What's it like working as a makeup artist?

Working as a professional makeup artist whether full or part time is varied and exciting but also hard work, challenging, erratic and very, very competitive.

Training can be expensive, you need a lot of practice and kits and products need replacing and keeping up to date all the time. You need to be ahead of your competition and keep with the current trends.

Call times for fashion and video shoots could have you up at 3am followed by a working day of over 12 hours. You might need to be at the beck and call of celebrity clients working on them at their homes at any time of the day, weekday, weekends and in the holidays. Runway work is very exciting, but not for everyone, as it is highly pressurised and there is no room for error. Being late for a call time and turning up with the wrong kit might mean you never get booked through that agency or with that client again.

You may work alone or as part of a team. Working in theatre work will mean you never have a “normal” social life and working away on TV and film productions, will mean being away from your friends and family. It’s never boring; you will learn, make friends and develop in our career.