How can I prepare to become a makeup artist?

What is the work like? Make-up artists prepare make-up and hair for anyone appearing in front of a camera or a live audience in film, television, theatre, concerts, photographic shoots or fashion shows. As a make-up artist, you could create anything from a straightforward natural look to period wigs and make-up, or special effects such as scars and prosthetics. You could work alone, as an assistant to a senior colleague or as part of a larger hair and make-up design team. Depending on the job, your tasks might include: researching and designing make-up and hairstyles to suit the production working to detailed notes or a rough design brief applying 'corrective' make-up for a natural look hair tidying and styling fitting wigs, hairpieces and 'bald caps' applying prosthetic make-up to completely change a performer's appearance making notes and taking photographs to keep continuity standing by on set to re-do make-up and hair keeping work areas and equipment clean and tidy. You would work closely with production designers, costume designers, camera and lighting crew and performers. What qualifications and experience will employers look for? Most make-up artists start by taking a relevant course in make-up or beauty therapy and building up their practical experience. Specialist media make-up courses include: BTEC National Certificate or Diploma in Production Arts (Make-up) VTCT Level 3 Diploma in Theatrical and Media Make-up ITEC Level 3 Diploma in Fashion, Theatre and Media Make-up foundation degrees, BTEC HNCs/HNDs and degrees in media make-up intensive courses at private make-up schools. For some of these, you may need to have taken a course in general beauty therapy and hairdressing such as an NVQ level 2 – you should check entry requirements with course providers. See the related profiles for information about entry-level courses. As well as taking a relevant make-up course, you should also try to gain practical experience, build a portfolio of your work to show to employers, and develop a network of contacts in the industry. You can get useful experience in various ways, such as: backstage in amateur theatre student film, theatre and photography projects charity or student fashion shows work experience with established make-up artists and photographers. Once you have built up some experience and made some contacts, your first paid work in film or TV may be as a trainee or assistant to the make-up team. You might also find casual work as a 'daily', doing the make-up and hair for extras in crowd scenes. Click here and here to read case studies about how two successful special effects make-up artists started their careers (courtesy of Skillset). What further training and development can I do? You would learn and develop your skills on the job, by assisting experienced make-up artists. You may be able to find apprenticeship-style training at the start of your career from new entrant training schemes, such as the BBC's Design Training Scheme, or schemes run by Film and Television Freelance Training (FT2). Competition for places on this type of scheme is very strong. Contact Skillset Careers to find out about new entrant training schemes that may be available. You should keep up to date with new make-up techniques and materials throughout your career. Short courses in specialist and prosthetic make-up are available at private make-up academies, film schools and some universities. You could also join the National Association of Screen Make-up and Hair Artists (NASMAH) for networking and training opportunities – see NASMAH's website for details. Also check out this: http://www.need2know.co.uk/need2know/work/work_experience/article.html/id=1259 :D

Hi i've studied make-up. Best way to prepare yourself now is to practice practice practice!! Its a tough business, you need to be excellent to compete with other atrists and get the jobs and there may be periods where you are not able to find work. I think you have to be 16 to offically study it, but it is very worthwhile and they can earn megabucks.

i think it's great that you know what you want to do with your life already (: i'm 13, about to go into high school, and i go back and forth. anyways, you could ask your friends and family if you could work on them, then take pictures and get a portfolio going. get a photo album to put everything in, then put the date and what you used for each person. for school, you would have to go to a cosmetology school most likely. here's a link where you could probably find everything you need: http://www.makeup-artist-world.com/

I think you could truly become a make up artist! Just practice with a lot of different make ups and do it on all your friends :) oh if you want to know all about pay and jobs go to kuder.com and it will say how much you can make in an hour and a year and stuff.. good luck :)

start doing peoples makeup, get a portfolio going. go to cosmotology school when your 17.

you would have to go to cosmetology school, i'm not sure what the degree is but you don't have to go to school for a long time or anything. the pay isn't that great unless you're in very high demand, working for celebrities and such, but people will pay good money to have their makeup done for weddings. as of now, i'd say just stock up as much as you can and practice on yourself and your friends. also watch knowledgeable gurus on youtube, such as makeupgeektv and xsparkage. they can give you a lot of general tips and techniques and their tutorials would be good practice. also remember that when you watch those tutorials, most people you'd be getting jobs with are not looking for something so dramatic. most often you'd be doing makeup for brides, brides don't typically want heavy eye makeup. it's usually very neutral.