I get very few comments on the blog pages as you may have noticed, besides a) viagra-sellers b) perverts and c) people who want to be make-up artists!  The first two I’m happy to hit the SPAM button, but for all you lovely make-up artists, what can I do to help?  It seems some of you have done courses, others have some experience, while still others are interested but not quite sure.  So here’s some very honest, hopefully practical advice on…

how to be a make-up artist:

1) BE PASSIONATE:  

Passion starts young, very young, from the first time you pick up a copy of Vogue and flick through and see that dazzling green eyeshadow and fluoro-pink lipstick and think “I CAN DO THAT!”.  Kay Montano used to go over the models’ make-up on Cosmo covers as a teenager, ripping out the pages and painting in colours.  Practise on your friends, your mum, your mum’s friends, give them makeovers and bribe them with the thought that when you’re famous they’ll be able to boast about it.  

Passion for your career is so important.  You won’t make any money for the first five years  - editorial pays nothing, while the top rate as an assistant is about £100 a day for advertising, with the make-up artist herself making between £500 and £4000 for that same day.  You’ll be the one lugging the bags around, and while she’s out at parties or work dinners, you’ll be back at the room in the hotel (not her’s, that’s too pricy, no, you’ll be sharing a room with another assistant in a nice-but-not-as-luxe-as-her’s-hotel a couple of blocks away) cleaning out the suitcases, (think bottles of foundation smashed in transit), making sure the brushes are clean in readiness for the following day, checking with her booker that all arrangements for transportation are set… So if there’s any doubt that this is not the job for you… QUIT WHILE YOU’RE AHEAD! 

If you’re still passionate read everything you can find by all the great make-up artists - most have written books, try Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier, Shu Uemura, and don’t forget the legends of the 70s and 80s like Way Bandy or Mary Quant.  Knowledge is power! And you’ll stash away all those little gems of inspiration and one day they’ll come in useful…

2) GET SOME TRAINING: 

I once spent a day at the Glauca Rossi make-up school, researching a story for my book, How to Be Beautiful: The Thinking Woman’s Guide (which by the way, I recommend, well, obviously I would, but it is a condensed look at the beauty industry, with interviews with Charlotte Tilbury, Kay Montano, Barbara Daly, Glauca Rossi, and it’s a fun read, so there you go! if you can’t find it in the LIBRARY  - because we all go to libraries don’t we - check it out on Amazon, oh thank you thank you thank you!)  But  I digress!  Glauca!  It was SO much fun. And Glauca is a legend, Charlotte Tilbury did a course there before going on to assist Mary Greenwell. http://www.glaucarossi.com/

Glauca tells you like it is. She can be fierce, but she is funny, warm, and a complete and utter professional with a ton of experience.  She knows how the industry works, so what you will learn from her is not just how to apply make-up “correctly” but if you take the time to get to know her you will also find out how to get along, what to do and what not to do. To my knowledge there is no one with her level of experience currently offering a professional’s course of this calibre. 

Jemma Kidd also offers professional make-up artist courses.  She’s worked a lot with the likes of Mary Greenwell and obviously also as a make-up artist in her own right.  She has a good sense of the business side of things, which is really important - she has her own product range as you will know already.  I haven’t tried her course, but I hear good things about it, besides which, I LIKE HER! http://www.jemmakidd.com/

3) GET SOME PA SKILLS: 

Make yourself indispensable.  This means, not just getting the training you need to apply make-up correctly (and by the way, I’m talking about fashion make-up here, not BBC costume drama stuff, for which I know nothing, go and look at the BBC costume drama website if they have one), but think laterally about how else you can make yourself useful.  If you’re going to be assisting a top make-up artist they will be flying about all over the world, they will be tired, stressed, and frankly, at moments like this, what they’re needing is not so much your dab hand with the perfect black- eye liner but someone who knows how to send emails, facilitate interviews, call their agent, check hotel bookings, buy them a box of Tampax while on location in the middle of the Arizona desert.  Sure, she has an agent who does some of this stuff, but the agent also has 20 others to look after, so who do you think will be picking up the pieces?  YOU.  Computer skills, BlackBerry skills, a great phone manner, the ability to write a letter without spelling mistakes and with great grammar… these things will set you apart from everyone else who has a flair for colour and a penchant for fake lashes.  Languages - French and Italian  - are also useful.  Start learning now, it’s an extra string to your bow and invaluable when giving directions or booking a table in a restaurant. 

4) GET SOME EXPERIENCE:

There are three ways to get experience.  

A)The best way is to get a job assisting a top notch make-up artist, in fact, really it’s the only way to get ahead in this game.  If I could give you Pat McGrath’s mobile phone number believe me, I would, but it wouldn’t do you any favours.  You would be her millionth caller of the day, because guess what, you’re not the first person who had the genius idea of assisting someone who’s already doing the job you want!  

So here’s what you do.  Remember those copies of Vogue you used to flick through?  Keep flicking.  Make a list of ten dream make-up artists you would like to work for.  Observe their style, what makes them different from each other.  File this somewhere safe, it will come in useful.

B) In the mean time, get a job on a make-up counter.  They offer great training, plus you get to experiment all day on unsuspecting customers, ha ha! (and then get fired, so don’t take this advice too literally.  Hey, I’m a writer, not a make-up artist!)  Try for MAC or Shu Uemura because they both sponsor shows, and this means there’s a good chance you will be allowed to work backstage at the shows, assisting their make-up artists.  

The other reason it’s good to work on a make-up counter is that you will come across make-up artists and their assistants (I’m talking about London here, obviously, although the same would apply for Paris, New York or Milan) because they often pop in to pick up emergency supplies.  That’s where you step in. You are helpful, professional, discreet, charming, engaging, and right at the end, you slip into the conversation that if ever they are looking for assistants you would love to help, and can you send in your cv?  Boom! You’re on your way! 

C) Build up your book.  Your portfolio is your cv. It shows agents, make-up artists and everyone in the business, what you can do.  But how do you build a portfolio when you’re not getting work as a make-up artist in your own right?  Contact photographers, offering your services for test shoots; when you do get work as an assistant, get to know the photographer’s assistant, as he/she will spend most of their weekends testing in a bid to improve their own portfolio and may welcome your help. Do not expect to get paid for any of this; if anything it will cost you money as you’ll have to get prints made etc. 

But wait!  You’re thinking I forgot about that piece of paper you filed away with the list of make-up artists whose work you liked. (see A)  Not me.  Oh no. That piece of paper is now going to become very important.  Get on to the internet, and google those names.  FInd out which agencies they’re with.  Call the agencies and check that the make -up artist is still represented by them, and find out who their booker is.   Then write them a letter and send them a cv, asking if you can assist them.   This is what my dear friend Lucia Pica did…  (this is a picture of her; she also did the make-up for me on my website pic!) 

LUCIA:  I was really keen. I wrote my cv on red paper with blue ink and attached a collage with samples of my work, because I figured that they must get loads of cvs sent in and I needed to make mine stand out. 

KBM: did they not just put it in the bin and think MAD GIRL? 

LUCIA: No! They were really impressed that I’d made an effort and called me up to assist Linda Cantello for one job.  So it definitely worked, and with a few people, too. 

Lucia went on to assist Charlotte Tilbury for a couple of years and now works independently, for clients like i-D, Pop, Vogue, Russian Vogue, Interview, and Self Service.  And all this from starting in 2000 on a month long course at Greasepaint!  Lucia’s now in the position to hire her own assistants, I asked her:

KBM: What qualities do you look for? 

LUCIA: Someone who is prepared to help. It might be ordering products or ordering lunch, it might be arranging kit, but generally, being helpful, nice, not too proud, not too egotistical  - these are all essential requirements. 

KBM: What advice do you have? 

LUCIA:  You can get a little down at the beginning and think that it is never going to happen, but if you really try and really focus, if you stay excited and enthusiastic and really into it, then it will all work out.  I can tell straight away when interviewing assistants if someone is jaded or bored, or doesn’t like to do the small jobs.  Sometimes I get people who are far too much In My Face.. you need someone who is discreet! It can get very intense on a shoot and you need someone who can be supportive. 

5) FOCUS ON THE END GAME

Look ahead in life to when you’re 20, 30, 40, 50, even 60.  I know that seems ridiculous, but you need to know how ambitious you are and what job and more importantly -lifestyle - you want to be living as you get older.  I know make-up artists who are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s and with each decade comes a different set of aspirations, goals, problems.  

It’s a hard job, and it’s sometimes a very lonely job, as if you’re in the top ten you spend your life on a plane, checking into hotel rooms, wondering when you’re ever going to meet a nice man or make enough money to retire,  (or preferably BOTH!)   Which is why you need to know what you want from life: do you want a family?  That means you won’t be able to travel so much in your 30s and 40s - so what’s your back up plan? Launching your own make-up brand?   Doing tv makeovers?  That means you will eventually need to develop a profile, either with a blog or by amassing a roster of celebrity clients.  

Do you want to make a ton of money doing advertising?  That means you’re going to need to spend a lot of time in your 20s and 30s living in New York.  You might want to put some of your hard-earned cash into buying property, starting a make-up school, who knows. These are all questions that don’t require solutions right now, but you need to keep them at the back of your mind.  There are so many choices with this career, which makes it fantastically flexible, but it also means you need to keep your eye on the ball, open to opportunities, and that means knowing where you’re headed.  When you look at the top make-up artists they all have something else besides editorial/advertising:  Charlotte Tilbury has the make-up brand MyFace;  Bobbi Brown has her own range, books, and an empire going on basically; Pat McGrath has a contract with Max Factor; Kay Montano has a flourishing beauty journalism career… You gotta keep it moving! 

6) CONTACTS

And you thought Facebook was hard work?  You are about to become a ferocious networker, although obviously you will do this with style and grace and not get too much in anyone’s face. (yes, there is such a thing as having too much personality!)   Be nice to EVERYONE! Because today’s lowly, badly-paid, overworked assistant is tomorrow’s fashion diva.  On a shoot you’re all part of a team - this is where you build relationships for tomorrow.  Get to know the hair stylists’ assistant -would he/she like to work with you on a test shoot?   And on it goes.. 

When I chatted to Lucia about becoming a make-up artist, she suggested contacting Streeters, CLM, or Jed Root, either for work as an assistant, or to see if they have any up and coming photographers to test with.  Google them first, find out as much as you can about their work, because there’s no excuse in this business for ignorance.  It just comes across as being rude and careless and that’s not the impression you want to give right now. 

If you’re interested in working as Lucia’s assistant, the best thing to do is email her agency: Management Artists Organisation. You can check out her work here, there are also contact details for her agency should you wish to get in touch:  http://www.managementartists.com/#portfolio=PORTFOLIO&artist=LUCIA_PICA

Finally…Stay encouraged! Here’s a link to a You Tube clip with extracts from Pat McGrath’s fabulous career.  If it seems a little too fabulous and daunting, let me tell you something about Pat… as well as being brilliantly talented, she is a true worker-bee and started right at the bottom.  No, honestly, she used to do my make-up for magazines like Just Seventeen and Looks, about 100 years ago, and nice as they were, you don’t get much lower down the fashion hierarchy than that.   So don’t give up.