What qualifications do you need to become a Makeup Artist?
- Iliana Alvarez
- Aug 20, 2018
- 4 min read
What qualifications do you need to become a Makeup Artist?
Do you need to be licensed? Do you need to be a a Makeup School Graduate? Well as a former Freelancer and MAC Makeup Artist, I can help you answer that.
Here we go...
The Qualities that make you an Excellent Makeup Artist
Other than Makeup knowledge the qualities that will make you a great Makeup Artist, allow you to provide full-on makeup applications as a service, and of course, get paid for this, are:
1. Dependability
2. Cleanliness, good sanitation habits
3. Speed
4. Creativity
5. Great listening and communications skills
6. & the ability to plan and to coordinate properly.
These are indeed the most important essential qualifications of a Makeup Artist. Whether you want to be a wedding theater or on-set Makeup Artist cleanliness, speed, creativity, excellent listening and communications skills, along with the ability to plan and coordinate properly are the most essential qualifications to being a great Makeup Artist.
Here is why:
Dependability - A Makeup Artist is hired to do what no one else can, and this is why dependability is so essential. We can't have you not show up, be late, or unprepared on "Wedding day." A Makeup Artist must show reliability and show that her/his clients can depend on her/him especially on important days.
Cleanliness and Sanitation - It all starts with the second you came near your client, and her/his face. You want your hands to be/smell clean and not like what you had for"Lunch". This is all part of the experience, you can enhance your clients experience by having nice lightly scented sanitized and moisturized hands. and having clean brushes, and a neat working space.
In addition, it's essential that you practice good sanitation habits with yourself and your products to avoid cross-contamination and giving your clients an infection. You don't want to give your client pink-eye and or get sued for something that could have been prevented. Keep in mind that although, not all states require Makeup Artists to be licensed, practicing good sanitation habits will help you get you far in your career, create good karma, and possibly prevent more states from enforcing licenses on MUAs. For accuracy on whether or not your state requires you to be licensed to be a Makeup Artist, please check with your local laws.
Speed - a skill that is often underestimated by aspiring Makeup Artists. A skill that I too lacked at the beginning of my career, but became better at with time.
Speed is one of the most important skills you can possess in this industry, it's important for runway shows, wedding parties, on tv/movie-sets, you name it. If you are fast at applying a clean makeup application and providing the person on your "chair" with the "look" they want, you are golden! Being fast will allow you to work more, have more customers, and grow your business. You will be able to more makeup applications, and if you deliver what your client asked for you will always have a job.
Makeup School is great, but most importantly I suggest you practice the way you expect to perform. Practice, practice, practice! Do makeup application, after makeup application, and time yourself. Give yourself a goal of completing minimum 50 full makeup applications in the course of a few months or what your schedule allows. Try to complete each application in 45 minutes to an hour tops. This will definitely help you be a better makeup Artist, allow you to book more appointments on the same day without becoming overwhelmed, and make the most of each job/event you attend.
Creativity - not only artistically but the problem-solving type creativity.
As a starting Makeup Artist, you may
not have a huge budget to buy a hundred different makeup shades, and or the finances hire a personal butler to help you carry those makeup bags around, this is when creativity becomes essential.
My biggest advice is to use one product for different purposes, condense your bags, re-pack in smaller containers (make sure these do not spill or dry up your products), and mix and match different shades to get a shade and or colors you don't have.
Great listening and communication skills - be attentive. Most people have a hard time expressing exactly what it is they want, and since we don't read minds, it can be hard to deliver what we don't know is wanted of us. This is when being attentive and listening becomes very important. Re-iterate what you think it is that your client wants done to make sure you are both in the same page. If possible use illustrations as references.
Good listening and communication skills are especially convenient with makeup applications because we don't all see the same colors, levels of boldness, etcetera.
When we say picture the color red in your head, it's not likely that everyone will see think of the same shade of red.
In instances when a client is being too broad or not descriptive enough use reference images try using more opened questions and being more descriptive yourself to see what the customer reacts to, or what you see brings her/him more alive.
and last but not least...
The ability to plan and to coordinate properly - when working events, doing makeup for a wedding party, runway
show etcetera you want to plan everything. Coordinate enough time to find parking, walk to where you will be applying makeup (this may be 15 to 20 minutes if it's a resort or at a large venue), schedule how long it takes you to unpack and set up time, and the actual time it takes you to do a full makeup consultation and application, I thing I would do is give myself extra time, and plan for people who would like a makeup application last minute, and don't forget pack up time.
Those are the main qualifications all aspiring Makeup Artists will benefit the most from, when becoming/being a Makeup Artist.
Hope this was very helpful, please share with people who are considering being a makeup Artist.
As always if you have any questions I'm here to help.
And you may find me on:
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