Make up trial costs?

Hi all, for those who do make up (particularly wedding make up), what do you do about charging for a trial? I've been charging 50% of the overall cost for the trial, then they pay the rest on the day - so for Airbase make up, it's £60, so they pay £30 at their trial and standard make up is £45, so I ask for £20 for the trial, but I've had a few situations where brides want both options trialing and expect that to be done in one trial... therefore, I feel I'm making a loss. Any thoughts on how I should price up trials?? Thank you x

I only use Airbase, I don't use any other foundations or blushers.

I offer 'AIRBASE' - foundation blusher and bronzer (if required) for £20.00

'AIRBASE PLUS' - which is the above plus eyes and lips made-up for £40.00

A trial is the same costs as above.

Trial is paid for on the day and the occasion itself is paid for on the day.

Jacqui xx

I charge £60.00 for a makeup trial for the bride and £70 for the wedding day makeup for the bride.

50% deposit and the remainder is paid 5 days before the trial.

to secure the wedding day a 50% deposit is required and the remainder is payable 6 weeks prior to the wedding date.

I never had and never will accept payment on the day from a bride, as cheques can bounce and people can 'forget' to bring enough spare cash to pay on the day:irked::irked::irked:.


I also ask brides to sign a contract for both trial and wedding day and in this I outline when payments are due and how much they will be charged etc.

I charge £25 for a trial (£35 incl strip lashes) and £50 for bridal make up on the day (£60 incl lashes).

Great, thanks peeps, this has all been really helpful at where to set my bar and the upfront payment info is useful too, I'll be re-jigging my prices and how I do things! X

Lady Murasaki said:

I charge £60.00 for a makeup trial for the bride and £70 for the wedding day makeup for the bride..

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So £130 for bridal make-up. How come so much? Not getting at you in particular but in general I don't understand why make-up artists charge so much for the bride when technically there's not much difference to the bridesmaids. My friend got married and got charged £130 yet only £40 each for bridesmaids and she said there was nothing exceptional about her make-up compared to theirs!

I have been doing makeup for over 12 years in this time I worked on commercials, been published and use high grade professional products.

I spend a lot of time on my brides making sure their look is perfect and the get what they want and give a high quality service, The £130 does include lashes, lipstick & gloss and a beauty kit on their wedding day.
Prices also include travel within certain areas

All my brides past and present have said what great value for money my services were and had no problem with the price.

Most of my clients are ABC1s and I feel my prices reflect this type of client.

I personally do not offer make-up but just thought I would share my recent perspective on this.
I am a maid of honour at my best friends wedding in 3 weeks and after much deliberating for a hair stylist, we finally found a lady at a wedding fair who charges £15 for hair AND make up trial.
Now although I know this is cheap-especially for both, this was the reason we went with her. She doesn't use overly expensive make-up and all she used for hair was grips.
Her conversion rate from trial to wedding is understandably 100% and both our hair styles and make-up were absolutely AMAZING!
This insight may not have helped, but sometimes I think its better to charge slightly less and get more custom than vice versa-especially in this line of business (weddings) as I will now recommend her to anyone I know that is getting married.
x

Lady Murasaki said:

Most of my clients are ABC1s and I feel my prices reflect this type of client.

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If you are dealing with clients from these social classes then the cost is in keeping with what they would expect to pay.

Miss Pink23 said:

we finally found a lady at a wedding fair who charges £15 for hair AND make up trial.

both our hair styles and make-up were absolutely AMAZING!
x

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£15.00 for AMAZING hair and make-up .. this therapist is seriously underselling herself.

Work smarter not harder.

My conversation rate is 100% and I charge £130 for the bride inc trial.

I work smarter rather than harder, a makeup artist charging £15 would have to do around 8ish clients to my one client.

How can she be covering her insurance and product costs at £15 per person????

Oh I know, I completely agree, if I did hair and make up I would charge more, but I do think she does this alongside her day job, so think maybe she is building a client base first.
But, on the other hand, I do think hair and make-up is over priced in my opinion.
x

When working mobile doing bridal makeup etc or any mobile service I not only have to cove my product, insurance and time costs, but also my petrol and the wear and tear on my car and MOT.

All this has to be taken into consideration when setting my rates.

Sure if you're dealing people that expect to pay this much then so be it, there's no way that many of them would even consider anyone who charged less anyway.

The reason I asked was because it seems that with a lot of services you mention wedding/bride and the prices increase, surely they still use the same time, products and techniques as doing normal make-up otherwise they don't take pride in their work, that's just my opinion though! The friend I mentioned has had her make-up done by the same girl for £35. It just seems unfair that some people take the opportunity to over charge because people will pay more for their wedding!

I charge £30 for the trial, £70 for the bride on the day, £60 for bridesmaids / MOB etc. My prices started higher but I think I might have priced it too high for now so I lowered it. In the future when I have more clients I will raise it.

I charge more for the bride because I include strip or individual lashes if they want them and a lipstick. I would charge separately for lashes for the bridesmaids if they wanted them.

This has been a really interesting conversation to read and I can see all points of view.

Having taken on board the earlier posts from a couple of weeks back and also after doing a lot of research into other make up artists in my area, I have now set my prices at £28 for an Airbase trial and £50 on the day of the event or wedding and £20 for a standard make up trial and £35 on the day (the Airbase also includes the rest of the make up - so eyes, lips etc - it's not just the Airbase product alone) I have not done a seperate price for brides or bridesmaids - its the same for everyone. I feel this best reflects my level of work (which I am confident is good having been doing make up for a few years now - not blowing my own trumpet there, just I get great feedback and hey, you need to believe in yourself and all that, haha!).

I agree about under pricing yourself, although I also do think this has a lot to do with area - more affulent areas of the country tend to be more price driven, so as someone said above, purely wouldn't go for the lesser price, but I also think that marking it too high can be equally as damaging - hence my post on this topic in the first place - it's such a fine line!

Great conversation though, been really helpful - thanks xx

May I just make one point and please feel free to reject it

All of the work is going to be done at the trial so it makes more sense that the trial is the biggest cost to the client.

If she then books in for the wedding day itself you know exactly what you are going to be doing and it is going to take half the time.

If she doesn't book in for the wedding day you will have spent double the time on the trial for half of the price.

Jacqui xx

I charge £25 per hour for a trial. I did initially have a set price but a couple of times I've been with a bride for over 2 hours because they didnt like this look or that look, so I was losing money. Now I charge by the hour & have a set price for 'on the day' makeup.

Ohhh I like both of those last two ideas and yes, you are right in that the trial is the more consuming part of the process.

Right, I shall give it some more thought!

x

jacquelineanna said:

May I just make one point and please feel free to reject it

All of the work is going to be done at the trial so it makes more sense that the trial is the biggest cost to the client.

If she then books in for the wedding day itself you know exactly what you are going to be doing and it is going to take half the time.

If she doesn't book in for the wedding day you will have spent double the time on the trial for half of the price.

Jacqui xx

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Very good point! I think I set mine as lower than the day because that's what everyone in my area seems to do.

Just to add, my thought process in charging the trial price at lower, is I want to try and get people to book with me and then once they see what they are paying for, then they will love it (hopefully!) and book in for their wedding and then be prepared to pay a higher price once they know the standard of the work.

My only thinking is with charging the higher price for the trial, people are of the mindset that they may need to try out a few before they book someone - obviously at your trial, you then work hard so they don't go off anywhere else, but that I assume, will be their thinking at the booking a trial stage.

xx