Becoming A Make Up Artist

A Step by Step Guide to Landing Make Up Artist Jobs

With dedication and hard work, becoming a make up artist is definitely possible. A make up artist salary can be high, especially when one self contracts the work.

Makeup artistry is a career dream many men and women have, and thus it is naturally competitive territory.

This is a career where creativity, artistic ability, dedication, and good people skills are a must.

Those with an entrepreneurial spirit and drive tend to do better than those who settle for being employed.

Jump Start Your Make Up Artist Career

The first step to becoming a make up artist is to gain experience. You should learn how to do makeup on women of every skin color, eye color, and hair color.

You might do a fabulous job of applying makeup to your own face, but the true challenge comes when you try to beautify others.

You can gain experience in multiple ways. Start with your friends and family, and yourself. Try different makeup styles on different people.

To round out your experience, try different looks such as exotic Indian eyes, a red carpet “glamour” look, an artistic model eye with a multitude of colors such as you might find in a magazine, or a “barely there” look.

Don’t be afraid to try new things and push the envelope a little bit. Most of all, get used to working on other people and examining how different shades of color will look with their eyes, skin tone, and hair color.

This will make a huge difference in how coordinated your makeovers appear. Also, the right tools are key is having a kit.

Its fundamental to becoming a make up artist are the right tools.. So save up to make sure you get quality products to use.

Your Portfolio: The Key to Becoming A Make Up Artist

The next important piece to becoming a make up artist is your portfolio. This may likely be the most important piece. Your portfolio is a book of photographs that document your work.

In the competitive world of makeup artistry, it is essential for both your photography and makeovers to look phenomenal.

If working a camera isn’t your strong point, consider teaming up with a photography student.

These students are also looking to build a portfolio of quality photos, and working with a makeup artist such as yourself could be mutually beneficial to the both of you.

Even better?

Meet with a couple of beginner models for a true win-win-win situation.

Yes, models need a great portfolio as well to move up in their ranks.

Becoming a Make Up Artist Who Gets Paid

The third step in becoming a make up artist is to build clientele. This part is important because without them, you won’t have a job. Your friends and family are absolutely the best source of word-of-mouth advertising you can get.

Offer to do makeup on just about anyone who shows some interest. Let your classmate know that you’ll do her and her friends makeup for their night out dancing free of charge if you can keep the photos for your portfolio.

Round up the bridesmaids in your cousins wedding and show them what you can do.

There will be plenty of people afterwards noticing the photos and asking them who did their makeup.

You can build even more clientele by placing small ads on Craigslist or other independent contracting services.

Make up a few fliers and business cards and place them around your universities campus, or with the theatre department of a few schools.

Work for free or low cost, deliver phenomenal results, and you will see that your name spreads very quickly.

How to Become A Make Up Artist in Hollywood

Once you have built up some clientele and a great portfolio, you need to market yourself even more if you wish to join the ranks of some of the top makeup artists in the industry. How do you do this? Be creative! One great way to really get yourself out there is to write a book.

If you’ve learned enough and practiced enough to become a true artist, publish a book and add that to your resume. You might decide to self publish instead of going the traditional route, but this is one great way to really get your name out there.