Hi Amiga, Do you want to become a Makeup Artist but you don’t have the money for Makeup School?
Are you feeling defeated wondering if becoming a Makeup Artist is only for the rich?
Mamacita, today I can tell you your dream is not as far away as it looks right now.
Fasten your seatbelt and come on this ride with me! My blog will take you there! This is how you can Practice Makeup to become a Makeup Artist.
What you need more than the best makeup school on the planet is PRACTICE!!!!
In this post, I will tell you what you need to practice and how you can do this in the most efficient way.
During my Makeup education, I practiced for 5 years several times a week before I ever had my first job. I think it is safe for me to say that I know how important practicing is.
If you follow these steps you don’t need 5 years and it will cost you a lot less.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
In this post, you will learn how to practice makeup in the most efficient way.
80% of my $17K makeup education was practice. You can attend the most prestigious makeup school in the world if you don’t do the practice you have nothing.
Your remaining 20% is right here on my blog. Practice and you WILL become a makeup artist! I will tell you everything I know!
An important thing I need to state in the beginning, and maybe a lot of people will disagree but it is just my professional option: Being a true makeup artist is being able to apply makeup on someone else, NOT only on yourself!! You only learn enough if you practice with ANOTHER person.
Jump ahead to:
7 things you need before Practicing to become a Makeup Artist.
1. Makeup kit, read my post 45 Essentials and My Makeup Kit.
2. Mirror,
3. Two lights you can attach to your mirror, this also needs to be in your kit as a professional,
4. Barstool or highchair so you do not hurt your back,
5. A model you can practice on frequently, preferably a young person,
6. Many other types of models, young, old, all colors, all skin types,
7. A lot, a lot, a lot of your time.
10 things you need to know before you start Practicing
1. Always do makeup standing, doing someone’s makeup sitting down is NOT professional. The reason for this is you can never truly see symmetric from the angle where you sitting,
2. Stand right from the model when your right and stand left from the model when you are left,
3. ALWAYS work with a mirror, this way you can work symmetrical and see how the makeup looks from a distance.
Most studios have mirrors with lights and high chairs, but shooting on location often there is no mirror, that is why I always have my self-made mirror in my car and 2 spotlights in my kit.
4. Work with one light on the right and one light on the left, so a triangle of shadow appears under the chin. Except if you are using the Makeup light, then you don’t need that, daylights lamps are preferable.
5. Use a towel on your makeup table where you place your products. I only work with black towels, if you spill something on a light towel it looks messy for the next person who needs to sit in your chair.
6. Organize your products in a similar way on your towel every time, so you do not need to look for things while you are in your creative process. Seeming chaotic is not professional, start practicing this from the get-go,
7. Never place your full flat hand on top of the head leaning on your model. This feels uncomfortable for your model and is unprofessional. Use your fingertips only to guide the face in the right direction,
8. Keep looking in the mirror to see what your makeup is doing for the face,
9. If the model prefers you can use a cape and tissues in the neck to protect clothing,
10. Wash your hands before you start.
Find a Muse
The ideal would be if you have a friend or a family member you can practice with regularly.
20+ years ago, my muse was my brother’s girlfriend, who now is my sister-in-law and mother of my two beautiful nieces.
If you wish your future clients to be celebrities, you need to learn how to get to know a face. Next to working on your muse a lot, work on all sorts of faces, your mum, your neighbor, your sister, all colors, all skin types, all ages.
Place your model in front of your mirror and moisturizer her face, feel her bone structure, cheekbones, browbones, etc.
Have a cup of tea/coffee so the moisturizer gets well absorbed, and have a chit-chat with her. Look at her facial expression, her laugh, her frown, the way she pulls her eyes up while talking.
After your chat, analyze her face, shape, skin type, good features, and less desirable features, learn how to look at a face.
Use a face chart and go through this process with every single new face who sits in your chair. Practice this as much as you can so you will develop an eye for this, onset you need to be able to do this process in just seconds.
Make Pictures
Make well-lit before and after pictures and of every step you make and study it. Your phone will work fine for this. Do NOT use your practice photos for your portfolio or even on social media, these photos are for you to study.
In the beginning, put your focus mainly on symmetry, you will notice it could seem symmetric when looking at her, but totally a-symmetric in the photos.
You can avoid this by constantly looking in the mirror while working. Funny fact: a lot of people think the mirror is for the person in the chair, it truly is not.
Use a Creme Foundation
When starting out, I recommend using a cream base, don’t go and buy all shades, buy the right colors for your muse, because you probably not going to use them professionally.
The reason why I recommend this for your practice is that if you can work well with a cream base you can work with every other foundation out there.
For me, the most important part of makeup is the foundation, practice this as if your life depends on it, your makeup artist life literally does.
For practice, you can use whatever makeup products you can get your hands on or that you can afford. In my post Difference Between Cheap vs Expensive Makeup,
I talk more about products, slowly but surely you can build a kit more professional, these are Kit Essentials you can’t go without.
Be Peacefull and Quiet
In my opinion, and a lot of colleagues must disagree on this, you don’t talk the ears off of your model.
They need to perform after your job is done, some are even nervous, especially with live TV broadcasting, give them peace and quiet so they can prepare.
For me personally, I also work faster if there is less talking and you can’t be fast enough on any kind of set, of course, it’s not forbidden.
For some, a chit-chat can actually release stress before performing, obviously, you need to feel the atmosphere on this matter.
One thing is for sure if you are practicing you need to focus, talking about your date night with your boyfriend/hubby will distract you from your creative process.
Practice as much as you can
If you seriously want to make progress you need to practice at least once a week, more is always better. If you practice several times a week for a year you could be ready for makeup jobs.
You don’t need to practice for 5 years as I did, I know good makeup schools nowadays with the duration of one year, it is insanely expensive ($10K for one year).
So you could be ready after one year of practice at least once a week, I recommend you practice several times a week.
Look at your pictures at the end of every month, if you know a makeup artist have him or her look at your photos if they will. If you need my help you can email me the pictures, I will only look at sharp and well-lit photos.
Leave me an email here, saying you would like me to look at your practice photos.
This post was all about how you can practice makeup so you can become a Makeup Artist. Cheers Mamitas.
This article in Dutch https://melaniemoutarde.nl/makeup-oefenen/
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