage.

And, you know, you have to, everyone needs to grieve in a different way.

You know, I worked with, with, you know, different healers.

I,

you know, worked with energy healers.

I worked with therapists.

And that did help.

And honestly, the only thing that really helps, you never get over losing someone.

Yeah.

I am.

I'm never going to get over losing my husband or losing my son.

I agree, Colma.

But I learned to manage it.

Yeah.

Right.

And I think that's the only thing you can do.

I was on this radio show on Sirius.

I was on the doctor channel on Sirius Radio like a couple years ago.

And I heard the woman, I was waiting to go on and I heard the woman saying like, oh, we have this guest, you know, Christina Flacco.

You know, she didn't say my name.

She just said, oh, we have this woman on.

She's had, she's got the most tragic life.

And I was like, oh, my gosh, I wonder who that is.

And she said my name.

And I was shocked.

And so when I came on, I said, wow,

I'm really, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to.

politely disagree with you.

I do not have a tragic life.

I've had tragedies, but my life is not tragic.

I've had a million miracles and a million fantastic things.

And so I'm sorry.

I disagree with you.

So it's funny how someone could see my life as tragic when

I don't see that at all.

And I, you know, that would mean I

give up and I don't, I don't give up.

Yeah.

And I think there's, I personally think there's a big difference between having tragedy in our lives.

Yes, losing someone we love is very tragic and having a tragic life.

And I love your attitude because it's all about finding happiness in different things.

And I completely agree.

I don't think you ever get over it, losing someone.

I've had so many people tell me, oh, time will heal, da, da, da.

And I think it's very personal, but I don't think you get over losing a son or losing a mom or losing somebody that you spend 15 years with, but you kind of heal and you get used to it.

And

in my case, I don't know if it's your case it becomes uh good memories and soothing memories and yeah and then you find strength in still being alive and you're like you know what i'm gonna honor that person that was in my life in different ways right absolutely now let me ask you a question i

got a ton of backlash

because I never stopped working.

In my case, since I don't have kids, every time i lost someone i just work more and more and more and because my work is so public like i would do a photo shoot or i would be on instagram or i would be doing the the podcast and i literally get dozens of emails telling me oh my god you're not suffering you're such an ice queen you're such a bitch i can't believe you're doing post posting pictures and you just lost your mom and you just lost your husband and you just and they didn't understand Like, they don't see the pain, right?

If you put makeup or a brave face, they think everything is fine.

But in my case, it was just a coping mechanism to just jump into work.

How about you?

I did that same thing.

I remember right after my husband passed, my agent called to check on me a couple of days later.

And I said,

because my happy place, just like you, is my work, being on a photo shoot.

So I told her, I'm like, I don't know where you're going to pull a shoot out of, but have someone hire me.

I don't even care if they pay me.

I just need to go do a shoot.

So seven days after he passed, I went and did a photo shoot and I was a disaster.

I broke down crying and I'm like, what am I doing here?

It was just, it was awful.

But I was again, just trying to get back to my normal because I always feel good and confident and on a shoot.

And I think.

You know, that's all we're trying to do is just find our new normal.

And that's the process you have to go through finding your new normal.

And then you have to get used to it.

I, you know, I have five children, I have five stepchildren and a husband.

And like, I'm used to being around all these people.

And then all of a sudden, I was an empty nester.

I had one child that I share with my ex-husband.

And, you know, that's, you know, in school that's little still.

And it was like, oh my gosh,

I haven't been alone in 100 years.

And so I was on a hike one day by myself.

And I just remember hearing my, my, I would have these conversations in my head with my husband.

I could hear him talking to me and I know he was.

Him just looking saying, it kills me to watch you so sad and crying in bed and I can't comfort you.

And I just thought, oh my gosh, how would that feel to me if I was looking down on him or my children?

Yes.

Just constantly sad.

And so that is why I try to grieve.

I'm not saying I'm having parties and going out and doing all.

It's not that.

but there's nothing wrong with

trying to do positive things and trying to be happy.

Doing things that bring joy to others brings joy to me.

So I do a lot of charity work doing these interviews.

I do a lot of raising awareness for sepsis, speaking about the grieving, obviously about my career and being a mother.

It really has helped me to grieve and try to just make light of this.

I, like you, look back.

I only was married to Kenny for eight years.

I wish it was 800, but I am really grateful for those eight years, you know.

And I think if you come from a place of gratitude and being grateful and thinking about all the great memories, you know,

that is,

I mean, that is the way I have learned to handle this.

I completely agree with you.

And I think it's important that you're saying that because the message that we should send people is that you shouldn't feel guilty about trying to rebuild your life and being happy again, right?

And I felt guilty many times because of these messages that I got.

People felt that I should be putting on a certain face and I should be doing certain things.

And they didn't understand that, you know, basically, if you lock yourself at home crying, like

sometimes you just collapse.

I think it's funny that we in our culture think being miserable is really grieving.

I just think

no sense to me.

Obviously, our loved ones are not going to be feeling like, oh, how much love they have, much love we have for them because we're miserable.

Yeah.

And that makes no sense at all.

I agree.

Honestly, because I have my children and I have a business partner, I can't go off the deep end because you know what?

I am a makeup artist besides being a CEO.

No one is going to want to hire me if I have a negative doom and gloom attitude.

Oh my god, exactly.

I know we lose all the clients.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, how long after he passed away, you decided, okay, I feel like I'm ready to date again?

You know, I went out with some friends that I knew that like

were not that were in my world that I that were good friends and I went out with a bit but I really wasn't ready

for a while.

Oh, quite a while.

I've been seeing the same person for over two years now.

Oh, that's nice.

He's super private.

I've never actually even acknowledged that I am seeing anyone.

This is the first time.

He's going to be happy that you did.

Yeah, and you know,

he really has helped heal my heart, you know.

And,

you know,

I feel like my husband actually has sent him because there are so many similarities in them.

That's amazing.

Very, very similar

in some ways, you know.

And so it,

you know, it's great having someone.

I like having a partner.

I like having someone that, you know, we have dinner, we work out, you know, we are together.

It is a very nice feeling.

But, you know,

again,

timing is everything and,

you know, finding the right person that fits you, you know, because there's people out there that don't.

And

it's awful.

Like, you know, being with the wrong person is worse than awful.

I agree.

Tell me about it.

Like I said, that's how the podcast started.

And I learned through the process of doing the podcast and listening to myself talk about all these wrong men that it's completely okay to be happy alone.

You know what?

It's not, it's, it's so funny.

I just heard an interview on the radio earlier this morning how, you know, we're saying all these, we have to be in a good place to attract someone fantastic.

Yes, so when we're in a good place, we're going to attract someone fantastic.

Absolutely, yes.

You know, those bad people are coming to us because we're not supposed to be with them, right?

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, I think first we need to be super happy with ourselves.

That's what I've been trying to do.

Uh, enjoy, do what you love, whether it's work, hobbies, charity, make your life rich.

And yeah, I think that just makes the chances of attracting the right person much much greater now

your your makeup business did you have that before

while while you are so it's something

oh my god awesome so this is something that kept you going after losing your husband and everything after I lost my son I just let my company kind of just float.

I really didn't care about it for quite a long time.

And then after I,

you know, I still was working with it, but not as aggressively as I do normally and like I do now.

And then after I met my husband and we got, you know, we got married, I just was in a really good mental place to really start attacking my business again and getting out there.

But, you know, the makeup industry has changed so much.

Yeah.

In the last 10 years, when I started, there was no Facebook, Instagram, influencers.

It's

a totally different thing.

Like all I dealt with were, you know, my

agent, my publicist, and then beauty editors at the magazines and other, you know,

publicists and, you know, celebrities, obviously.

That's you had much more contact with celebrities.

You could get, you know, it was much easier.

You could, you know, send someone product.

They would say they used it, they liked it, and it was no big deal.

Now you have to pay someone like a trillion dollars

to say they use your product.

And, you know, it was so much fun like going to New York or NLA to meet with these beauty editors with the magazines.

And

it was definitely easy.

It's so different now.

So you have to kind of roll, you know, ride the waves.

I read a really great book when I was at Grief Camp.

Actually, the woman that wrote the book was in charge of it.

Her name was Rabbi Sherry Hirsch.

She actually lives in Los Angeles.

She's a rabbi.

And she wrote the book, We Plan and God Laughs.

And my interest

had met this amazing man.

Yes.

Great career and my kids, everything's fantastic.

And then everything wasn't.

Everything was an absolute disaster.

Yes.

And you learn with life

to ride the waves.

Yes.

I have a saying that I don't even remember where I saw it once and I never forgot.

Life is what happens while we are planning life.

Oh, that's a good one.

Because we're planning, planning, planning, and you get so derailed.

So many things happen.

And I think the survivors are the people that learn how to adapt, right?

Yeah,

yeah, you know, we always think these things are happening to us, but they're actually happening for us.

Yeah, I don't think that my husband passing was helpful to my life.

No, yeah, I have had to learn to, you know, there's a great quote, you know, there's like post-traumatic shock, and I think there's post-traumatic growth.

You can have incredible, I have had incredible growth in the last year.

Oh my God.

Yes.

I have learned to, you know, learn to be by myself when I haven't normally wanted to.

And I've learned to do things on my own that I would normally not have to do.

But it has made me a stronger, better person and a better partner for my person.

You know, he is very independent.

You know, I am kind of like blue.

I want to be with him every second.

And, you know, he's kind of taught me like, you know, I need to, we need to do things a bit,

not always together.

Yeah, which is a good idea for couples, I think.

You have your own space.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so, you know, he has taught me things.

And I have, you know, kicked and screamed.

Well, you look amazing.

It looks like you're in a great place and you have a great guy.

And he's going to be super happy that you said you are in a happy, long-term relationship.

And that's amazing.

I'm super happy for you.

Hopefully, I'm next.

I don't know if he is.

Now, that's the next question.

I asked that question to all of my guests, and we never come to like a solid conclusion.

Do you think most men are intimidated by women such as yourself, powerful, successful, independent, career-oriented, like us?

Or that's baloney?

I think the right man,

like the right man likes this.

Yeah.

Every man can handle, you know, I have an added thing besides that I have, you know, had a great career and everything.

We have the added factor of my husband being a famous athlete, which can be very intimidating for a lot of men.

True.

And true.

So I think that, again, the right man is okay with that.

But there are a lot of men that are going to be very intimidated by my husband's, you know, career and who he was in our relationship.

We had a great relationship.

We had a very happy marriage.

And I'm not saying there weren't bumps sometimes, but it was a very loving relationship.

And so I think the right man can handle me and my husband that's pastor.

But it's not for every man, I have to tell you.

He's got to be pretty tough, you know, and my guy, he's tough.

He can handle it.

I love that.

And I agree with you.

Some people came on the podcast and they say, yes, men, including men, some guys that I interviewed, they're like, Yes, we are very intimidated.

And then some experts say, No, that's baloney.

But I agree with your answer.

The right guy for you, the right guy for me will not be intimidated by what we do.

It's as simple as that, right?

And if they are,

then maybe they're not the right guy.

No, because, but again, if they're not feeling good in their skin, it's going to be very hard for them to come into my world.

I have a lot of kids.

I have a

very big life.

And, you know,

and I, you know, my husband was a big thing.

And, you know, I would never want anyone to feel bad, but I don't want to be with someone that's like intimidated by a ghost.

I know.

Or my past.

That's what I say, girls.

You cannot be with anybody that is intimidated by your work or tries to change your work.

Right.

Yeah.

I don't want to, you know, tone down my light.

I know.

you want to have a supportive partner

yeah

i know you want to have a supportive partner

period right supportive partner and that's it

right you just want you know i don't want to have to make myself feel like uh less successful less

love it you know i'm loud i laugh a lot i you know

you know and if someone can't handle that well it's not not gonna be a good thing I love it I am looking at your Instagram of your brand it's called pretty girl makeup I can't wait to try some they are organic vegan cruelty free

everything that I love I love love love using organic products so I gotta try some

amazing and so that's uh the I'm gonna put everything on my insta guys if you want to follow her work so it's pretty girl makeup and then your Instagram is Christina Fleck Makeup.

You do professional makeup, right, Christina?

I do, I have agents.

Um, listen, we got to get together.

I have three agents that I work with, and they book me great jobs.

And it's

a fan.

Yeah, what a fun, fun work.

I've worked with the gazillion makeup artists, and I love it.

I don't know how to do makeup on myself.

I love makeup, but I think it's a phenomenal art.

And I hope we get together like in the same place so we can

do a collab.

So if you come to LA, let me know.

And if I go up there, you're lives in LA.

So next time I come up with a lot of people.

Awesome.

I work down there a lot.

I shoot commercials.

I shoot TV shows down there.

Awesome.

So let me know.

And then maybe we can do another episode when we are in the same town.

That would be fun.

It was amazing.

I really admire your strength.

Congratulations on your work.

Congratulations on all the charity, all the causes you and your son are helping.

And congratulations on having a fabulous relationship.

I think you're proof that anybody can do it over,

get over grief.

Anybody can rebuild their lives, right?

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah.

I mean,

I mean, again, you're not getting over grief.

You're just learning how to maneuver it.

Yeah, exactly.

You still get sad as you go, and there's still, you know, something will trigger.

But I really try to just have, be grateful for the time I had with him and my son and and just think of them both with loving memories and that's all i can do because i can't think of anything negative or

there's just no point and you know what i don't think anyone wants to be around anyone that is just so true

yeah all the time

a better place and i'm it's not like yeah it is so important to me every day to make the world a better place and make people feel good i mean being a makeup artist that's the deal you're not just you're making someone look look great, but you need to make them feel great on the inside because they're going to look so much better on camera if they're feeling, you know, happy and feel good.

Absolutely.

I couldn't agree with you more.

And by the way, guys, this is what I always say: when you see us doing a photo shoot or doing a video or doing the podcast, you don't know what the person is going through in private.

So, you know, be careful before judging, right?

I'm like, incredible that anyone would say anything.

Oh, you'd be shocked.

I'm so grateful.

I have not had that experience.

I've had nothing but people being

kind and loving and supportive of to me.

And amazing.

You know, again,

it's not fair to judge anyone because you don't know what this is what you're seeing and what we're putting out there.

Yes.

This is what I want you to see.

Yeah.

You're not seeing what is around sometimes when I'm, you know, sad and crying and life's tough.

Right.

There you go.

That is so true.

Christina, this was such a pleasure.

Thank you so, so much.

Thank you for having me.

And I really hope, seriously, when you come to LA, let's do another one because this was so quick and I have so many more questions.

And maybe we can do like over a makeup session and talk about makeup and beauty.

Yeah, yes, great.

And I know the girls are going to send a gazillion questions for you.

So I hope you come back soon.

I can't wait.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was amazing.

And I'll see you guys on Friday.

Christina Fleck, I'm going to put her handles with the videos of this podcast on my social media so you guys can follow her.

Thank you so much, Christina.

Thank you.