Monday, April 23, 2012

Fair and Square!


There is something that many makeup artists never mention but I think it’s time someone did.  A lot of people try to take the art of makeup as simply an art and don’t realize that we actually put in more than we get when it comes to compensation.

It is time that everyone realizes that those of us who are professional certified makeup artists are entitled to get the compensation we request when you ask us to do your makeup.  We do not only do this for fun.  We need to get paid and that, nor the fee for our services should ever be a topic of discussion or debate

There are some of us that take makeup as hobby or a side job.  There are some of us who take it as way of expression or passion.  Then there are some of us who take it as all of the above AND actually live of it.

No matter how we take this art, everyone should know that we killed ourselves in makeup school every day for a certain amount of hours for a certain amount of months.  That we were hungry, tired, some of us had a full day of work on us to the drag our heavy kits up and down the NYC train stations to make it to makeup night school.  That we sometimes couldn’t see our significant others or kids for days or have a social life because by the time we had free time our backs were out from all the hours standing in class..

Lets add to that all the money we had to pay for classes and makeup, the money that we spend constantly on expensive makeup because many feel entitled to “expensive” cosmetics, but always feel the need for a bargain. We spend hours traveling to and from locations with our heavy kits to then spend more hours on location.  We spend entire days of our lives working hard to make the few bucks, that many consider too much money, to try and make a living and a name for ourselves.

Bottom line here is, our makeup, our time and our talents aren’t cheap and didn’t come cheap to us so don’t expect that it will come at a bargain or free to you cause it’s simply NOT fair.  Come real or don’t come at all.

Please & Thank you!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Just FACE-IT!


I recently had a shoot with a feminine body builder and it promised to be one of the most interesting shoots thus far.  Before the shoot she had gone through my website and pretty much did not find a look she liked in my portfolio.

For photo shoots, makeup artists are usually advised of the look the photographer and/or model are looking for.  In this occasion I was faced with the challenge of finding the perfect look for a feminine body builder whom did not find my work interesting.  The entire day before the shoot I stressed looking for pictures of body builder’s makeup.  She didn’t want a smokey-eye, that left me with beauty or glamour look, She wanted something that would make her look more like a model that a body builder, the thing here was, with their strong features, its hard not to go with simple beauty makeup for body builders.

I finally made it to this nerve wrecking shoot to find a body builder who had actually slimmed down and had normal looking facial features.  I was so happy! This meant we could actually give her more makeup as she wanted. Of course we had to keep in mind that she was still a body builder and had to look as feminine as possible. 

I had stressed so much and felt so unsure of myself when I learned she wasn’t excited about my portfolio.  But I went forward to show that you do not have to like my previous work for me to deliver the perfect look for YOU.  Just give me a visual of what you want and I’ll make it work for YOU, The shoot was a true success and she looked gorgeous!

Pics coming soon!